Week 54 came smack in the middle of the non-stop festivities between Halloween, St Martin, Sinterklaas, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years’ and "Reyes Magos”. In fact Sinterklaas arrives around this time and stays in the Netherlands through Dec 6. A fun tradition in this time is to watch “Sinterklaas Journal” which is a nightly news program about the (mis)adventures of Sinterklaas and his Pieten. Every year there is a new series of problems as to why the packages are in danger of not being delivered on December 5th, but there is always a solution by the 4th. But it’s a tense three weeks of will they/won’t they. 😜

November 17 – Day 374

Cleaning out boxes and drawers and came across this banner from David’s recent 10th birthday. I took this picture to share it among our neighbors and see if anyone else could use it.

November 18 – Day 375

Went for an after lunch walk with a friend and took this peninsula path through the water in our neighborhood. It’s at once “cozy” and intimate because of the trees lining either side of the path, and at the same time very strangely open because you’re basically walking through water as the canal is on both sides.

November 19 – Day 376

This moment felt like a bit of a parenting win now that David likes to make his own lunch the night before. He makes what he wants and so has more autonomy and agency. We get out of making the lunch so less work for us and hopefully it’s made the night before so then less running around first thing in the morning trying to get ready for school. All around win-win.

November 20 – Day 377
ooops - day off from photographing and nothing of note in my calendar, so just a normal day of family, work and prepping the house more.

November 21 – Day 378

David was waaaay past overdue for a haircut, so was happy to be able to get an appointment and get him cleaned up. I am trying to get in the habit of making an appointment after the cut instead of when he desperately needs one and then they’re all booked up. This woman has now cut his hair several times and is a hoot.

November 22 – Day 379

We have a trial subscription of AppleTV and so finally got to watch WONDLA. David and I watched this delightful animated series in the evenings together and it became a sweet mother-son routine for three weeks - we were just in time for the third season. My good friend Torbin is the lead editor and he did a great job cutting it all together. I remember back in the mid 90s him getting an exciting job at Pixar on a computer animated film called “Toy Story” - what a wild and crazy trip its been for him.

November 23 – Day 380

Sunday morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow all over which melted by the afternoon. But the kids on our street enjoyed throwing snowballs and trying to build a snowman in the morning.

My son introduced me to “Bongo Cat” and absolutely ruined Despacito for me. 😆