X-mas at Palace "Het Loo"

Don't get me wrong, we weren't invited by the royal family ; ).

Last day of 2013 we visited the exhibition "winterpalace"  X-mas trees and dishware. Really worthwhile!! You can still go till the 5th of januar. And if you have a museumcard it's for free.

The pictures are just an impression,  there is so much more to see. The different livingrooms and cabinets.

 Orange tree with treats in it. Typical for dinners of the  Royal family.

Queen Emma liked her X-mas tree with fake-snow on it. Prince Hendrik liked a "scandanavian" X-mas tree with straw figures in it. Queen Wilhelmina just wanted a small one, so she could decorate it herself without standing on a stair, or need the help of a servant. Willem III liked it his X-mas tree with oranges in it, and pine-apples. And Juliana once chose for a X-mas tree decoreated with little X-mas clocks in it with white paper.

Oranges, oranges tree, appeltjes van oranje

Dining table of Queen Wilhelmina.

Dining table of King Willem III and Queen Sophie, watch the pineapple, a symbol of welcome and hospitality.

Dining table, the evening before the inaugaration of King Willem-Alexander

X-mas tree of Willem III

Livingroom of Queen Emma, watch the crown in the X-mas tree

How about a sleigh ride in this Silver sleigh of Queen Emma.

What a suprise ....

This picture comes from Juud's blog.

.... I won the give-away "snowmen pattern" at Juud's blog. And you know I read her blogpost, but I didn't realize it was my name that was there. I'm glad she left me a comment on my blog. Aren't those snowmen adorable.

Lucky me. Thanks Judith.

Between X-mas and New Years Day ....

... it's time to quilt... go to the gym .... . and be lazy ; )...... eating choclate on the sofa.

Two quiltprojects on the way.

The flannel doggie X-mas quilt, is going to be a little bit bigger then expected.

So I think we need to buy the Swiss St. Bernard dog to get it fit.

The other project is: having fun with a jelly roll. A X-mas gift from Marne, I'm making 4 patches and combine them with a light brown also a X-mas present. The fun of a jelly roll is that you got so many different fabrics, 40 in total.

You know it's lovely to quilt and sew with the Top2000 on radio2. It's very popular here in the Netherlands.

X-mas

 How did you spend your X-mas?

We had a pretty "lazy" X-mas. No cooking ; ) big dinners.

We spend some time in our summerhouse, and in the afternoon we left to my parents for dinner. Which was really relaxing after busy days for both of us at work.

In the Netherlands you have two X-mas days: First X-mas day and Second X-mas day. Second X-mas day my brother with his wife and children were also at my parents. It was really fun to catch up, and see the kids.

My sister and her family was in Austria, they got stucked on a mountain for 4,5 hours because of the wind. Lucky there was a good restaurant so they didn't get bored or starved.

My sister-in-law with her daughter,

Granddad, grandma, Chris, Promise and Nathaniel

My X-mas presents for my parents

Specially made to match with the sofa ; )

My holiday has started. I'm free from work till the second of januar. Then I will start my new job. I'm looking forward to it. I think 2014 will be full of new challenges.

Me and my brother

My dad and mum

Rob (my husband), Eka (my sister-in-law)

Almost traditionally for the second X-mas day: gourmet

Summerhouse quilt

Remember this quilt?

It's the "flannel jack" quilt I made in Seattle.


Two days of quiltfun with Ronda, Marne and Alayne. I was in quiltheaven. ; ).

Two weeks ago I finished the binding and now it's  moved to our summerhouse. It suppose to be Rob his quilt, but till now I'm the one who is laying under it. Having good memories of my Seattle trip.

Thank you Janice

I have been waiting, waiting and waiting for weeks. But finally X-mas day. Time to open my secret X-mas parcel from the Chookey Swap.

Thank you so much Janice for the lovely gifts. I love your table runner, it's beautiful made with fabrics from "Anni Down". I have a few books from here and love her desgins. And the choclate is pretty good!!!

There is nothing left anymore. Quilters and choclate not a very good combinasion.

Reindeer Mies

Isn't she cute in her new outfit. Ok, I must admit she was not sooo thrilled about it. Maybe it's the colour ; ).

X-mas in the Netherlands

How do you get your X-mas tree at home when you're living in the Netherlands? Well ..........on your bike of course.

X-mas quiltbee on saturday

Mies was trying out Bailey's quilt.

Fun fun fun with the x-mas flannels from Marne and Ronda. Flying all the way in my suitcase from Seattle to The Hague, enough to make quilts for our beloved dogs.

Dessert

Emma

Diana has two dachshunds Jan-Joris and Olaf, they love to lay under the quilt instead of on the quilt.

There is a dog hidden in this quilt ; ).

Emma got a big young very friendly golden retriever called Bailey. And we have Mies our cross-breed tibetian terrier X ??.




Dieuwke has two cats but they don't like X-mas quilts ; ). In the afternoon Marne joined us on a skype. 

Sinterklaas

This is a typical dutch tradition. Sinterklaas (for most of you it will looks a little bit like Santa Claus) comes on the the 5th of december to bring the children little gifts.

His helper "Zwarte Piet" comes through to the chimney and put little gifts in your shoe. You sing Sinterklaassongs to let him know that your shoe is there. It's real fun for our dutch.

Traditional is also to make little poems to go along with the gifts to tease each other. Or you make a funny suprise gift with the real gift inside. We had a lovely evening at Barbara's house, celebrating Sinterklaas with: Dieuwke, Eric, Willem (their son), Barbara, Lucca (her son), Rob, Mies and myself.

We all enjoyed it very much, so we will put it on our calender for next year.



Willem got a suprise gift from Lucca. A super skylander.

Mies got a new outfit.

Dieuwke loved her new fleece pyama pants with little cats on it.



Willem got a survival package for the wednesday eve.