The Second Day of Christmas

Today we're having another relaxing day.
Here in the Netherlands we celebrate two days of Christmas, December 26th being the second day of Christmas.


I had a piece of the yummy Christmas Bundt cake of course.


And I helped my owner train to run away from zombies.
She started training with the Zombies, Run 5k app. An app that helps you train to be able to run for 5 kilometers. While training you are the lead character in a story that is integrated into your training, and that is set in a post apocalyptic world filled with zombies. I think it's cool, and I'm glad my owner soon will be able to run away from zombies.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you're all having a wonderful time, even if you don't celebrate Christmas.

I myself am having a great time.


Just before Christmas I received a package full of yummy chocolate from Miki. She also sent me a really cool piggy keychain she made for me.

Thanks Miki!


This morning there was a present for me under our Christmas tree.
Tempest sounds like a cool Young Adult read.

Thanks Santa!


And my owner baked her traditional Christmas Bundt cake. I cant wait to try a piece.

Otherwise I'm enjoying this day by relaxing and reading.

Bliss!

A Delicious Dinner, Christmas Mail and Books

Yesterday we were invited to have dinner at a restaurant called Ribhouse Texas. It was to celebrate the birthday of my owner's mother.


There was a whole bucket full of peanuts!


I had to try some of those of course.


My owner and I also tried lobster soup.


And while my owner was enjoying a steak I enjoyed a Strawberry Margarita.

It was a fun evening with lots of yummy food.
A big thank you to my owner's mother for the wonderful dinner.


There has been some awesome mail again these last days as well.


There was a beautiful Christmas card from Linda Poitevin. She also sent a lovely handmade Christmas angel ornament.

Thanks Linda!


Jerry & Ben sent a cool card with both of them in Christmasy costumes.

Thanks Jerry & Ben!


And I received some really awesome books:


Laura & Sparky sent me The Ghost Bride.
I've heard good things about it, and can't wait to read it.

Thanks Laura & Sparky!
You rock.


Both In A Fix and Rosemary And Rue are gifts from Melliane.


Both are books that were on my wishlist, so I'm very happy with them.

Thanks Melliane.
You rock as well!

Christmas Card and Presents

I had some great mail this week.


There was a beautiful Christmas card from Beanie.


A Christmas Random Act of Kindness from Marica.
The Selection is a book I've been curious about for some time now. I'm looking forward to reading it.


And I also received a Christmas gift from Melliane.
The Shadow Reader is another book that has been on my wishlist for a while. I'm very glad to add it to my 'to be read'-pile. I don't think it will stay there too long.

Thanks Beanie, Marica and Melliane!

Our Christmas Tree and A New Ornament

Our house is ready for Christmas:
We have a Christmas tree!


And I got a new piggy ornament for in the tree at Sinterklaas!
Isn't it cool?!

A Place to Hang My Hat, and More

Yesterday it was Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Eve) and we celebrated of course.

We had dinner with friends and after dinner there were lots of presents from Sinterklaas for all of us.

I got some really cool presents, like a book, a game, yummy food and a beautiful Christmas tree ornament (You'll see the ornament soon, when we have our tree).

And....

I got this:


A special display case for my hats!
Isn't it beautful?! I will put my favorite hats in there, so I can find them when I need them.


There was more cool stuff today.


There was a package from Melliane with two books. I'm very curious about them.


We also got our first Christmas card.
This cheeky bear was sent to me by Bob T. Bear.

Thanks Sinterklaas, Melliane and Bob!

Going Out For Dinner

Yesterday my owner and I went to Utrecht.
My owner met up with a cousin, but she forgot to take any pictures.

Next we met up with Aurian!

We swapped books and then we went out for dinner.


We went to Sumo, a restaurant with lots of yummy Japanese food.


I had a salad.
It was yummy, but they had gone a little bit wild with the mayonaise in my opinion.


I left the beef to my owner, but I really loved the soy beans.


And I of course had to have mushrooms.


We had ice cream for dessert.
I had mango ice cream, but Aurian let me try the vanilla ice cream as well.

It was lots of fun and it was cool to meet Aurian again. We must do this more often.
We had a great day!

Hats and Sinterklaas

There has been a lot of hat-making going on this week.


