Today was a 'bring your parent to school day' at Nora's school and we happily took this opportunity. Ginny came over to take care of the boys and Sasha, Nora and I walked to school.

It was great to be in her classroom again. Everything is so small there -- the chairs, the sinks, everything.

For several weeks Nora has been telling us about the hot chocolate she made at school, so that was the very first thing she showed us. It was pretty cool to see how she was dealing with boiling water (she was wearing mittens) and carefully preparing the drink.

Then she did a exercise with beads and counting, in bars of nine which was interesting. Then an exercise with shapes and finally she showed us a little bit of the reading she can do. She read a sentence "I dust a box" and all of a sudden she disappeared -- until we saw her, actually dusting a box.

Yesterday afternoon Rado and Maria came over with the kids. They stayed over for an impromptu dinner, a great end of the day.

We spoke with Dyado & Babi and Opa & Oma. Today Nora read more from the "op is op" book, and she is doing very well. Today she read 4 pages, and she's getting faster.

In the later afternoon we visited the Potomac Overlook, where we were just in time before closing to see a two real owls in the sanctuary. The boys were very impressed, especially Adrian who later kept saying "uil! zien!". He also said "[sch]aap! zien!" but I'm pretty sure there were no sheep.

In the afternoon we spent some time in Georgetown. We had a package to return in one of the stores, so I dropped Sasha and Nora off at the store, and then parked a little further away. We parked on P street, the same street where we lived for a while.

From there we walked down to the waterfront park, where we watched the seagulls and a boat.

Walked back up the hill, a police offer showed off the lights of his cruiser to the boys, who were duly impressed.

Leo and Adrian have created their own word, and for the past two weeks we have wondered what it means.

Here is a short clip of the sound.

One day Adrian said "trekker mee" in the exact same intonation, so thought that might have been related, but that was only once so probably not.

Then this morning at the breakfast table Leo gave his book to Adrian and said it again, and so we now think it means something like "here you go".

We went to the Air and Space museum yesterday afternoon. The boys had been to the Udar-Hazy building with Opa & Oma, but never in the main one. We spent an hour and half there.

In the exhibition about GPS there was a life-size cut-out of a fireman. This made a deep impression on Adrian. Later he said "meneer! helm! [gez]ien!"

The boys also liked an early example of a self-driving car, and the statue of the first dog in Antarctica.

Later we went for dinner in the Silver Diner.

At the other side of the street is the YMCA. It's a wonderful facility to have so nearby, but the building dates from the 1950's and it's pretty small.

There is a long-term plan to replace the old building with a new one, and in the process of preparing for that the County is evaluating the zoning of that property, as well as several neighboring properties.

This is going to be a very long process, but we'll be living here for a long time so it's interesting to follow. Some of the proposals are a little too high for my taste -- in the most aggressive proposal there would be a 5-story building facing 13th Street -- but it's great to see plans for improvement.

This County staff presentation from December has some good information.

We woke up our usual time -- around 7.00 am -- and it took about 15 minutes before all the kids were fully awake and downstairs. Like every day, they are excited to discover what's happening in the living room and watch through the windows to see what's going on outside.

Sasha and I had a nice New Year's breakfast -- after everyone else had their cereal with strawberries. We had the Vienna concert on in the background. Then we Skyped with Middenmeer -- Opa & Oma and Ettie & Gerben and the kids. Opa had a cold, too. Then on to Perushtitsa.

Afterwards we went for a New Year's walk to the playground and back.

Adrian insisted to eat his breakfast by himself, and Leo concurred. That made our morning a little easier though of course it resulted in more cleanup and a change of pants. Adrian was fishing out the raisins from his muesli but he was hungry enough to eat the oats as well.

Nora and I went to a new playground in the morning, Fort Barnard. It's a 15 minute drive from home. Normally we walk to nearby playgrounds but it's nice to see different ones from time to time. This one was recommended as 'worth the drive' on TBD and I agree with that assessment. It's a little small but fun things to play with and a wonderful tower that Nora spent virtually the entire time in.

For lunch we went to the boterhammenrestaurant. There were brief tears when the sandwich bread were baguette slices but that was easily resolved.

At 3.00 pm Ela came over for a play date, and later we all went to Quincy Park together. On the way to there we saw Ginny, who later informed Baka so Mia arrived shortly later, and in the playground we met Rado and Maria and the kids.

Back home I cooked a chicken broccoli stir-fry.

Christmas morning was around the dining room table this year, because that is where our new tree is. The warmth and coziness was still the same, it was a wonderful celebration.

Nora received a large present: a large cardboard house to draw on. The boys were very pleased with their "bus", a camper that from Rado & Maria.

I used my kitchen aid stand mixer to make fresh bread for lunch. We had a 15 lbs turkey for dinner, with sauerkraut the Bulgarian way.

Christmas was much more relaxed than last year. We scaled down a few things and were pretty diligent about preparing everything ahead of time. The boys are also easier to manage then a year ago.

We had a wonderful and relaxing budni vecher celebration yesterday. Three families together, and a whole bunch of kids.

The Zane family arrived around 5.00 pm, Rado and Maria half an hour later. We started with a glass of wine and home-roasted peanuts, while the kids ran around and had a blast. We made the table together and warmed our dishes, and had a lovely meal.