We have two Christmas days: 25 and 26 December. On Christmas Eve we have sung with our choir in the little church my inlaws attend. Pray for the people who only come to church on Christmas Eve. The preacher missed the point of Christmas. Sad. Pray that the seeds we have planted will get a chance to grow. The next day we had a service in our own church and with my Sunday School kids I have sung two songs. The rest of the day we have spent at home. I made an oriental Christmas dinner, with vegetarian Chinese tomato-vegetable soup (I used a package and added fresh vegetables), vegetarian rendang roedjak (Indonesian, I used tempeh instead of beef) with stir fried vegetables and Chinese noodles. We skipped dessert, because we were pretty full. We have watched three movies, one of them was a Christmas Carol. It is on TV every year and we watch it every year. Herman likes it more than I do. I had got the guinea pig some chicory, her favourite veggie. The next day we have been to my SIL Jeanet for coffee and dinner. She is a vegetarian too, but eats fish. I liked what she had made, although it was cold by the time we got to eat. On 27 December Herman and I have been to Haarlem together. We have been to the Teylers museum and we also wanted to see the Corrie ten Boom museum, but that was closed by the time we had seen the first museum and had finished our lunch. So we wanted to see the cathedral instead, but it was closed. We had a day card for the train, so we could just go anywhere we wanted. We went to Utrecht and had dinner there. We have already been talking about our summer holiday. We are going to Germany, by train, and travel around there for two weeks. We have three destinations and we will stay in each town for three days. You can buy cards by which you can travel all over Germany for three, five or eight days. We will get the five days pass. We will not go longer than two weeks, because we will miss our pets too much. New year's Eve we always spend with my parents in Coevorden, because New Year's day is my mom's birthday. I will go early and help her make oliebollen (a bit like donuts without a hole). Herman always buys some fire work. No confetti and rattles. We do not give presents for Christmas, but for Saint Nicholas Eve (5 Dec). Nowadays peopls give presents either for Christmas or for SNE, some do both. Herman and I bought each other books. I bought him Hasse Simonsdochter by Thea Beckmann to read to me at bedtime. We are reading it now and it is such a beautiful story. It is historical. The other main character, Jan van Schaffelaar, is more known. Herman bought me a novel on the life of the apostle Paul. We always try to visit a Christmas concert and this year there was one in the Grote Kerk in Apeldoorn, with two choirs and Ralph van Manen on 19 December.

So this was our Christmas. Now tell me about yours!

Happy new year,

Mirjam
Aunt to miracle baby Joas (8 Nov 2003)