It is nearly Christmas. Time for family and friends, for spending time together, for cuddling your dog or cat. When I found out that all members of our little group Haarlem bloggers would be in town, I arranged a get-together. Wearing my long green jumper as it was freezing. We are all very different, in character and in dressing. Which is great for variety.
We met at Cleeff, a cosy and homely café. The streets were covered with snow that day boosting the Christmas feeling. It was only a very small layer of snow and gone by the afternoon. But so were we 😆 .
This is going to be a short post as I bet you have many other things to do these days.
Below: Anja on the left (Curly Traveller) and Sylvia (40+Style) came with me by car. Living half her life in Singapore, Anja was feeling very cold. Sylvia who had just arrived from Singapore three days earlier, was fine, wearing a lot of layers.
Below: Anja in festive sequins.
Below: Which she combined with her pink faux fur scarf.
Below: Misja (Misjab) came by foot and arrived a little later.
Below: I was there as well.
Below: Misja took this picture of me and made gestures indicating I had to stand with my feet crossed like this. I replied (too loudly): ” Oh the peeing position” and all conversation in the café stopped. Everybody looked at me. Oops…. Fortunately the other customers thought it was funny. Me and my big mouth.
Below: We tried again. Everything I am wearing you have seen before, except the golden bag. Which was a present from Marianne. AGAIN. See further in this post.
Below: As Misja was leaving, I tried to photograph her outfit. She had already put her hairband in place against the cold.
Below: Three musketeers….
Below: … with d’Artagnan 😆 Though I am most certainly not the youngest one. Just kidding.
Sylvia, Anja and me stayed a little longer. Of course trying to photograph each other between chatting.
Below: Sylvia, snug in layers of winter whites and grey.
Below: Anja being very stylish and colourful. Very much Anja. Love it.
Below: Anja’s new boots to roam the streets of Paris at the end of this month. Cute, very cute.
Below: I am always very curious to see what I shot.
Below: One last shot of the four of us. To celebrate friendship.
What happened in my life this week
Goofing in the office. This is my colleague Wouter, who had a party till late the night before. That morning he showered, grabbed some clothes and got himself to the office. No gel in his hair, no fancy clothes, he was just happy to make it. And then I ask him: “Would you like to be on my blog?” He was a good sport.
Below: Trying to look serious….(failed).
Below: The photographer had a good idea for a pose…
Golden bag
My friend Marianne surprised me with a message: Santaclause had left a parcel for me at her house. Went over there and she gave me this lovely golden bag, which you saw above (more pictures of it next week). I mean.. what am I to do with this woman? I just cannot stop her from giving me presents. Lovely presents I grant her that. She has impeccable taste and is a good listener. When I rattle on about something I like and cannot find, she files it in her brain and presto, she finds it for me. Spot on, every time.
Exercise gone wrong
Doing exercises for Knee, like cycling and lifting my legs to strengthen the muscles in my upper legs. Last week I got new instructions for the leg lifting. Oh boy, that went wrong. Did my back and side in. Couldn’t live without pain killers for a week and needed physiotherapy. While moaning with pain all the time when I sat down, got up, turned…basically the whole day. I am not a silent sufferer. Poor husband, poor colleagues. Gosh you feel old when something like that happens. Luckily it wears off.
Friendship
Saw my friend Marjolein in The Hague. You have seen her in this post with the monochrome grey outfit and many times before. Totally forgot to take a photo of the two of us this week. Stupid. We were too busy looking through clothes in a second-hand shop. Left without any purchases which is good for my bank account. A day or an afternoon with Marjolein is always so pleasant. I love my friends.
Did take a picture of Helga and me having dinner at an Indonesian restaurant last Friday. Thoroughly enjoyable as always.
There is a lot of eating this month and last month… Pfff..
Greetje
It was a lovely get-together indeed.
Gosh you are catching up on a lot of posts 😊.
How lovely to see the four of you together – you are all so beautifully turned out! I wish my blogger friends lived closer so I could get together with them more often.
I hope you and Ron had a nice Christmas, and that 2019 will be good to you. I have been having problems with the muscles in my hip and thigh and have had to go to physio so I sympathize with your knee issues. The exercises they gave me don’t seem to be helping either!
It is pure coincidence that the four of us live so close. Although really, everything in the Netherlands is close.
My physio changed a couple of my exercises, resulting in terrible back pains haha. You can understand I am not doing those anymore.
I never want to admit it, but with getting older it seems the ailments get more and more. Shxt. I was hoping to get old without any of them.
And wishing you a happy new year.
Hi Greetje. Merry Christmas! Where can I get a friend like Marianne? She is the best! You all look very stylish in these pics. I love your unusual necklace! Looks great with a tunic sweater. I always enjoy reading your blog. Your personality comes through in the writing. Happy New Year and hoping your knee gets better soon.
