Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New-therlands 2008

Aislin decided that a campfire was in order for the New Year. Being that it's a bit too damp for the real thing, she quickly fashioned the pictured substitute out of construction paper. I asked her to cut out some s'mores for me, but I got the "geez, Mom" look and was instructed to pretend. She did deign to "roast" some "marshmallows" for me over the fire, though.

We were warned in somewhat curmudgeonly fashion by another expat that New Year's in the Netherlands can be "an entirely unpleasant experience." Not unpleasant, necessarily, but the few minutes after midnight are sort of like a cross between being the hapless sidekick to a hellbent pyromaniac and a CNN reporter at the siege of Baghdad -- every single human being within a 2-mile radius except ourselves was armed with fireworks, and they're not afraid to use 'em. I think some started aiming for us once they saw us up on the terrace. Afraid we're pyrotechnic snipers, or something. I did manage to get a few seconds of video to record the ersatz carnage:



Dylan had fallen asleep hours ago, and by the time it occurred to me to go check on him, he was sitting catatonic on the edge of his bed in a sort of vertical fetal position. He is not a fan of the show. After we lobbied hard on the "this is fun" end of things, he put on a grim half-smile and muttered resignedly through his clenched teeth after each chest-shaking explosion, "Look, I'm having even more fun now." Aislin, on the other hand, was out there with her shirt over her face to filter out some of the sulfurous smoke that's now so thick that we can hardly see to the other end of our road, laughing every time another one exploded directly overhead and showered colored sparks perilously close to our heads. It's not a shiny ball dropping, but we'll catch that tomorrow morning as we munch our apparently-mandatory, festive apple beignets. I'll toast to that. Oh, and to 2008, too. Happy things all 'round to you and yours.

1 comment:

Sally said...

I am extremely impressed with the campfire! Beautiful! Hope you all stay warm.