Exactly two years ago, Vancouver was at a complete standstill from a massive snowstorm – one of the biggest in history. I’ll never forget sitting in the freezing cold van outside our house, in excrutiating labour pain, and Chris shovelling to get the car out.  We were waiting for Mark to arrive to watch the twins, and I was worried that either he wouldn’t make it in time or we would be stranded somewhere between our house and the hospital. Not only that, I was pretty sure that an ambulance would not have made it down our street if we couldn’t get out. Admittedly, there were a few moments of panic on my part. But then I was having a baby.

Nine hours later, Willem Evert Alexander arrived. Christmas Eve day, a beautiful 9 pound baby boy. We made it home in time for a good six hours sleep, and then to surprise Bas and Ineke with the best Christmas present ever.

A big thank you to Tita Nelly for the springrolls, noodles and for helping out so much yesterday. To Julie for the awesome airplane cookies. To Steph for her famous chocolate chip cookies. And to all our friends who joined in to celebrate and wish Willem a very happy birthday. I think that he was pretty chuffed with his Thomas the Tank Engine cake! Although, he might have just been happy to see Thomas again after he mysteriously disappeared for a couple of days!