It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Toward the end of November my mom and her friend, Kayleen, flew over for a quick trip. It was an opportunity for my mom to get her much needed Teia-time and for Kayleen to explore the city (since it was her first time to Amsterdam). The weather was sub par but that didn't stop them from walking around the canals, eating yummy pancakes, and enjoying the cafes, flower market and Albert Cuyp street market.

While my mom and Kayleen were in town, Kirk had to make a work trip to New York. Lucky for him he was able to stay the weekend and spend time with some of our friends that live there. Besides soaking up all of the American food he could, he also went to a Knicks game - his first trip to Madison Square Garden!

While Kirk was in New York us ladies rented a car and drove to Bruges. The city was prepping for Christmas Markets galore and we enjoyed our stay at the lovely Hotel Dukes Palace. The location was perfect and an easy stroll to the city center, shopping, and tasty Belgian waffles with Nutella. Teia enjoyed running around (she's not really into her stroller at the moment) and picking up new words by the minute. She particularly loves to yell out "niet doen" which means "do not" in Dutch. Another favorite phrase out of our "bilingual" girl is "goed zo" meaning "well done".

The final few days of their visit were pretty low key. We explored a little bit more around Amsterdam and enjoyed tea, chats about life and growing up, and play time with Teia! Thanks for making the trip out mom and Kayleen!!!

For the second year in a row we hosted Thanksgiving, aka Friendsgiving, at our place! A lot of work and planning - including placing a 20 pound turkey in Teia's bike seat and another 10 pounder in the saddle bag - but we had ourselves a mighty yummy feast. It was pot luck style with an abundance of everyone's tastiest dishes and booze. Teia ran around like crazy enjoying all of the attention and fun! Thanks for the wonderful day of celebrating Thanksgiving, making a holiday away from home a lot easier.  Grateful for our big expat family!

The following week, Kirk made a work trip to Gothenburg, Sweden. It was his first trip to the city and he reported that it was beautiful, but cold and a little boring. Though he didn't really have much time to explore, he did have some delicious Swedish food.

Then Sinterklaas made his way to the Johnsen household filling our shoes with sweets and gifts! Teia especially loved her crown she made at daycare!

That weekend our little family took a quick trip to Brussels to meet Eric and Becky and our friend Britt happened to be in Belgium for work. We all stayed in a nice apartment and hit up the nearby Christmas markets in the city center. We aimlessly walked around snacking and drinking. First bite was a yummy potato and bacon dish paired with a glass of champagne. Roasted chestnuts were a must, as were bratwurst and reibekucken with applesauce - my Christmas market favorite.  For our sweet tooth we had tasty Belgian waffles with nutella and banana! Belgium is definitely different than German Christmas markets but we still had a blast exploring the town in the cool air sipping on dark Belgian beers! Before calling it a night we stopped at a nice bar for frites and Teia did her dancing! The boys continued to bar bounce and myself, Teia and Becky went back to the house. What a great day and night!!!

So I learned that I nagging cough I have had for over 2 months is in fact pneumonia. Awesome. Funny when you realize how sick you are is when you feel that you have the most to get done, especially with the holiday season - wish me luck!

Despite pneumonia, I was able power through and go to Kirk's work's Christmas Party.Wieden + Kennedy rented out Restaurant Baut and we had a nice sit down dinner which turned into a DJ and dancing upstairs afterward. We had a blast.

Continuing a busy season of holiday parties, two days later Kirk went to Paris for lunch and dinner with his Nike clients. They hand a delicious lunch at Monsieur Bleu - a beautiful restaurant in the Palais de Tokyo, overlooking the Eiffel Tower. They followed that with cocktails and socializing at Le Coq (a nearby cafe), and then he moved onto dinner at a Russian caviar restaurant (called Caviar Kaspia) where they ate caviar and sipped champagne. Quite a decadent afternoon!

Sadly for us, our dear friends Melissa, Grant and their two kiddos, Reid and Blaine have moved back to the States as of mid December. To celebrate our awesome friendship and long-lasting memories, we hit up the Sea Palace - a fun and well-known Chinese restaurant floating on the water near Central Station. I have been dying to go to this place for YEARS - so happy to go for such a special occasion. We will surely miss you guys - thanks for being great neighbors, friends and travel buddies. Luckily they are from the Pacific Northwest so I find great comfort in knowing that we will see them when we are home for visits!