Hi Linda, thanks for your kind words. We always try our best with clothes when we meet. We know the cameras will come out.
Of course a happy new year to you too. And indeed I hope the knee gets better. Every time I think it is really improving, I get a set-back. Oh well, in due time… And Marianne is a gem, yep.
This sounds like you had a great time. You are right, you all have quite different, but all great style. Happy holidays.
I have the idea all style bloggers are really different from one another. Which is good in my book. Happy holidays to you too.
Merry Christmas, Greetje! I hope you and Ron had a lovely day!
Another wonderful post of you and your posse, your pretty clothes and your life. Thank you for sharing it with us – I always look forward to catching up with you, my dear.
Well, then I will wish you a happy new year. I always enjoy your blog as well. Witty, creative and there is always a lot going on in your life. A full time job often gets in the way of visiting.
It’s so cool having friends all over the place and still making it possible to meet on a regular basis. Good job! I have just returned from a breakfast date with some of my friends. A wonderful tradition each 24th of December before we all go home to prepare for Xmas Eve (or go and enjoy the snow before preparing for Xmas Even – mostly my way of spending the 24th). Wishing you wonderful days with your loved ones Greetje. Love, Lieske
And of course I wish you the same. If you are a snow lover, you chose well living in Switzerland.
How lovely to see you all together again. Each of you looks fabulous! Such unique styles. I love it!
Shame about the back and side. Sending healing thoughts your way.
Wishing you and Ron a wonderful Christmas!
Suzanne
I am mending, thank goodness. Thanks for the good whishes. I will pass them on to Ron. Hope you and Robert have a wonderful Christmas time as well and a lovely 2019. So nice that he is home again.
Happy Christmas Greetje, another year gone by reading your blog! Love the photos of friends, I am so appreciative of my little group of girlfriends these days. Always look forward to your Sunday blog.
I so love to read such a message. Entertaining is what I like to do most. And as far as you are concerned I succeeded. Yay!
Thanks for this message and I hope I can entertain you as much in 2019. Keep on maintaining those friendships.
Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas x
Thanks Jill. Of course the best wishes for you as well.
You all look wonderful and happy! Love Anja’s jacket, scarf and top! Merry Christmas Greetje with best wishes for the New Year.
I am all for the colourfulness of Anja as well. Have yourself a merry Christmas Jean and may 2019 become wonderful.
I always enjoy seeing your weekly blog, and you look great in all of your outfits, and I like your pictures of your surroundings. Which jeans are those that you are wearing in the last two pics, at your office? They fit you very well, (although you always look great in jeans). What are the back pockets designed as? Would you ever consider doing a jeans show photo shoot, as you look great in them, but you have yourself covered up a lot of the times in jeans. Merry Christmas!
Those jeans are by Denham, a Dutch brand. I love their jeans. They have normal back pockets. The type is Sharp slinny fit. I think they might be these:
https://www.denhamthejeanmaker.com/sharp-skinny-fit-jeans—isfa/112.html?dwvar_112_color=blue&cgid=women-bottoms-jeans
Merry Christmas Greetje!
Another year of great entertainment and insight into your life. Wishing you all the best in life for the new year
Donna and Ron vandenbroek
Thank you. I told Ron (my Ron haha) that you are still following my blog. So nice. He remembers our encounter. Wishing you a fantastic 2019.
You guys are dazzling sitting together at the table! I bet everyone else in the place wished they could join you or at least listen in. And you are right – what a wonderful variety of style. Wish I was there.
The photo of you being carried made me laugh. Hahaha. The best kind of transportation. I love those bright colours!
So Happy Holidays to you and Ron and your families. Time to relax and feast and laugh, which you do anyway. Hugs, Greetje.
And big hugs to you as well Melanie and to O. Hooe you have a wonderful time as well. And may your modelling career take off properly in the new year. I want to be able to say: “I know her, she is a friend of mine”, when your face appears in all the magazines.
Thank you, Greetje. Hahaha!! I expect to be seeing you as well!
Merry Christmas to you and all your family Greetje.
And the same to you dear. Thanks for visiting, reading and commenting.
Hello you!
I see your knee (and exercises) haven’t stopped you gadding about, having fun with friends. And the family fun will follow next Tuesday. Great! Have a lovely lovely Christmas!
Hugs from Middle England x
PS You look soo goood in your outfits. As usual!
I can get anywhere where I can park my car or bicycle. It is still difficult to walk more than 500 meters. But progressing. Thank God. Wishing you a merry Christmas as well Gee.
What an incredibly stylish group of women!! You all look amazing! Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. Can’t wait to see more shots of the golden bag.
The stupid thing was, I had just ordered a golden crossbody bag, but with white and a teensy bit boho which I am not. I wasn’t too sure about my order but it still hasn’t arrived. I already notified the shop and told them I am sending it right back when it arrives. Never did I imagine getting the perfect one as a present.