My owner made a pompom for the hat she knitted.
I think it looks really nice this way.


My owner's OtherHalf made a hat for me as well.
I love this one! I can use it for Halloween.


This is my owner's latest creation.
She's getting the hang of it, there's no holes of unexplained extra stitches in this one.

I think she should keep trying though. I can use lots more hats, and maybe some scarves.


Sinterklaas is in the Netherlands again, to celebrate his birthday next month. Yesterday the Armadillo and I got to put out our shoes, because we forgot to put them out the day Sinterklaas arrived. We sang Sinterklaas songs and put an apple with the shoes for the horse of Sinterklaas.


This morning we found presents in the shoes!




I got a book and a piggy bookmark.
How awesome!


The piggy bookmark has glasses.
I think he's a librarian pig bookmark.

Thanks Sinterklaas!

Loot, Mail and Little Hats

As promised: a picture of me and all the books I brought home from Brighton. And yes! That is a bookmark signed by Neil Gaiman I'm holding.


My owner also bought two cool t-shirts.


And we collected some cool buttons.


At home this t-shirt was waiting for us.
Amanda Carlson sent it to us because as part of her street team we posted a review of Cold Blooded on Amazon during her Review Blitz.

Talking about cool stuff:


I got marzipan cheese from my owner's OtherHalf.
They made a mistake in the store: They said it was a marzipan pig, but anyone can see that's not a pig. My owner corrected the mistake.


Today we went to the library and got free stuff!
Eric in The Land of Insects is a story about a boy who enters a painting and ends up just as tall as the insects in the painting. The other book has all kinds of art in it. There were also a pen, mints and a coin for a grocery cart.


My owner also bought two of those drinks that sometimes wear those cool hats. This time however we got two small knitting sets so you can knit your own hat!

I told my owner to get knitting of course.


This is her first try.
It's... acceptable.
She managed to get some holes in it, but those are on the back. And even though it's been years since she knitted, she's still the queen of unexplained extra stitches. I think she needs to knit some more hats until she gets it right. And this hat still needs a pompom on top of course!

Saying Goodbye and the Journey Home

The last night in Brighton it was very cold, so we got out an extra blanket. But why is there a patch on it with the name Metropole? That was the name of the hotel where the convention was, not the name of the hotel where my owner and I were staying...


I checked the next morning, just to be sure.
Yup: Andorra, not Metropole. Strange...

At breakfast we had a last chat with Joan De La Haye and after that we checked out. We got our suitcases and:


Met up with Beanie for a last time.


I had a last look at the ocean.
It was a gorgeous, sunny day.


We went to a coffee shop with Beanie and Andrea, and had something to drink. I had a hot Chili Chocolate. It was very yummy!


Beanie and I enjoyed our drinks and chatted about all kinds of stuff.


Then Beanie walked me to the bus station and there we said goodbye.


A last wave...


And we were on out way.

I very much enjoyed seeing Beanie again.
I hope we'll meet up again in the future.


Almost at the airport.
What a lovely day!


But then we came at the airport and there were lots of panicky people.

It turned out the weather in the Netherlands was bad, especially near Schiphol airport, and all kinds of flights to Schiphol were being cancelled. Would ours be cancelled too?

It was uncertain at first, but finally we were told our flight would most probably leave, but 30 minutes later than planned. Time to get through the airport security and find our gate.

Apparently my owner looks like she keeps make-up in her bag, because we were asked about 5 times if we were really sure we didn't have any make-up with us. After the fifth time they finally seemed to believe us. Another passenger wasn't so lucky: they wanted to check her bag to be sure.

Thanks to my owner's special airport pants we made it through the metal detectors without problems again.


We had gotten hungry and thirsty, so we spent our last British money on something to drink and a sandwich. The bottle had one of those cool hats!


If the weather was still bad in the Netherlands I now at least had a warm hat.


We boarded only a little bit later than planned.


It was dark outside, so we could see all the lights of London. Very beautiful.

We landed at Schiphol at the time that was on our ticket, so we didn't even lose much time. We got our luggage and then we caught a train back home. In Groningen my owner's OtherHalf was waiting for us to help us get our suitcases home. How cool!

After an amazing time in Brighton, we were home!


Coming next:
My loot and cool mail