The Baby Bump

Winter lights of Luxembourg

Winter lights Luxembourg. from Ace Shooting on Vimeo.

Decorating for Christmas, I love my lights!

MORE PICTURES

Loyens and Loeff Christmas Party

Enough wine and you are dancing 

in a Christmas ornament

Marketing team with Marjorie and Claire

Visitors from Minnesota

 Pam and her mother Della, came to see me in Luxembourg today before going on a wine cruise down the Mosel River on the edge of the city.

2013 Easter Potluck Dinner

It's that time of year again for our annual Easter Potluck dinner. We would like your participation on Easter Sunday, the 31st of March at our home in Lustin. Dinner will be at 4pm, but please come down anytime after noon and enjoy the day with all of us. If any of you are unfamiliar with the American tradition of potluck, here is a little education for you.

We will pick up a main course of an Easter Ham from Jack O' Sheas in Brussels, here is last year's masterpiece. Being we have so many different countries represented by the guests, if you have a country specific dish or specialty you would like to bring, and we highly encourage it, please mention it in your RSVP. If you don't, we will try to assign a food group to the rest, so we can even things out a bit. Please RSVP by the 25th so we have enough time to get back to everybody on that.....Randy would like you to know you can never have too many desserts.

If you would like to attend, but have obligations to family or friends in town, please let us know, they're all welcome. The more the merrier. Hope to see you Easter Sunday!

Getting here: Rue Frappe Cul 10, Lustin 5170
From Brussels take the 411 to exit 15
From Luxembourg take the 411 to exit 18
Google Map

Our Annual Easter Potluck Dinner 2012

It's that time of the year again for our annual Easter Potluck Dinner. We would like your participation on Easter Sunday the 8th of April at our home in Lustin. Dinner will be at 16:00 but please come by anytime after noon and enjoy the day. Last year it was 27 degrees and a beautiful day to relax and enjoy.

We will pick up a main course of an Easter Ham from Jack O'Shea's in Brussels, here's a picture of Randy's masterpiece from last year. It was devoured quickly enough that Randy was left with a few scraps off the tray, so we are asking you RSVP by April 1 to make sure we have enough and can maybe plan for some of the dishes you intend to bring.


For anyone who may be new to this American concept of fine dining I give you the WIKI definition. Since we have so many different countries represented by the guests, if you have a country specific dish or specialty you would like to bring, and we highly encourage it, please mention it in your RSVP.

If you would like to attend, but have obligations to family or friends in town, just let us know. They're all welcome, the more the merrier! Hope to see you Easter Sunday.


Some pictures of last years crowd for those of you who were here to enjoy.


Getting to Villa Rustica: Rue Frappe Cul 10 in Lustin 5170
From Brussels take the 411 to exit 15 in Namur
From Luxembourg take the 411 to exit 18 in Courrière
MAP    to Rue Frappe Cul 10

Ski trip to French Alps

  Just got back from our Florida vacation and we had our annual ski trip for Loyens & Loeff to La Plagne in the French Alps. Was a gorgeous weekend, the weather was nice and lots of things to do besides ski.....although riding the luge was not for me.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Luxembourg City Christmas Market

Dear Friends and Family,

Time goes way too fast and here we are but a couple of weeks before going into 2012. I would say, it looks very different then last year. Our fall colors were so gorgeous this year.




 We went from starting 2011 with battling about half a meter of snow and with the melting of the snow... being able to fish right off our veranda, quite an experience for me not being used to have so much snow. Needless to say, this year we are a little better prepared, we already have a shovel, which we couldn’t find in three countries last year. But the snow can stay away for me.

 It had been a real struggle and we were so happy when spring arrived. This year, one of our major projects was to prepare our garden for new landscaping, so we had ten truckloads of dirt delivered so we could level the yard and reseed the grass.

But most importantly to have the garden ready for annual our Easter potluck where we had about 6o people this year and was a big success. First because it was late April and spring had settled very well, we had almost 80 degrees, which kept everybody on the terrace or outside. Randy cooked a fantastic ham with a brown sugar and maple syrup glaze that barely left him a piece to eat, as it got taken away very quickly.

 At the same time, we had our friends Gina and John from Atlanta visiting us and we had to spend some quality time with them. We toured a little bit around Namur and Dinant but also around the Moselle in Remich, which was great.

But then, it was time for Randy to go back to Minnesota, which always comes like a chock to me. He says it's work, but I think it has as much to do with his mates, and playing baseball. They one 3 tournaments this year, so he is even more excited to go back to work.







Finally July arrived and I was looking forward to fly to Minnesota to be with him, visit family and the kids but most of all to see my grandson Ayden. He is growing so fast unbelievable.... it was so cool to watch Randy teaching him teaching baseball, the little boy is learning quickly.. of course he is just like his grandpa, fast and enjoying his sweets or cookies as often as possible.

 For my birthday we started at Robyn's cabin having some watermelon jello shots.. first time for me, and we finished with the kids at Spanky's on the Lake in Vergas, very nice place on the water. Couple of days later, we had a surprise party with our friends Sanjay and Anju at Chino Latino, great place.

We went to a couple Twins games and even had some friends that took us to the game in the Champions Club where we had a buffet and sat right on the field. I even walked over to the dugout to get a picture of my friend Joe Mauer. The Twins do not play very well when I attend though, they lost both times.







It's hard to keep up with the kids being so far away but we are very happy to say that they are all doing very well .

Dana and Chelsey settled into their own house now in Thief River for about 2 years, we are still wondering when the big day will come for them, guess I have to be patient.

Tracy and Matt are keeping up with Ayden growing so fast and still living on a lake outside of Detroit Lakes.

Ayden started preschool this fall and seems to be enjoying it.

Julie is finishing university in Brussels in 2012 and will come and join us as from the 1st of February for an internship of 4 months in Luxembourg with a marketing company.











For the politics fans, I guess it is important to mention that the Euro crisis finally forced our little country of Belgium to form a government after being without for 541 days. We are curious to see on how long that is going to last, but we will stay on positive note.

As always we ask that you remember those who won't be home for Christmas.

 Randy would like you to make it a point to read this heartwarming story of a 90 year old Belgian nurse who was awarded a medal by the US Army last week here in Brussels, 67 years after the Battle of the Bulge.
CLICK HERE or just scroll down a few posts.

Wishing you a warm, fun, family filled Holiday Season 
 Merry Christmas 

 Mimi and Randy