An important aspect of learning Dutch is memorizing the gender of the words. "De" for most words, but "het" for a significant amount. So Nora is learning this also and I correct her mistakes.

Sometimes she tries to find the easy way out with "een", haha.

"Papa, papagaaitje-leef-je-nog zit op de zadel van het paard!"
"Het zadel, Nora, het zadel"
"Een zadel!"

I didn't think the snow would be bad enough to stay home for, but Sasha's work recommended it and on Twitter I saw various reports of bad traffic.

Well, I'm glad we stayed home for sure. When checking my email, I heard a loud bang on Lynnbrook -- a driver lost control and hit the parked car of our neighbor, sliding down. When Nora and I went to clear the deck of snow, we walked around the neighborhood. A minivan in front of the YMCA was spinning its wheels and getting stuck, and just as we walked down we heard another loud noise and later saw four cars bumped into each other on the slope of 13th St, going down from Johnson to Kirkwood. A little down Kirkwood two drivers were exchanging insurance information for another fender bender. What a mess.

A school bus was stuck on 14th Street -- it couldn't get up the hill -- and the driver had blocked the road (which explained the extra traffic on Lynnbrook).

On the bright side, Nora showed great enthusiasm for clearing the snow on our deck.

We celebrated the New Year the three of us. Nora's afternoon nap was unusually long and she woke up at 8.00 pm. We had a late dinner together and opened the champagne. Nora's "champagne" had bubbles in it also and she wasn't a big fan ("is scherp"). But she loved the oliebollen.

She had her first bite before dinner. In fact, her dinner consisted mainly of oliebollen and lukanka, haha.

We had made home-made banichka with Lelya Snezha and a shopska salad. After dinner we danced to welcome the New Year, on Abba's tunes.

We wish you all a happy 2015!