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Be the first to defuse an exploding kitten (Or: Fun card games)

For Christmas Marco and I got Roger a copy of Exploding Kittens, a card game “for people who are into kittens and explosions. And laser beams. And sometimes goats”. In this case we got the NSFW version, but they also have a normal version.

exploding-kittens-card-game

A look at the card game

It’s an interesting card game. The goal is to not get an exploding kitten card (the black card at right). If you do, you are out of the game unless you also have a green defuse card like the one on the left. Two interesting twists:

  • You end your turn by picking up a card, rather than starting your turn by doing so.
  • There is no need to reshuffle the current deck because the game will definitely end by the last card. This is because you the number of exploding kittens and defuse cards is based on the size of the group playing, and you always have one less defuse card than exploding kitten card.

We also played a game of Skip-Bo, another card game. That game has the advantage of time management – the number of cards you deal at the beginning of the game to each player is your choice. If you deal less cards, the game ends quicker than if you had dealt more cards.

skip-bo-card-game

Finally, a shoutout to a friend living in Japan who sent over some nice snacks. In this case, the Japanese snacks are the larger pieces in the upper right:

various-salty-snacks-while-playing-skip-bo

Not quite sure what they are made of, but they were good! Thanks again!

The other snacks are sour cream and chive pretzels as well as Dutch borrelnootjes (“party nuts”) – Dutch Wikipedia. They are peanuts surrounded by a salty, spiced layer. A bit hard to describe, but tasty in moderation.

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A burst of color (Or: 2016 New Year’s celebrations)

This past Saturday Marco, Roger and I celebrated the closing of 2016. As per our yearly tradition, after midnight we go outside for about an hour and check out the fireworks. This year it was quite foggy even before people started setting off fireworks, so it seemed like most people began their celebrations early in the night rather than waiting until midnight.

My favourite photo from that night had nothing to do with the fireworks – it was of the Christmas lights at a house. Although since the lights were red white and blue you could say they were celebrating their nationality:

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While some of this fog was due to the fireworks, it really was a pretty foggy night

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A bit of purple to brighten the night sky

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Quality time with family and friends

Everyone seemed to have the fire “baskets” you see above. Not sure where they came from.

All in all, yet another fun year. 🙂

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Not so Christmasy Christmas (Or: San Francisco for the holidays)

Last week Marco and I were in San Francisco for the holidays with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun! I didn’t take too many pictures this time, but here is a small sampling:

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One of the piers at San Francisco

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San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (not to be confused with the Golden Gate bridge which everyone photographs)

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Powell and Market cable car

This cable car is positioned at the turnaround point – the cable car stops on a wooden platform before being rotated to head back in the same direction it came. See a demonstration at YouTube.

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Sugar castle at Westin St. Hotel lobby, San Francisco (free to view, donations optional)

We also visited the Exploratorium, an interactive exhibit hall for both kids and adults. It was a lot of fun and I can highly recommend it. One of the exhibits was the Curious Contraptions exhibit. Clicking the link will show a short 47 second video of what made them so curious…

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Turn a crank and watch the item move (or in this case, press a button on the outside of the glass since these items are too delicate to be touched directly).

Another example of automata are the Dutch Strandbeest creatures created by Theo Jansen, born in nearby Scheveningen. Those were also referenced in the Exploratorium.

Finally, here is a fun workout for you:

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“Your turn counts” exhibit

Read more about it at the exhibit page – basically if you turn the lever at the right, the wooden wheel spins. Turn that ten times and the grey wheel (currently at 0, though the 9 can also be seen) turns once. Turn THAT once (so the wooden wheel 100 times) and the next wheel turns, the black one currently at 0, and so on. Patience…

All in all a fun trip. And you better believe we raided a few grocery stores for some American snacks!

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A gift from Marco (Or: …Now I am craving chocolate)

Chocolate!

