Amsterdam got socked by a pretty significant snowstorm yesterday:  maybe about six inches / 15 centimeters -- all in the space of about four or five hours.  It was pretty intense.  And pretty awesome.  The city looks beautiful under all of the heavy snow.  It really completes the Christmas effect.  The only problem with the snowstorm is the implications for transportation.  While the snow storm was raging yesterday, automotive traffic slowed considerably, and much of the public transportation system was shut down for awhile.

My preferred mode of transportation, even in the midst of a snow storm, is bicycle.  With a bicycle, you don't have to deal with the crowds and unpredictable time tables.  But you do have to deal with a lot of snow on the bike paths.  I was fish-tailing all over the place while I rode throughout Amsterdam and Amstelveen --

probably about two hours of total bicycling -- but believe it or not, I didn't crash even once.  I was plenty tired by the time I was done with my traveling.  But it was actually kind of fun, too.  When I stopped at the end of one bicycle ride, I noticed that I had about an inch-and-a-half  / 3 centimeters of snow caked on the brim of my cap and on the inside of my coat's hood.  Like I said, it was pretty awesome.

By the time I got home from my romp through the snowy streets of Amsterdam, it was time to get ready for our school's Kerst Diner.  The kids were all dolled up in special holiday clothes -- but because of the snow, we had all the kids wear their rubber boots to get from home to the school.  It made for an intriguing picture before we left, at any rate. :-)

The Kerst Diner (Christmas Dinner) is an interesting Dutch school tradition that has no real parallel with American holiday celebrations, but our family has really come to enjoy the annual event.

Basically, the idea is that all the kids and teachers get dressed up and then meet up in their classrooms at night-time, after the sun has gone down (which gives the school a very different feel from what everyone is used to).  All of the rooms are lit only by strands of Christmas lights.  And when the kids assemble in their rooms, they share in a dinner.  Some years this dinner is potluck; some years it's provided by the school.  Regardless of the way that the dinner is organized, the idea is for everyone to enjoy a special formal dinner together.

While the kids all enjoy eating in their classrooms, the adults gather in the main lobby of the school and hang out in a party atmosphere, munching on cookies and drinking hot chocolate and glühwein (spiced, hot wine).  This makes the whole event fun for parents as well as for the kids, since we can all get a chance to mingle and get to know each other to an extent that we're not usually afforded during the daily shuffle to ferry kids to and from school.

After an hour of everyone enjoying the gezellige party atmosphere, everyone assembles out on the school playground, where roaring fires have been kindled for everyone to enjoy.  Standing around the fires, everyone sings a few Christmas songs, and then the party breaks up with everyone wishing each other a pleasant school-vacation, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

And so the Christmas vacation begins.