dailylife

This morning Nora and I watched the arrival of Sinterklaas. I brought out the Sinterklaas books and we read a few of them.

We went for a long walk in the afternoon. We checked out Mom's, a new grocery store at the site where Bergman's used to be. It was a great walk.

After dinner Nora put her shoe at the fireplace, together with socks for Leo and Adrian. We sang three songs. A little later she went to Sasha and asked her: "let's look outside!". She remembered from last year that at one point there was a big bag with presents outside. We explained to her that wouldn't be the case tonight.

"De eerste winter was er een zak. Maar niemand klopte! Toen we de deur open deden zagen we niemand".

She was very excited and I was surprised she fell asleep at all.

Today Oma Groen passed away. She was 89 years old.

We all loved her deeply and she was a wonderful grandmother, both when Ettie & I were little and in later years. When I was born Opa & Oma lived in Velsen-Noord and while I have a few memories from there, they are hazy. Opa was a dentist and after his retirement they moved to a farm in Witteveen, Drenthe. We would stay there often and for long visits. Years later they bought an apartment in Hoogeveen, later Oma moved to Heerenveen. Oma Groen has been a loving presence for me all my life and I'll miss her.

I last saw her in person in the summer of 2014. We frequently talked on the phone and she was always very interested in her great grandchildren. I'm very grateful that she and Nora got a opportunity to meet.

Today it was Leo's turn to get his first bit of solid food.

He wasn't impressed.

Adrian had his first solid food today. We made him carrots with milk and he ate several bites.

He liked it. Nora told him, in Bulgarian: you'll have to finish your plate.