Sunday 31 December 2006

Where was my White Christmas?

I always expect to feel like I did when I was a kid at Christmas - you know the feeling - the anticipation and the excitement. I haven't really felt that since I moved out to Holland. I spend all of December buying presents and stocking the fridge and cupboards as if I am expecting a siege and then it is all over in 24 hours of gluttony and wrapping paper. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice day but there is always something missing.

Hopefully that missing piece will be gone when Michael is old enough to enjoy Christmas with us. I got some lovely presents - perfume, jewellery and even a computer. Michael got an absurd amount of presents for a 4 month old and most of them he is too young to play with for a little while so they are waiting patiently for him up in his toy chest.

The Christmas commercials have gone from the television to be replaced with loan, antacid, vacation and January Sales commercials. Come hell or high water, we will be taking a vacation in 2007. We will definitely be visiting family in England at some point because my Nanna hasn't met Michael (or Phil, for that matter) yet. Depending on how well we think Michael will handle a short flight, we'll either go to Barcelona or Germany. I could definitely do with some sunshine!

Thursday 21 December 2006

Introduction

This blog has sprung out of the blog that I have for my son, Michael. I wanted a place where I can post on topics that are not baby-related. For anyone interested, my son's blog is at The Progress of Baby Gleghorn.

So... I guess I should introduce myself properly. Firstly, that is not a typo in my blog title - my maiden name is Fogg. My name is Catherine, I'm 29 and I live in The Netherlands with my husband, Phil, and our baby son, Michael. Phil and I are British expats and met in February of 2000 when we, independently of each other, moved to The Netherlands to take a technical support job with a software company called Open Market (now FatWire). If we had stayed in England then we would never have met because Phil lived in Newcastle (I supply a steady stream of jokes about whippets that amuse only me) and I lived in Bisley.




We have lived in The Netherlands for almost 7 years now and our duo became a trio in August of 2006 with the birth of our son, Michael. Isn't he cute? We have been thinking about leaving The Netherlands for some time as we never intended to live here permanently. We need to make the move before Michael reaches school-age. After a lot of thought and research, we are in the process of applying for permanent residency to Canada. We did think about moving home to England but we both want to continue the adventure that we started by moving to The Netherlands.

Well... I think that is enough of an introduction for now. Time for me to get some breakfast (yes, I know it's 12:31, I'm slack with regards to breakfast, ok??) and then wake Michael for his feed.