XBOX ONE (Germany)

The new XBOX ONE is finally out in Europe but it's not being sold in every country... what did this mean for us... it meant two trips to Germany before actually getting a hold of my husbands Christmas present!  And of course, the trips didn't go flawless, but inevitably worked out.  The first trip to Krefeld was a complete disappoint, we (inc. our daughter & dog) drove around an hour to get to a shop where a friend of ours had managed to get a hold of an XBOX ONE, just to find out they were sold out.  Of course they were sold out, they hadn't even been on the market for a week.  After the unsuccessful trip and couple other incidents with some people in Krefeld my daughter was done with Germany and never wanted to go back (keep in mind she is 4 yrs old, ha-ha!)  My husband claimed he was going to give up on the XBOX ONE until 2014, but considering he had the next week off work and his friend kept calling over Germany to find us one, the mission was far from over.  Out of nowhere on a half day of school we decided to load the family back into the car and return to Germany, this time headed for Monchengladbach (another hour drive).  Our friend swore he had reserved one for us, and since he can speak German we had to trust he made the right arrangements.  When we arrived, my husband picked a shady parking garage to leave his car (and dog).  See my husband does this often, randomly parks and then gets to listen to me complain about for a hour afterward.  The parking garage was clearly not a public lot, but we knew we were just running into the store and would be back in less than 30 minutes.  Everything went great, the XBOX ONE was waiting on us, they had the soccer game and the extra controller, and even our daughter found a Hello Kitty book.  Happily we all take the hilly walk back to the car, we didn't have long to get back home before our groceries would be delivered.  But uh oh, the garage door was now shut and there was no way to get back in the parking garage without a key.  We obviously didn't have key.  We called the number on the side of the building, Wico Modehaus, and the woman basically said it was our problem because she was in Dusseldorf and had no intentions of coming that way.  O.k., no problem, we remembered seeing an entrance to the garage through a shop on the other side.  We walked back along the hilly path and started checking out the shops, none of them looked like what we needed.  We stopped in a store and explained to the German in English of course that our car and dog were locked in a garage and we just needed to cut through the building, as you can imagine, no one was helpful.  Our daughter is starting to panic, I'm talking about calling the police, and my husband is considering breaking into the garage.  We called the Wico Modehaus one more time, and they sent us to voicemail, can you believe that, how rude!  (I really should send her a nasty email!)  We returned to the parking garage a little frazzled and contemplated our options.  My husband had just removed his jacket and was about to scale the wall when someone pulled up and opened the garage with a remote.  We grabbed out things and chased after him, everyone thankful.  I waited at the door holding the emergency stop button so the garage door wouldn't shut again and my husband and daughter rushed to get the car.  In the end, the dog and car were fine, we made it home in time for the delivery, and my husband has spent endless hours on his new XBOX ONE!  And I'm pretty sure our daughter never wants to go to Germany again, oops!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Sinterklaas & Santa Claus

