Welcome to Holland!

"Get ready", they said.

 "The cold and rain are coming.", they said.

"Just wait 'til you are chilled to the bone with the cold rain while riding your bike.", they said.

Until yesterday, I was enjoying the fall weather here in Holland.  The air was chilly in the mornings when we rode our bikes to school, but it was actually pretty enjoyable...that all changed yesterday morning...

When I woke up to rain....and a temperature of 3 degrees Celsius ( 37.5 degrees Fahrenheit).  I knew it was going to be a chilly and wet ride to school in the morning.  Some may wonder why I don't just drive the car.  I must state here that unless I absolutely HAVE to drive a car here, I will try to avoid it at all costs.  To understand why I am saying this, please refer to the post here.  And, I was not about to add the cold rain to the driving mix....

After arguing with Jeremy for what seemed like the 100th time about wearing an actual coat because it is COLD here, we were all off on our bikes to school.  ( I know William Congreve coined the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."  Well, I have a new one "Hell hath no fury like a boy who has never lived anywhere but warm climates putting a coat on every day."  Just getting out the door with him some mornings is an exhausting procedure and I am ready to call it a day and climb back in bed!  I guess this is a peek into the quickly approaching teen age years!)

It was a VERY COLD and WET ride to school.  Jeremy and I were wearing actual rain coats but in a misunderstanding of the radar I checked right before we left for school which said there was a break in the rain for 30 minutes, I had a mom brain fart and let Elizabeth wear a very thick regular jacket to school.  Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable ride and Elizabeth was soaked to the bone when we arrived.  My Dutch friend, Judith, was there to greet us upon our arrival and said, "Welcome to Holland!"  A light bulb went off in my head, and I now understaood what everyone was talking about.  Here in the northern part of Holland, it does not get much snow but there will be ALOT of rain (some of it freezing) and ice in the winter.  After saying good bye to the kids, I rode home to get Elizabeth an actual rain jacket and brought her soaking one home...

Here is a picture of me when I got home...do you notice my ice cold very red hands??

 My same friend,  Judith, told me that we all needed to get rain suits.  I told her that we all have rain coats.  She explained to me that rain suits also include rain pants which go over your pants when you ride a bike to keep you from getting completely wet.  This was a new idea to me...I had heard of snow pants, but never rain pants!  Apparently, all Dutch people know of this phenomenon.  So, I was off on my bike in the rain to my favorite store here, HEMA!!! And they had rain suits!!  I tell ya, Hema has it all!:)

Since Elizabeth and Jeremy both have proper rain coats, I went ahead and bought them rain pants which come with built in reflectors. Elizabeth was very happy to model them for me last night at Jeremy's soccer practice.  She is not wearing her rain coat since the rain stopped but apparently the rain pants are very good wind breakers, also.:)

 And if you are waiting to see a picture of Jeremy in the rain pants, you may be waiting FOREVER.  I have just managed to get him to wear jeans instead of shorts to school and to actually wear a coat every morning.  He looked at the pants and said, " I am NEVER wearing those things!"

As for me, I couldn't find just the pants so I bought myself an entire rain suit!

For your viewing pleasure!:)

Jeremy and Elizabeth were holding no compliments back when they told me I looked like a man in the rain suit.  To that, I said, "Well, at least I will look like a cold and dry man the next time we ride to school in the cold rain!"

Until next time!
Doei!:)