Happy 2026 y’all! Gelukkig nieuwjaar! We enjoyed a few slower weeks to end the year, reflect on our journey thus far, and welcome a new year and new adventures. We cooked and baked lots of goodies, and walked in the dunes and on the beach for Christmas and New Year’s Day. The best present we got was approval to schedule an appointment with the government to begin our immigration process! We have a few appointments scheduled, the first is to get a stamp in our passport that gives us the green light with immigration, the next is to get our fingerprints and biometrics scanned, and the last is to begin our resident number application (similar to a social security number). Luckily that last appointment isn’t until mid-February, and that’s when we need all our apostilled documents. The saga still continues on that front, as Diana’s initial application was lost in the mail for a month, so we ordered a certified copy of the birth certificate and had family send out the forms from Ohio. It is finally processed and in the mail on the way back to the Netherlands! We were able to quickly acquire a digital copy of the marriage certificate, but are still waiting on the physically copy to arrive here. Our latest, unhealthiest hobby is to refresh our tracking numbers every hour to watch for updates. It’s been stressful to say the least to get everything in order.

We also learned that the Dutch are fanatics for fireworks, and they set off their own…everywhere! We had a nice private show in our backyard, thanks to our neighbors, for a solid 10 hours from about 6 pm to 4 am. It felt as though we were, in what I imagine a warzone sounds like, the epicenter of a warzone, and walking to the beach the next day felt slightly post-apocalyptic seeing the burned trash cans in the street and all the remnants of the fireworks splayed out on the ground. We read though that this was the last year it was legal to buy them, and you’re only allowed to set them off for one day in the country, on New Year’s Eve, so we’ll see if it’s as intense next year!

Lastly, it snowed this week in the Netherlands! That is a rare experience here as of late, and it was very pretty to see. The country however does not know how to function during a snow storm, so a lot of flights and public transport were canceled, and people were advised to work from home for a few days. It didn’t last very long in our neighborhood, but our friends in Amsterdam shared pictures with a foot of snow!

We are continuing to prep ourselves for launching the business here, and staying positive for future immersion in this country. Pictured below is the main street that’s a 5 minute walk from us, called Keizerstraat, all lit up for the holidays, and us on the beach at Christmas.