New Years party in Utrecht

New Years Eve! We went back to Ruth and Sander in Utrecht, who threw a combined New Years-party and housewarming party. Our mutual friends Nienke and Marten was also there. Together, we cooked Spanish tapas (I made albondigas – spicy meatballs in tomato sauce, and Femke made a lovely tortilla). Great food. At midnight, it was time for champagne and lots of fireworks. The neighbors had some serious large caliber-stuff, but Ruth also had a stockpile of crackers and rockets.

The rest of the night we danced and danced and danced. But somewhere after three in the morning, we ran out of energy and went to bed. A great party!

Femke and her lovely tortilla

Dancing all night

Femke throwing firecrackers

New bosses and successful glögg party

Sara, Michelle, Aida, Liz and Wakako chatting away

Ruby and Femke dancing to the Turkish "kiss" song

Surprisingly, it was nice to come back to Jerusalem from India. We have a beautiful home, and home is always home, wherever it is. This week has also been exciting work wise – ANERA finally has a new Middle East Representative (read: big boss in the field) and he arrived to the region this week. With him came the new Communications Director, who is base in Washington and is my boss. She has been working for ANERA for a few months, but this was the first chance for me to meet her.
They started off in Lebanon, then came to Jordan for a regional meeting (that Femke attended when I was still in India). This Friday, they arrived to Jerusalem. So far so good – I have a good hope that we can work well together. Liz, the media boss, came over to our place Friday afternoon for some work. She stayed for dinner and we had a nice time.

Yesterday, we had our Swedish glögg party. The first guests arrived at eight, and soon we had a full house with close to 30 persons (and more than ten nationalities) mingling, chatting and sipping glögg. It is such a pleasant thing to have your house full of friends and colleagues. In the end, some of us danced to the wee hours, and when Femke and I dealt with the worst mess and gone to bed, it was 02.30. Sorry Jenny (our neighbor), for playing loud music late! Luckily, she was also at the party, although she did not stay until the end.