Thank you Greetje for having the time to share your week and wonderful outings with your friends. You are such a stylish bunch of girls and I love to see you having so much fun. What a great picture of your colleague lifting you up, mine would have to be very strong to get me off the floor !!!! ( note to self – New Years resolution = Diet )
Hope your physio is less painful in the future for you, please be careful.
Wishing you and your family & pets a lovely Christmas x
Hahaha, I had to laugh over your New Years resolution. As I am getting braces in January I am sure I will lose weight. Have a lovely time too.
It was a lovely get-together indeed.
Gosh you are catching up on a lot of posts 😊.
How lovely to see the four of you together – you are all so beautifully turned out! I wish my blogger friends lived closer so I could get together with them more often.
I hope you and Ron had a nice Christmas, and that 2019 will be good to you. I have been having problems with the muscles in my hip and thigh and have had to go to physio so I sympathize with your knee issues. The exercises they gave me don’t seem to be helping either!
It is pure coincidence that the four of us live so close. Although really, everything in the Netherlands is close.
My physio changed a couple of my exercises, resulting in terrible back pains haha. You can understand I am not doing those anymore.
I never want to admit it, but with getting older it seems the ailments get more and more. Shxt. I was hoping to get old without any of them.
And wishing you a happy new year.
Merry Christmas, Greetje! I hope you and Ron had a lovely day!
Another wonderful post of you and your posse, your pretty clothes and your life. Thank you for sharing it with us – I always look forward to catching up with you, my dear.
Well, then I will wish you a happy new year. I always enjoy your blog as well. Witty, creative and there is always a lot going on in your life. A full time job often gets in the way of visiting.
Hi Greetje. Merry Christmas! Where can I get a friend like Marianne? She is the best! You all look very stylish in these pics. I love your unusual necklace! Looks great with a tunic sweater. I always enjoy reading your blog. Your personality comes through in the writing. Happy New Year and hoping your knee gets better soon.
Hi Linda, thanks for your kind words. We always try our best with clothes when we meet. We know the cameras will come out.
Of course a happy new year to you too. And indeed I hope the knee gets better. Every time I think it is really improving, I get a set-back. Oh well, in due time… And Marianne is a gem, yep.
Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas x
Thanks Jill. Of course the best wishes for you as well.
This sounds like you had a great time. You are right, you all have quite different, but all great style. Happy holidays.
I have the idea all style bloggers are really different from one another. Which is good in my book. Happy holidays to you too.
It’s so cool having friends all over the place and still making it possible to meet on a regular basis. Good job! I have just returned from a breakfast date with some of my friends. A wonderful tradition each 24th of December before we all go home to prepare for Xmas Eve (or go and enjoy the snow before preparing for Xmas Even – mostly my way of spending the 24th). Wishing you wonderful days with your loved ones Greetje. Love, Lieske
And of course I wish you the same. If you are a snow lover, you chose well living in Switzerland.
You guys are dazzling sitting together at the table! I bet everyone else in the place wished they could join you or at least listen in. And you are right – what a wonderful variety of style. Wish I was there.
The photo of you being carried made me laugh. Hahaha. The best kind of transportation. I love those bright colours!
So Happy Holidays to you and Ron and your families. Time to relax and feast and laugh, which you do anyway. Hugs, Greetje.
And big hugs to you as well Melanie and to O. Hooe you have a wonderful time as well. And may your modelling career take off properly in the new year. I want to be able to say: “I know her, she is a friend of mine”, when your face appears in all the magazines.
Thank you, Greetje. Hahaha!! I expect to be seeing you as well!
Seeing you and your beautiful tribe of friends always brings joy to my heart Greetje. There’s a little sadness too since I now live so far away from my own longtime girlfriends. I’m fortunate to have made some wonderful new and very sweet friends and their generous holiday spirit is greatly appreciated.
Your story of speaking loudly about the position that holds back the pee made me giggle as I have that same loud tone in my voice. I’m also a bit in love with Wouter for sweeping you up in his arms! 🙂
I hope you and Ron and other dear family members enjoy a warm and loving holiday!!
I can so understand how you miss your friends. Sometimes we have to make that decision to move but missing your friends is the hardest part of it. Glad you are making new friends, but it will take a while before the pain of missing wears off. I know. I have not moved a lot in my life; been through the missing-friends-bit two times. Which in the Netherlands doesn’t seem a big deal as everything and everybody is only 2 1/2 hours (utmost) away. But as we are not used to travelling, we still don’t see much of each other. And one of my best friends moved to Switzerland. That’s far but thank God for Easyjet.
my colleague Wouter is a very strong man. He had to hold me quite a long time before the photographer was done haha.
And your comment made me smile. Thank you. Have a lovely time and a fantastic new year.
Merry Christmas to all you lovely and fun-loving people!
