Another Christmas, another year, and sharing some of ‘’The Dallmann’s" highlights of 2013.
We started off 2013 with a few weeks driving along the French Riviera to the Italian Riviera down to Portofina in Italy enjoying all the sceneries of the ‘’Côte d’Azur, St. Tropez, Nice, Monaco and the Italian coast.
When we came back from our nice tour, a surprise was waiting for us as Dana finally proposed to Chelsey on the anniversary of their 10 years together. The wedding is set for 28 June 2014, we can’t wait.
We hosted our traditional Easter potluck which turned to be a great event as always. Randy cooked his traditional fantastic ham with a brown sugar and maple syrup glaze, as good as ever.
2013 has been dominated by the passing away of my Dad. During a visit to his brother in Casablanca, my dad suffered from a brain aneurysm and never recovered. He was flown back to Brussels and passed away peacefully on July 3rd. It has been very hard to adjust to living without him. Not a day goes by when I think of him and have to realize he is not there. Randy's grandmother turned 100 this summer, and then passed away a couple weeks later also.
I spent late July and August in the States at our lake cabin with the kids and grandchild, but it all seemed to happen much too fast and you never seem to get to everybody you want to see.
Most of you are on Facebook with one or both of us, so it gets harder to write any real news that you haven't already seen. So with that being said browse through the rest of the blog with a journal of our year.
Wishing you lots of love, joy and happiness. Merry Christmas!
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 islast 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!
We had just a perfect day for our annual potluck dinner this year, almost 80 degrees, which kept everybody on the terrace or outside. Randy cooked a fantastic ham with a brown suger and maple syrup glaze that barely left him a piece to eat, as it got taken away very quickly. Many thanks to my Mom, who helped out tremendously in the kitchen to get this done.
It's that time of year again for our annual Easter Potluck dinner. We would like your participation on Easter Sunday, the 24th of April 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.
We will pick up a main course of an Easter Ham from Jack O' Shays in Brussels. 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 17th so we have enough time to get back to everybody on that.
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!
As Randy says..this is a protest I could get behind. My Dad is working in Morrocco for the next month and their are reports of a large protest there today also, so that is a bit worrying.
There have been many dumb protests in Belgium thus far. One prominent actor has urged men to join a national shaving boycott, while a Ghent-based senator suggested women go on a "sex strike" until a new cabinet is formed. Others are staging a "fries revolution" to express their frustration with the non-government.
If you want to know why Belgium is such a screwed up country than you just have to watch these videos. Sometimes I think Randy is going to tear his hair out when I tell him, no you can't do it that way. When he asks why not, all I can give is the answer you hear all the time here. Because this is Belgium.
If the first one didn't confuse you, watch Belgium for Dummies. You'll wonder how anyone survives here.
Here we are close to Christmas and we don't know where the time went. It seems that every year it goes faster and faster and we try to do so many things, try to see everybody and enjoy our time together as much as we can. I love the Christmas spirit where we all get together at least we try and share good moments, good food and share memories. I also hope it will stay white so we will be able to say for once we had a ''White Christmas'' this year.
On November 2nd it has been 1 year that I have been working in Luxembourg and still discover new things every day. Working in Luxembourg is a great opportunity and a different atmosphere. We are in the Moselle country enjoying the sceneries of vineyards in spring and summer. We have been exploring the region a little bit and tasting their good wines. The little town where we are is called Remich and looks like the French Riviera, it is a very nice touristic place with a lot of terraces and cruise boats where you can have dinners and where they have some parties. Our street is called: ''Route du Vin, where you will find these nice Chateau's like Bernard et Massart, St. Remy and many others, really interesting places. Randy is a pro of exploring and touring so you better come and visit us so he can show you around, believe me, you will have fun, walking down the vallee and tasting the mousseux!
At Easter we had our annual potluck where we gather all our friends and family, it becomes one of our traditional outings and everybody enjoys it, specially the kids. Lots of food, chocolates and of course the eggs'chasing. Kids get really excited and run all over the place, just hoping it is not raining that day!
This year Randy left right after Easter to start his pool season, it was way too soon for me because he only announced to me three days before departure that he was leaving because they had a project ready to go. So it was a little shock to me but I had to make more trips to the states, so I will certainly not complain.
The first time I went was in June. I had a great time, saw the kids and my wonderful grandson; the little man is so cute, he just makes me melt. I miss seeing him though, he is a lot of joy and his grandpa is very good at teaching him all his tricks that he probably would be better off without, but they are loving it.
This year has been a very special year for me for several reasons, first I had my big 50, Tracy got married and we had our 10th year wedding anniversary. To my surprise Randy put a very nice party together for me at his sister Robyn's house. I was not aware of it and just couldn't believe it. We were going to her house for some aperitifs and dinner and when we got there and when I opened the door and saw grandpa, I said something is not normal here and then everybody yelled Happy Birthday, still can't believe it today. It was a wonderful hot summer day, with the family and our friends and I was in heaven. I enjoy so much being in Minneapolis and when the departure day comes it is always too early to go back but nevermind this year I was happy to go back and this time with Julie and her boyfriend Jonathan.