It feels like endless weeks of holidays around here.  Being Americans that live in The Netherlands we end up celebrating some of their holidays and some of ours.  And occasionally they overlapse.  Sinterklaas celebrations last from the middle of November until the 5th of December... and Santa Claus celebrations last from Thanksgiving until the New Year.  In years past we toned down the Sinterklaas stuff, some years she only put out her shoe once and we didn't bother with "pakjes avond" (present night) on the 5th.  But now that our kid is in a Dutch elementary school we didn't have a choice but to join in the 3 week celebration.  Every night she would place her shoe at the door with a drawing (and sometimes a song) for Sinterklaas & his Zwarte Pieten, and when she checked the next morning their would either be something yummy to eat or a present.  This takes more effort than you think, trying to fill a shoe for 3 weeks and keep the budget down considering our big holiday is still to come.  I managed though, picking up little toys on sale and even reusing things.  Yes, I did, I reused things she forgot she had, like unopened packages of stickers, strawberry milk mix, and even fruit we had in the kitchen.  (Keep in mind she's 4 yrs old.)  There were also a couple close calls, come on, it's hard to remember to fill the shoe every night, luckily we never let her down.  And her reaction when she found a burlap bag of presents by the door on "pakjes avond" was priceless.  But because the holiday carries into Christmas celebrations, we've had to put off the Christmas tree and Elf on the Shelf until this weekend.  We really enjoy the Elf on the Shelf, this will be our 3rd year!  So last night I happily read my daughter the book, and this morning she awoke around 6:30AM (as usual) ready to find the elf.  Oh no, I forgot to put the elf out!  Day 1 and off to a bad start!  My saving grace is that my daughter doesn't get out of bed in the morning unless given permission... I darted to where the elf was in the cabinet, yanked it out of the box, and in the dark found a shelf in the living room to place it on.  Whew!  After 3 weeks of remembering a shoe every night, we now have to remember to move the elf, what have we gotten ourselves in to, ha-ha!  One thing I do love about these holidays is being able to play the "if-you're-naughty-you-get-nothing" card, it's great!  Our kid is pretty good for the most part, but I still love using the card when she tries to be difficult.  We've decided to tone down Christmas this year though, we want our daughter to appreciate what she gets (plus there were plenty of Sinterklaas presents).  This year she gets 1 big present from Santa, and of course presents from the family.  It's kind of hard to explain the flow of deliveries arriving at house, so we told her that families also exchange presents, plus Santa Claus brings stuff to the kids.  How long will we be able to keep up this charade?  When I grew up my parents were too religious to allow me to believe in Santa Claus, but now that I'm a parent I'm doing things different.  Do your little ones believe in Santa Claus?

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Pet Peeve - Overpaying

We all have pet peeves, and one of mine is overpaying... the amount doesn't matter, €1-€100, it all drives me crazy.  Being frugal can be good and bad, in this case bad... why, I just can't let go.  What brought this all up, €3... yeah, you're reading it right, I overpaid by €3 and it's going to nag at me for days.  People like me will hold on to receipt for a year, just in case (my junk drawer at home is embarrassing).  So how could this have happened?  It has to do with an online order that I happened to mail back 30 minutes before finding the item on sale somewhere else.  You're probably thinking, you can easily send back an online order, what's the big deal.  Well, I ordered two toys for Christmas, then it turned out that my niece actually wanted something else more.  No problem, I kept the game and sent the art studio back (original invoice & box included).  Next stop after the post office, I happen to see the game for €3 cheaper.  Now what, all I have at home is a scanned copy of the invoice... seriously, what am I am going to do, buy a box, waste the gas to return to the post office, in the mean time using up the €3 I am trying save.  No, I'm not.  Instead I'm going to grumble about it.  I'm going to kick myself in the butt for trying to be efficient and get the toy off my hands immediately.  I'm going to let it fester, tell myself I could do even better watching out for sales.  Wow, I'm just a little crazy.  Inevitably, it all evens out though.  The other day to save a few euros, I returned a pair of footed stockings for my daughter because I found them cheaper and 2 for 1 at another store.  So I guess I should be happy I caught the last sale to make up for missing this one.  Any of you have silly pet peeves that will make you go out of your way for something?  Oh yeah, and the game that I'm complaining I overpaid for, I still originally bought on sale.  And in my husbands words, cuckoo!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Christmas is Coming

I was at my favorite bargain store the other day and I noticed they already have a small section of Christmas supplies on display!!!  Now I know in The States they start a couple months before the holidays with sale items, but I'm across the pond in The Netherlands.  They aren't even into commercial holidays like Valentine's, Halloween, & Christmas (delved into this in a post last year).  To be honest I was a little confused when I first saw the half full racks of cards and decorations, I actually had to question which month we're in.  I am so busy right now planning my daughter's b-day celebrations and transfers of schools & hobbies I can't even think that far ahead.  I really felt like the store had jumped the gun until I was at my in-laws and they started talking about where to put the Christmas tree!  Maybe I'm behind in planning???  Didn't summer just past?  Even the weather decided to jump on board, last week it was hot, shorts & tank tops kind of hot, and this morning it was 50F on our walk to school! 