Sweet of you to say. Of course wishing you a merry Christmas too and a lovely 2019.
Seeing you and your beautiful tribe of friends always brings joy to my heart Greetje. There’s a little sadness too since I now live so far away from my own longtime girlfriends. I’m fortunate to have made some wonderful new and very sweet friends and their generous holiday spirit is greatly appreciated.
Your story of speaking loudly about the position that holds back the pee made me giggle as I have that same loud tone in my voice. I’m also a bit in love with Wouter for sweeping you up in his arms! 🙂
I hope you and Ron and other dear family members enjoy a warm and loving holiday!!
I can so understand how you miss your friends. Sometimes we have to make that decision to move but missing your friends is the hardest part of it. Glad you are making new friends, but it will take a while before the pain of missing wears off. I know. I have not moved a lot in my life; been through the missing-friends-bit two times. Which in the Netherlands doesn’t seem a big deal as everything and everybody is only 2 1/2 hours (utmost) away. But as we are not used to travelling, we still don’t see much of each other. And one of my best friends moved to Switzerland. That’s far but thank God for Easyjet.
my colleague Wouter is a very strong man. He had to hold me quite a long time before the photographer was done haha.
And your comment made me smile. Thank you. Have a lovely time and a fantastic new year.
Merry Christmas Greetje!
Another year of great entertainment and insight into your life. Wishing you all the best in life for the new year
Donna and Ron vandenbroek
Thank you. I told Ron (my Ron haha) that you are still following my blog. So nice. He remembers our encounter. Wishing you a fantastic 2019.
Merry Christmas to all you lovely and fun-loving people!
Sweet of you to say. Of course wishing you a merry Christmas too and a lovely 2019.
How lovely to see you all together again. Each of you looks fabulous! Such unique styles. I love it!
Shame about the back and side. Sending healing thoughts your way.
Wishing you and Ron a wonderful Christmas!
Suzanne
I am mending, thank goodness. Thanks for the good whishes. I will pass them on to Ron. Hope you and Robert have a wonderful Christmas time as well and a lovely 2019. So nice that he is home again.
Happy Christmas Greetje, another year gone by reading your blog! Love the photos of friends, I am so appreciative of my little group of girlfriends these days. Always look forward to your Sunday blog.
I so love to read such a message. Entertaining is what I like to do most. And as far as you are concerned I succeeded. Yay!
Thanks for this message and I hope I can entertain you as much in 2019. Keep on maintaining those friendships.
Merry Christmas to you and all your family Greetje.
And the same to you dear. Thanks for visiting, reading and commenting.
What an incredibly stylish group of women!! You all look amazing! Looks like everyone had a wonderful time. Can’t wait to see more shots of the golden bag.
The stupid thing was, I had just ordered a golden crossbody bag, but with white and a teensy bit boho which I am not. I wasn’t too sure about my order but it still hasn’t arrived. I already notified the shop and told them I am sending it right back when it arrives. Never did I imagine getting the perfect one as a present.
Thank you Greetje for having the time to share your week and wonderful outings with your friends. You are such a stylish bunch of girls and I love to see you having so much fun. What a great picture of your colleague lifting you up, mine would have to be very strong to get me off the floor !!!! ( note to self – New Years resolution = Diet )
Hope your physio is less painful in the future for you, please be careful.
Wishing you and your family & pets a lovely Christmas x
Hahaha, I had to laugh over your New Years resolution. As I am getting braces in January I am sure I will lose weight. Have a lovely time too.
I always enjoy seeing your weekly blog, and you look great in all of your outfits, and I like your pictures of your surroundings. Which jeans are those that you are wearing in the last two pics, at your office? They fit you very well, (although you always look great in jeans). What are the back pockets designed as? Would you ever consider doing a jeans show photo shoot, as you look great in them, but you have yourself covered up a lot of the times in jeans. Merry Christmas!
Those jeans are by Denham, a Dutch brand. I love their jeans. They have normal back pockets. The type is Sharp slinny fit. I think they might be these:
https://www.denhamthejeanmaker.com/sharp-skinny-fit-jeans—isfa/112.html?dwvar_112_color=blue&cgid=women-bottoms-jeans
You all look wonderful and happy! Love Anja’s jacket, scarf and top! Merry Christmas Greetje with best wishes for the New Year.
I am all for the colourfulness of Anja as well. Have yourself a merry Christmas Jean and may 2019 become wonderful.
Hello you!
I see your knee (and exercises) haven’t stopped you gadding about, having fun with friends. And the family fun will follow next Tuesday. Great! Have a lovely lovely Christmas!
Hugs from Middle England x
PS You look soo goood in your outfits. As usual!
I can get anywhere where I can park my car or bicycle. It is still difficult to walk more than 500 meters. But progressing. Thank God. Wishing you a merry Christmas as well Gee.