Queenie-Boo-Bay

This is our Advent House: And for those Holiday Movie Fans out there, This is the Advent House from Christmas Vacation Mom has had Marty Moose Mugs on Her list for years now.

This is the tree in the front room: Same tree at night: We love Christmas in our house, we set the trees up in November and they do not come down till January until the Three Wise Men come. MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope that my package arrives safely, and that the giftee ENJOYS the package. P.S. I still have not opened my package as of yet Well I broke down last night and opened my mission, I had been good till now What a great mission filled with some great goodies, the Cherry Honey is delic..... Thinking that I might use the Huckleberry Jam this morning. Dad loves the taffy, and I just love the Christmas Flamingo I love the Hona Turtles, now I have the copper one, and I really like the "When Pigs Fly" traveler. My diffuser is up and the scent of Pine fills the air, the windows have new clings, and I have the cutest mouse pad. Mission in the box: Mission wrapped: Mission unwrapped: Thank you Soooooo Muuuuch Secret

Just wondering if the mission has gone off of the Home Turf of the "Double Knot's"?

I hope that my package arrives safely, and that the giftee ENJOYS the package. P.S. I still have not opened my package as of yet

Puppy Santa...

Santa has had enough...

Santa Jr.

Santa Cat....

Another Santa Baby...

Santa Baby....

Largest Ice Santa

SinterKlass vs an Elf

He also seems to like to ride water rides

I always wondered what Santa did the rest of the year:

1. Participating: E-mail sent 10/25/09 2. Received Name: 11/01/09 3. Mission Complete: I have everything I need just need to get it in the USPS 4. Package Received: YES on 11/16/09, this is going to hard to wait that long......

1. Participating: E-mail sent 10/25/09 2. Received Name: 11/01/09 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received:

Congrats to all of the Winners. Thanks for the Cointest.

What's a ghosts favourite ride at the carnival? The roller ghoster A funny Picture: Costume would be a Genie

Dutch Christmas Cuisine Traditional Dutch Christmas foods include boiled chestnuts eaten with butter and salt, marzipan, and Kerstkrans, which are Dutch Christmas cookies. On Christmas Eve, after the kids have been tucked into beds, adults enjoy tea and speculaas (hard cookies). Letterbanket, letter shaped cakes, are also distributed on Christmas Eve. For a main course at Christmas dinner, roast goose may be served, or turkey, or perhaps venison or rabbit. On New Years Eve, a donut-like pastry called an Oliebollen is served. I am drooling just thinking about that.

Traditions: St. Nicholas (Sinter klaas), who is dressed in red Bishop's robes, arrives either on a white horse or in some areas in a boat from Spain and gives gifts to children on December 6th. Black Peter (Sarte Piet) accompanies him. Black Peter carries a birch rod to punish those children who have been bad in the past year. The children leave their wooden shoes filled with hay and a carrot in anticipation of St. Nicholas. If they have been good they will find small toys, nuts and candy in their shoes. Sometimes St. Nicholas will visit the house and will question the children on how they behaved in the past year. In addition to the gifts received from St. Nicholas, the children play a game of hide and seek. The children will look in the cupboards and cubbyholes of the house for special gifts and they are rarely disappointed.

Since my Brother took Halloween I thought Christmas would be good to look at, here is what I found: Traditional Christmas Greeting: "Zalig Kerstfeest", "Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" (Dutch) Location: Western Europe Tree Type: Traditional / Cultural Decorations: The candles, glass ornaments, beads, angel hair, icicles and snowflakes represent the traditional ornaments used on the tree. The delft pottery, wooden shoes and tulips represent the culture of the Netherlands. Homes in the Netherlands are decorated with evergreen and holly.

A bit on Digital Media versus Traditional Media: Digital Media Media use via the internet in the Netherlands is displacing traditional forms of published media such as printed newspapers, according to Statistics Netherlands. Just over half of internet users in the Netherlands listened to radio and/or watched television programmes online in 2008, while a slightly lower proportion read newspapers online or downloaded them. The percentage of Dutch internet users who read or downloaded newspapers via the internet rose by more than a third between 2005 and 2008. The increase in watching and listening to television and radio programmes online is even larger: it has more than doubled since 2005. In 2008, for the first time the number of people who watched television programmes and listened to radio programmes via the internet was larger than the number of people who read newspapers online. Male internet users more often read newspapers online than female internet users, 54 compared with 41%. Just over half of 25-44 year-olds read newspapers online. For other age groups this share is just over 40%. 1 in 8 people who read newspapers online had a subscription to the online newspaper. Internet television and radio programmes are very popular among internet users younger than 25 years. Just over 70% of these young people use these media. The use of internet to watch and listen to television and radio programmes decreases as age increases. For people aged 25 years and older, online television and radio is about just as popular as online newspapers. The rise of online media products is displacing traditional physical media such as newspapers. The total domestic circulation of daily newspapers fell by some 16% between 2002 and 2008, from 4.3 million to 3.6 million copies. (Statistics Netherlands, May 2009)

Some additional ISP info. Internet Access The Netherlands has the highest percentage of households in the European Union with home internet connections. Only one in eight Dutch people have either no access to the internet from their own home (1.2 million), or do have access, but do not use it (0.5 million). Two-thirds of people with no home connection have a relatively low education level. Around half are over 65 years of age and/or single. Youngsters aged up to 25 years nearly all have access to the internet from home: only 2% of this age group do not. Nearly six in ten people who do not have internet access do not want it or are not interested in access, 12% think it costs too much. Privacy considerations and physical handicaps are mentioned by only very few people as reasons for not having an internet connection at home. People younger than 60 who do not use their internet connection have lower education levels than their peers with no connection at all. Level of education is therefore a relevant distinguishing characteristic in all groups. People who do not have internet access at home are also less likely to use other modern technologies such as mobile phones. Fewer than seven in ten Dutch people without internet at home sometimes use a mobile phone, compared with 95% of people with internet access.

Well I read this and thought...HMMMMM... So I looked and here is what I found: Demographics There were 14,272,700 internet users in Netherlands (representing 85.4% of the population) in June 2009, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 266.0% compared to 2000. (Internet World Stats, September 2009) eMarketer estimated the number of internet users and penetration level in Netherlands for the period between 2007 and 2012 as follows: - 2007: 13.3 million (80.1% of the population) - 2008: 13.6 million (81.9%) - 2009: 13.9 million (83.2%) - 2010: 14.1 million (83.9%) - 2011: 14.2 million (84.5%) - 2012: 14.3 million (84.6%) (eMarketer, February 2008) Looks like you are ahead of the curve. Wish I could have been the single ISP in 2000