We barely decorate for the holidays, and only thanks to our kid do we put up a tree at Christmas.  How many of you have started pulling out the boxes of autumn decorations?  Anyone started stocking up on Christmas decorations yet?

Sorry for the short posts this week, but like I mentioned I am slammed busy, hopefully once my daughter starts kindergarten full time I can get back to decent posts (even though I did promise you this a month ago)!

Wordless Wednesday #33

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Christmas Shopping

It's time for dreaded Christmas shopping again.  Just in case you missed the post, I am a big 'ol scrooge.  Every year I plead with my husband to change our ways, and yet every year some how we wait until the last minute to go shopping.  So not only are we shopping (which we don't like), we're shopping under pressure and fighting large crowds while doing it (prime ground for bickering).  My husbands work schedule has been slammed for months now so there's no time for shopping after work.  Last weekend we were all sick, leaving this weekend to shop.  And now somehow our schedule is filled with everything but Christmas shopping, argh!  I feel sorry for the guy, he hasn't had a break in forever and now he doesn't even get a moment of relaxing down time this weekend; any spare moments will now be filled with unpleasant shopping.  While being pushed through the stores, disagreeing about Christmas present budget, and trying to keep a 3 yr old entertained while going store to store, I am going to have to keep one thing in mind.  We get to go see Disney on Ice this Sunday.  It'll give us all a moment to regress to childhood, take in a well done Disney show, and also see the twinkle in our daughters eyes as she gets to watch the characters from the 2nd row!

Wordless Wednesday #31

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Holiday Season

O.k., I know there are not many of us out there, but I don't like holidays.  Why you say?

1) extra costs.. food, decorations, presents, costumes, cards

2) storing the decorations the other 11 months of the year

3) the endless preparations and discussions

At first holidays seem like a fun and pleasurable experience; especially when someone else is doing all of the work.  Then I remember the above 3 reasons and I cringe.  Moving abroad helped to eliminate some holidays, at least for a few years.  My in-laws rarely bothered to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Dutch didn't really understand Valentine's & Halloween, and Christmas, well my husband & I never bothered to decorate.  But times are changing, unwillingly I might add.  Mostly adding a child to the family changed things.  People expect you to decorate and make a big deal about holidays, kids love it. 

Sure as a kid it's great, you do no work and you don't foot the bill either, ideal!  You just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, but becoming an adult ripped the fun right out of it.  I hear some adults actually still get pleasure from the holidays, for example, my in-laws love Christmas.  Which makes it even harder to be the Scrooge of the family.  Maybe I'd enjoy holidays if they were simple.  One present per person on Christmas, everyone bring one dish of food to Thanksgiving, and instead of buying a costume for Halloween the kids just wear something they already own.  Oh yeah, and no more cards!  No more celebrating because some commercial holiday was created, how about celebrating your love because you love someone, not just because the store tells you it's the 14th do something romantic!  Again, did I mention the costs.  Between divorce and marriage in the family, at Christmas time alone we have to buy presents for around 14 people, that's a lot of money.  And the kids (I'm not talking about our family alone) don't appreciate Christmas (or birthdays), because it's become present overload. 

And now that we're a part of an international play group, holidays like Easter & 4th of July are being reintroduced, c'mon, I can't do it all.  You're probably asking normal questions right now, like... don't you enjoy seeing the city decorated for the holidays, don't you like receiving presents, don't you love the honey glazed holiday ham, don't you get pleasure from the glimmer in your child's eye during the excitement?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  So I guess there's a little bit of humanity left in me after all, ha-ha.  (Sorry for the rant, but it's mid-October, and Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas are quickly nearing!)