Last year we made oliebollen for the first time. Jaap, my father, sent me his recipe and I have adjusted it for American measurements and ingredient names.

We used it for the New Year's Eve party this weekend and made around 100 oliebollen. Ilana helped make the dough.

For 30 oliebollen:

1. Soak 0.5 lbs of raisins in water for at least 30 minutes.

2. Mix the following ingredients:

- 4 cups of flour
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1.7 tablespoons sugar
- 1.6 cups of milk
- 1 egg

3. Proof 4 teaspoons of Active Dry yeast in 0.5 cup of water (100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit) with two teaspoons sugar.

4. Once the yeast has activated, add it to the dough, mix it, and add the drained raisins.

5. Let rise for 1 hour.

6. Fry in oil (I used canola oil), at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Fry in batches of 6 or 7. Start timer after the 6th is in the deep fryer, then wait 6 to 6.5 minutes. Don't use the cover on the deep fryer.

Four days after we left Secaucus, we are back at Jonathan and Irena's to celebrate New Year's Eve. There's a big party here tomorrow, and we're looking forward to welcome 2012.

Tomorrow morning we're frying oliebollen, a Dutch specialty.

When we drove in New Jersey this weekend I noticed that one of the car's low-beam headlights was broken. I stopped at two gas stations to see if they carried a replacement bulb, but I couldn't find them.

Today after work I went to the car dealership and they had the right type of bulb. I installed it myself.

The last two weeks of the year have begun. Our Christmas tree is up, my cubicle is nicely decorated and I'm listening to Sky.fm's Christmas station all day long.

This morning I have posted the year overview for 2009. It is only available to registered users of this site. Send me a message if you do not have an account yet or if you'd like me to reset your password. You should also be able to use your Facebook account to login.

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight.

We've been unpacking some more boxes this week and the second bedroom is getting ready. Today we brought several boxes with books and papers to my and Sasha's work.

On the way back home we did grocery shopping and bought our Christmas tree. It's a beautiful one, quite large. It's larger than we've had before so I'll get some extra lights tomorrow and will decorate it in the evening.

We went for a walk in the beautiful Huntley Meadows Park yesterday. It was around 3.30 pm and the sun was already low on the horizon. The park is an area with wetlands and there are many different types of birds in the wetlands and the lake. There's a boardwalk through the wet areas and several trails through the woods.

We are scouting for places where it's nice to go for a walk. Last weekend we walked part of the Washington & Old Dominion trail, which was nice but a quite busy with bicycles.