My birthday party wasn't done yet, so I went to see my mom, dad and my brother at their chalet in Spain with my friend Marie Claire. As you can see we had a great time as well enjoing a nice paella. Had to spend 4 days just relaxing and enjoying the sun. After that back to reality for a while and back to work. So every Monday morning I pack and go to Luxembourg where I stay the week and come back on Friday nights, always nice to come back at our house. I try to take care of the garden, mowing the lawn and all the rest while Randy is gone and I can say I am doing a good job. He just bought me a big lawn tractor when he got back, so it will be fun now.
Finally September came and we had to go back to Minneapolis for a very very special reason, Tracy and Matt got married. Our first daughter did the big step. We were so proud of her, she was so beautiful, the big smile on our face says it all.
It was Jonathon's first trip to the US and a big adventure for him. The only thing he didn't like was the 9 hours in the plane but he made it. He wanted to try everything, all the fast food places, all the malls. We could not pass the big mall of America, so that was exciting, we had a great time there. Also we were lucky to go to a Twins game at their nice stadium, just an unbelievable place, we could spend hours there just by walking around, the atmosphere, the noice, the people, only in AMERICA.
We were ready very early on the morning of September 4 and we were all counting the hours. I was so proud when Randy was walking Tracy down the aisle, it couldn't be better, both had a nice smile on their face and yes Randy was marrying his daughter, tears came to my eyes.
Tracy's eyes were sparkling, she was in dreamland, she had such a nice dress. The bridesmaids were very pretty, not forgetting the groomsmen whom were all very handsome. The weather was fantastic, bright sun and blue sky, the beach, just perfect. Excellent food, traiteur Dave's BBQ did his best, good ribs and special BBQ food, what else could we dream off. We made a lot of pictures as you can see. At times, our little man was the attraction but he behaved very well. The day was over and Mrs. and Mr. Larson were starting a new life!
Good moments always come to an end. It was time to say good-bye to everybody now for a long time as we would not go back before 2011. I hope that the Family Larson, and Dana and Chelsey will be able to come in spring, we just have to wait and see.
Christmas is full of shiny things
That sparkle, gleam and glow;
These holiday pleasures dazzle us,
And yet, deep down, we know...
That Christmas has its special gifts,
But our year-round joy depends
On the cherished people in our lives,
Our family and our friends.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!
Peace and Love
Mimi & Randy
Since we have so many thousands of American boys who are buried in Belgium, in closing, I would be remiss not to say please keep all the young men and women around the world in your prayers who can't be home for the holidays.
The text reads: Dec. 23, 1944 - "Battle of the Bulge" - An entire U.S. armored division was retreating from the Germans in the Ardennes forest when a sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American digging a foxhole.
The GI, PFC Martin, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, looked up and asked, "Are you looking for a safe place?" "Yeah" answered the tanker. "Well, buddy," he drawled, "just pull your vehicle behind me...I'M THE 82nd AIRBORNE, AND THIS IS AS FAR AS THE BASTARDS ARE GOING."
To all my war history nerd friends out there, I put together a little backround info for you that makes for some great reading here, you're welcome to a personal tour, it's practically in my back yard...... Just book your ticket.
Randy and I went to the 65th anniversary celebration in Bastogne for the Battle of the Bulge this weekend.....or as we say here, La Bataille des Ardennes.
Practically the first thing Randy did when he got back was going to see how the little man was doing. Ayden moves around very quickly now, and has learned how to babble in his own little language.
Pam and Doug brought Allison with them for a 10 day vacation to Belgium and we had a great time. Sad to see them go as usual, but they have a new greenhouse to open.
To all you friends and relatives, this is their third trip over here, some of you have a lot of catching up to do.
The antique markets, sometimes we visited two or three in a day.
Brugge, a very pretty medieval town in Belgium.
Going to the Champagne region of France we had a wonderful day stopping in at all the Champagne houses to "test" their drinkability. Us girls were talking pretty smart by the end of the day.
Pam shows how to drink a demi-sec the American way.
This little guy showed up in the garden this morning and was tame enough that I put some food nearby that he stayed around to eat. Maybe he'll come back for the weekend. Randy of course, thought their might be a change in dinner menu.
Julie had Lasik surgery done last weekend and spent the week recovering and getting her sight back. It was a bit painful for her the first few days, but except for putting up with Randy calling her movie star all week because of the glasses, she is back at school and work. It's difficult to get used to her without the glasses.
My Dad has hands of gold when it comes to making the things that have to be customised for the house, which is most items, as everything seems to be some special dimension. We are so proud of his work on the Cheminée that I just stand and look at it sometimes. It really completes the main floor now. The picture on top is the old one we had to take out.
This is the new one that heats the water and sends it through the boilers.
Pam and Doug brought Allison with them for a 10 day vacation to Belgium and we had a great time. Sad to see them go as usual, but they have a new greenhouse to open.
Going to the Champagne region of France we had a wonderful day stopping in at all the Champagne houses to "test" their drinkability. Us girls were talking pretty smart by the end of the day.
This is the new one that heats the water and sends it through the boilers.