Marco bought these for me – they are the size of drink coasters (onderzetters, in Dutch) and the theme is chocolate (droooool):

four-chocolate-sayings

The four sayings are:

  1. Chocolate comes from cocoa – which is a plant – therefore chocolate counts as a salad. The end.
  2. Chocolate doesn’t ask silly questions. Chocolate understands.
  3. All I want is peace, love and a chocolate bar bigger than my head. (My favorite!)
  4. I love you more than chocolate, but please don’t make me prove it.

Yum.

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Time to “gourmetten” (Or: Fun in the Netherlands for New Year’s Eve)

This year we are celebrating New Year’s Eve at Roger’s. One of the most important parts of that (besides hanging out with friends, of course!) is “gourmetten”. Below is a picture of all of the gourmetten foods Roger purchased for the evening, although we already know we won’t be able to eat everything.

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“Gourmetten” is a Dutch tradition of frying meats and (to a lesser extent) vegetables on a small grill on the dinner table. You can see pictures of the gourmet grill in the 2015 New Year’s Eve blog post I made. Roger purchased a new grill for 2016, so I will try and take some photos of that in action. I can’t wait!

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Second day of Christmas (Or: Christmas tree in Bijenkorf)

To celebrate the second day of Christmas in the Netherlands…

I was in Bijenkorf last week and noticed they put in their Christmas tree for the holidays. It’s so large (four floors high) that it is difficult to get a complete photograph of. But to give you an idea:

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A look at the tree from below, standing on the ground floor

I love the blue theme!

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And a look at the tree from above

Last year’s Christmas tree was a red and gold theme.

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First day of Christmas (Or: Christmas tree in De Passage)

To celebrate the first day of Christmas here in the Netherlands, here is a look at the Christmas tree within De Passage:

christmas-tree-de-passage-the-hague-2016

The fun story being this tree – in 2013 there were rumours that the Christmas tree would no longer come back because it ruined the view of the incoming Apple Store, but it was still present in 2013 (the Apple Store wasn’t open yet) and luckily present in 2014 and 2015.

And here we are in 2016! (This year I heard from someone that it wasn’t that Apple wanted to ban the Christmas tree so it didn’t ruin the store view, but that they wanted to decorate it themselves but the other stores were against that. Makes sense, but probably just another rumor.)

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Bailey’s chocolate mousse (Or: A Christmas dessert by Roger)

Roger made a chocolate mousse with Bailey’s liquor for Marco and I last week. It was actually a trial run for this weekend, when he will be making the dessert for his family:

baileys-chocolate-mousse-with-chocolate-shavings

Yum!

Last year’s Christmas dessert was a tiramisu dessert in a wine glass.

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Photos from a work Christmas party (Or: Oh – THOSE are crackers?)

A few weeks back Marco and I attended a Christmas party for my work.

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A look at the table we were sitting at

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The red and white tubes are actually Christmas “crackers”, although all of these are broken open already. It’s basically a tube which two people pull apart to make a noise like a firecracker (“cracker”), apparently with a witty saying inside. Mine was something like “The things you dream about can’t keep you awake at night” or similar.

Ever since I moved to the Netherlands I thought these items were actually crackers – that is, food. Imagine my surprise when a coworker said we should take turns pulling them apart. Haha!

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Four year in the Netherlands! (Or: Another oliebollen photo)

Much like my 3 years in the Netherlands anniversary post last year, I will post another oliebol themed photo:

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This is a photo of a pop-up store near the Grote Markt. Here’s an article about it in Dutch –   Pop-up oliebollenfabriek opent deuren in Den Haag. I confess I hadn’t quite understood the concept until reading the article. Alongside the traditional oliebollen and appelbeignets, they also sell champagne oliebollen. Except that it’s just in the name – there’s no actual champagne inside. The difference is in the sugar that they use. Some examples of the types of sugar they use include limoncello, salted caramel and chocolate sugar. In total there are 10 different types of sugar you can choose from and some samples for you to taste.

I can’t believe it – four years in the Netherlands already!

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | 2 Comments

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