Recently I taught a class at a new studio - De Yoga Ruimte (means Yoga Space in Dutch). I have been teaching a group of lovely ladies at my home and really need the extra space for more students and room to play! I am renting a room every Monday night and will start teaching a 90 minute vinyasa flow class. It is so exciting to start a new project - hoping this will take off! The space is quite interesting; the building was originally a school and after shutting down the city gifted the building back to the people until someone buys the whole building. The contract is through July 2015 and each classroom is a new sort of pop-up. The original idea was to turn the school into a mini mall, but instead small pop-up businesses set up and it looks amazing. The businesses include everything from massage, yoga, clothing design, bike shop, jam making, and more. Check out my Facebook page Yoga with Bre for more updates and information.

We decided to stay in Amsterdam for Christmas, giving ourselves a break this year from the holiday travel chaos, and some time to relax. Definitely missed family and friends during the holiday season though. The holidays were so fun this year because you can see the Christmas cheer in Teia - she talked about Santa and Rudolph, and loved her stocking and opening presents!!!

On Christmas day we got up early and enjoyed watching Teia tear the presents apart and try out each new toy. She absolutely loves her new baby stroller, purse and guitar. Thanks family and friends!!! Later that afternoon we swung by the Mobley's for a visit. And that evening we had a lovely feast!

Kirk had about 10 days off from work, so during that time we just enjoyed lounging around, exploring the city, shopping, spending time with Teia and many many movie viewings!

For New Years Eve our lovely friends, Fran and Colin, had us over for chili, bites and champagne to ring in 2015. We also joined in the lighting of fireworks on the canal - which is still a fairly surreal experience.

Looking forward to seeing our friends and family at the end of January! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sharon's Visit and Halloween!

It's been a crazy few months full of yoga, studying and work travel for Kirk.
Spending most of September on the road, Kirk made trips to London, Moscow, San Francisco, Seattle and Istanbul. On top of logging a bunch of meetings and KLM miles, Kirk was able to meet his nephew Peyton for the first time; play golf at Alderra with Brock, Dave & Kai; and see the UW vs Stanford game.
Kirk also had a new commercial come out which you can see here:

Meanwhile I spent the majority of that time practicing, assisting, observing and teaching in preparation for my yoga final. The past few months flew by and the day had finally arrived.  Luckily all the studying and hard work paid off and I passed my final and officially received my 200 hour Teacher Training Certificate with Yoga Moves. Since graduating I now teach at Hot Flow Yoga Amsterdam and hope to set up a few other classes. The whole experience was incredibly humbling and empowering. I met life-long friends and learned a ton and am really excited for what the future holds with my practice and teaching. Thanks Yoga Moves - especially Hilary and Marlene!

in October Sharon came out for 3 weeks - perfect timing because I needed all the help I could get in order to get all my hours done and studying. I know Sharon didn't mine the least bit - Teia and she had a lot of fun playing, laughing and cuddling on the couch. Our friend Leslie took these lovely shots of our little family - it's pretty obvious that little miss Teia is a Johnsen!

One Saturday during Sharon's trip we managed to get away for a day trip to The Hague. It rained on and off throughout the day so we made the most of the little breaks of sunshine, ate a nice lunch, and walked around the city.

The following weekend was Kirk's 35th birthday. We stayed in for the night and had a nice visit from Will Larter who was in town for work. The next night we went out to dinner with Ben and Erica at Aan de Amstel and followed up with drinks at Van Puffelen.

The following week, one of my dearest friends, Mari-Frances, from high school came out to Amsterdam for work.  We managed to go out for dinner and drinks and she met Teia. Always a good time - I even attempted my first biking Dutch with Mari on back. She is a natural and would make her Dutch husband proud!

For Sharon's last weekend in Europe, her and Kirk went to Paris. Over the course of two days they managed to fit in most of the major site seeing - the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, La Basilique du Sacre Coeur, etc - as well as some nice lunches and generally soaking up the city. By all accounts they had a great time.

While Kirk and Sharon explored Paris I took Teia to Vondel Park for the Spooky Buggy Halloween Parade. Teia was an owl (again) and we met up with friends Courtney, Michael and Juliana!

For actual Halloween my friend Melissa had us over for cookie decorating and trick-or-treating with her little boys Reid and Blaine (plus a little mimosa here and there). That evening we attended a pumpkin carving and bites at W+K followed by an adult gathering - opening up their W+K bar, and after hours at Wheels Cafe.  I took at stab at being a scarecrow.

The next day we attended Maya's birthday at Mazzo. Happy 2nd Birthday, Maya, and thanks Vicky for the lovely lunch. Teia had a blast playing and celebrating Maya's special day! And yes, Teia insisted on wearing Minnie Mouse ears (that were a gift to Maya). Thanks for sharing!

And here's a sweet little video of our favorite little gal - it's hard to believe how fast she is growing up. I wish everyday that I could hit pause but then we would miss so many wonderful moments like this!