Mike and Anita James

When we got our dog, Boomer, 5 years ago, I was unaware of a subculture here in The Netherlands.  That subculture is dog owners.  I remember walking with our puppy and having strangers come up to us talking about our dog.  Normally, people here don’t do something like that; they’re much more private. We definitely [...]

I know I’m biased when it comes to The Netherlands, but honestly, I can’t believe that there is a more beautiful place in Spring.  Don’t believe me?  Here is some proof: Everyday I take our dog for a walk.  What a beautiful view I get to see and enjoy! I know what you’re thinking.  It’s [...]

We finished a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. It was a lot of fun. We recycled an old song we did years ago that taught the kids the list.  To get the actual lessons into their heads, we did some of my favorite videos so far. You can check out our youtube channel [...]

We often play “What’s Your Favorite” as a family. Generally, one person will ask a question about a favorite thing.  It could be things like what your favorite movie, tv show, song, game, etc is.  Grace often asks what our favorite season is.  Her “favorite” season is: fall (because her birthday falls during that season), [...]

Grace can be classified as a third-culture kid.  She is an American living in The Netherlands.  She’s not fully Dutch and at the same time, she doesn’t totally relate to people in America. When I observe her, I see some differences in her from most American kids.  First of all, she only understands temperature in [...]

There are some things that we see here that we now take for granted.  When we first moved here, these things would’ve been very strange, but now, they’re normal.  Here are a couple of things I’ve seen this week: With the World Cup going on, it’s normal to see plenty of orange or Dutch flags. [...]

This is our second World Cup to experience in The Netherlands.  I can honestly say that there is nothing like it.  I’m so glad that we’re here during this.  First of all, there is orange everywhere!  The royal family is the House of Orange, so if you’ve ever seen the Dutch flag, which is red, [...]

Yesterday, we had some of the most beautiful weather.  It was the warmest it’s been this year.  People were in shorts and outside loving the weather. Today is Koninginnedag, Queen’s Day.  It’s the day to celebrate the queen.  It’s supposed to be on her birthday, but since her birthday is in the winter and weather [...]

For Grace and me, this was our first white Christmas.  It started snowing on Thursday, 17 December and stayed over a week. It seemed like a lot of snow to us, but on Sunday, we had much more.  Grace was able to play in the snow before we went to church.  She even had a [...]