First major event on the calendar was Carnival. This year we went to Budel for the parade and it absolutely forever! It went for over 3 hours and I was exhausted by the end....lol. But it was loads of fun, I will let the photos talk for me.
Next, it was time for my mum and Noel to visit from Australia, for 9 whole weeks!!!!!! I was soooooo excited and so thrilled with their visit and I miss them so much now. They did do some travelling on their own. They got to see Ireland, 
Germany, Scotland,
And Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Kinderdijk,
Monschau, the cube houses in Helmond,
And soooooooo much more. The photos for some of the other places are in my last post.
We had also planned an overnight trip to the Ardennes. But because of time, we ended up just making it a day trip. First stop was Bastogne where we looked at a war museum and then had lunch in a nice restaurant. 
After Bastogne, we took a scenic drive through Luxembourg.
However, the day ended bad, when in a little village in Luxembourg, we were waiting at an intersection to turn a corner when a lady drunk driving, came round the corner and ran into our car. Not a good way to end the day, nor the sitting in a police station forever, giving our statements. But at least there was nobody hurt!
But the star attraction during their visit was our week long trip together to the Flanders Fields in Belgium and the Somme and Normandy in France. Now that was awesome!!!!!! Because this was quite a large trip and I have LOADS of photos, I will do an extra post on this trip.
It was so hard to say goodbye to Mum and Noel when it came time for them to go. I was definitely not ready. But we did get to spend some nice time with them on my birthday and Mothers Day before they had to leave.
Another first for me, was going to my a friends 4th July bbq. My girlfriend Tera is from Wyoming and held a fantastic bbq on July 4th. I just love taking part in and experiencing all her customs and traditions from home. And this was no exception.
Christmas came around before we knew it. This year it was a very cold winter and it started snowing in November. We got a lot of snow this year and the ski resorts in Belgium did loads of business. Around xmas, I went with Tera and her boys, to see Elf Town in Lommel. It was an extremely cold day but we really enjoyed the outing and it was great to see. There are so many wonderful places and things to see that are so close to home and I have yet to see.
Tera and I also went down to the Christmas markets in the caves in Valkenburg. I call it our annual pilgrimage and never miss a year. I just love them!
We had a wonderful Christmas. It was just a quiet one but very nice. Hans gave me a wonderful suprise, my own digital camera. That was a huge suprise and now I dont have to spend forever, scanning all my photos into the computer :) From now on, they are all digital!
The house renovations have slowed down but we did finally put a connecting doorway in between the two houses. That makes things a whole lot easier. And we also finished off the two guest rooms before my mum arrived. The staircase and landing upstairs still need loads of work but at least the guest rooms are now set up for when we have visitors.
Our chickens also multiplied this year. We had several batches of chicks and ended up with sooooooo many chickens from our original 5....lol. I finally found somebody who helped me find homes for a heap of them. But we are still left with 13 hens and 7 roosters. I hope I can at least find homes for 6 roosters one day.
Well, that was a very quick update on the year. It is so long ago and I cant remember all we did.
Another day I took them down to Valkenburg in Holland and three land point. 
We also spent the day in Zeeland one day, and went to the Delta Works there. This website tells exactly what the Delta Works is, but basically it was the engineering that took place to prevent another flood like the one of 1953. 
Another day we went to a war museum in Overloon and Noel just loved that day out :) 
We have been shopping in Eindhoven, toured the local area, and Noel even tried the raw herring, oh my, what a face.........lol. I dont think it went down too well......lol. Unfortunately we didnt have the camera on us at that moment......lol.
Very beautiful area and Trier is so full of history. 
It has so many old Roman remains right in the city centre and the house where Karl Marx was born and much more. 
Most tourist places here close down for the winter but we did get into Trier and a couple of the other villages 
and also a wolf park at an old castle. 
And did a lot of driving and scenic routes. We went down and back through Luxembourg and stopped at another couple of old castles. 
We also stopped at Vianden in Luxembourg on the way back and I wish I had of known we were going to because I have always wanted to see Victor Hugo’s house there (the author of Les Miserables). Oh well, we will get back there one day. 
Last week I went to the xmas markets in Valkenberg again. They are totally unreal and I go every year. Last year and the year before I went twice each time. Everywhere here they have xmas markets with beautiful embroidered items with xmas themes. Clear glass ornaments handpainted with all kinds of xmas scenes or snowy villages. ETC, ETC. In Germany, the Gluwein flows pretty well too but not so much here and I usually stick to lots of hot chocolates at this time of year. But the xmas markets in Valkenberg are a little different in that they are held in the old underground mining caves. One of them, the bigger of the markets, is under the old castle ruins and the other is just down the street. They cost about 3 euro each to get into. You walk through the caves with all the stalls dotting the way. They even have a sit down café area halfway through. The caves are usually open for tours the rest of the year and there is pretty amazing artwork and carvings on the sides of the caves. The town of Valkenberg itself is very historical and gets a lot of tourists and it just goes beserk at xmas. I just love it! The town is in the extreme southern tip of Holland. Only about 10km or something from 3 land point, where the borders of Germany, Holland and Belgium meet.
