The Stevenson Ohana

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Christmas 2022

We spent Christmas at home in Amsterdam. It was a great month of magic. Luke listens to Christmas music year around, so when it was really Christmas he was ready and the house was always full of jingle bells and other carols! We welcomed the season with our Christmas market trip end of November and celebrated all month long with daily visits from Sinterklaas putting things in the kids shoes and biking under the lights of the city. We made sugar cookies and enjoyed hot chocolate runs with the kids and a visit from aunt Nicole and made gingerbread houses (minus the gingerbread) and just had a really good month. It seemed like Christmas was spread over a few weeks which made it extra fun and helped get through the cold. Grandma and Grandpa Moncur send a package early December with matching Christmas jammies (everyone was together minus us.. and they wanted to include us). We thought the package was lost, but it arrived right in time to welcome Santa and open gifts. It was a great Christmas this year and so grateful for the fun kids bring to the season and the birth of a Savior making the real reason for the season extra special.

Monday, December 12, 2022

Nicole Comes to Visit!

December 5th- December 11th: We were so excited to have Nicole visit!! It had been a while since we had seen her so we're so happy when she was able to make a trip workout during her winter break from school. Cobb is the best and we had such a fun time.

I was able to play hooky from work for a day and had a fun time walking around Amsterdam chatting catching up on life. After a couple days we were off to Belgium!

I've gone to Bruges so many times with our visitors I can confidently give my own walking tour of the city. The thing about Bruges is that its so pretty that even if you feel like you've been there a bunch each time is amazing and you appreciate this little gem that much more. Each visitor provides their own spark making it unique and fun to each time. Cobb and I had a blast enjoying the beauty of the town, munching on Bicky's Frite's (multiple times) and of course, John's waffles.

After our night in Bruges we made our way down to Ghent. Its always tough visiting another place after charming Bruges, but Ghent definitely held its own and delivered. Cobb and I both loved the Christmas market here and was definitely the favourite of the trip.

A new favorite spot thanks to my parents, Le Pain Quotidien.

Such a fun, cute Christmas Market that was the perfect size and had lots of yummy food.

We ate a lot of delicious food but these by far were THE BEST macaroons ever. SO GOOD. Biggest regret of the trip was not grabbing a dozen more to take home. Also, side note, this trip thanks to Cobb I learned that macarons are not hard and crunchy but soft, which definitely restored my liking of macarons.

Sights of a nice evening walk around Ghent. Not pictured is the Netherlands-Argentina World Cup match we watched in the Marriott Hotel lobby. There were probably 50 people watching, mostly a pro-Dutch crowd, and made for a super fun environment to show-off what football is like in Europe. The match was incredible with the Dutch scoring the equalising goal literally on the last play of regulation. Unfortunately they would lose in penalty kicks but was an awesome match to watch.

Ended our trip with a stop over in Brussels which gave us ample amounts of free sample delicious chocolate which helped warmed the soul and freezing toes (it was very very cold).

Back in Amsterdam enjoying the slightly warmer weather, ginger bread houses and time with Aunt Nicole for the boys.

The church we went to expecting to see Nativities inside but was instead very empty inside. Still had a great time.

Not pictured in the Amsterdam trip was our Christmas lights boat ride through the city that I took an obligatory brownie from a fellow boat-rider and then had a very trippy walk home. Another story for another time...

We LOVED having Nicole visit and had so much fun. We love you!

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Chronicles of Clay- almost 3!

Oh Clay! We love you! My curly hair, rosey cheek, brown eyed boy. You turn 3 in just over one month from now, you really wish you were turning 5 and can hardly wait to be 5 years old just like Luke. You are all about growing up and ready to go to school and swim lessons, and do all the things! We recently started doing a 'music makers' weekly playgroup and I call that school and you love going and doing your 'school'.

You are all potty trained and just growing up so fast! We wish we could just pause time and capture all these tender thing you do and say each day. You can be so sweet, especially to Dad always telling him "I like having you home Dad" "I miss you dad! (after he's been away or just upstairs working). Just really great and expressing love and making others feel special when you want too. It is one of our favorite things about you, you are such a good little buddy and friend. You are really into fashion, which is funny and not like Luke at all. You are always complimenting other's shirts and having an opinion about what you want to wear each day and not wear.

You also keep me up at night and a big source of stress and anxiety for me. The past year/forever, you have really struggled with your health. You have an on-going cough and just throw up mucus and just have a hard time a lot. It is really hard because we haven't been able to get you any relief or help and the Dutch health system has been discouraging/frustrating. I talked to a pediatrician in the states who thought it sounded like allergy induced asthma maybe, so hopefully will be able to get some help here soon so you wont struggle so much and be sick so often. You are really a champ and we both think you have a very high pain tolerance and such a trooper. We love you Clay and so glad you are in our home.