Work and the Holidays

At some point during the Christmas Season your employer will usually plan a time for a party of some sort. This can range from a cocktail party with snacks to a full blown dinner or any and everything in between. Usually at this time the employees are given a "kerstpakket" or Christmas Package. These usually come in a decorative box , although I did get one one year that was a carry on suitcase. They mostly consist of snack type foods, coffee or tea, a bottle of something fun and depending on the theme of the contents, something you can use year round. I got one last year from my ex-employer with an italian dinner theme with all the makings for spaghetti, complete with pasta plates.

I have worked for my current employer in various positions for going on 6 years now and Miranda is very good at putting together her own packages while most companies buy them pre-made from a company over here. She loves doing it and takes pride in her creations. Last year our company went to the ice skating rink and our packages were a nice pan filled with the ingredients for a "stampot borenkool" consisting of a potato masher, potatoes, curly kale and smoked sausage. A really nice traditional dutch cold weather dish.

 This year however, our restaurant/hotel was very busy and she simply did not have the time to shop and put together around 25 or so packages so, for the first time ever, they ordered them. This morning we had a nice brunch together and recieved our Christmas packages. This years package consited of various candies, cookies, a cookie tin, chips, nuts crackers, shrimp spread, a bottle of water and a bottle of wine. There is also a cute little reindeer and a really cool kitchen clock. At least I think it needs to go in the kitchen with those spoons and forks its made out of.

I hope my family and friends have had a wonderful Christmas season and I am wishing a wonderful 2011 for you all!

The Good Sint

November is a fun month for the kiddies and the young at heart. Around the middle of the month Sinterklaas comes to The Netherlands to celebrate his birthday on Dec.5. This year he arrived on Nov 17.

Sint (as we call him) travels with his "Zwarte Piets" by steam boat from Turkey. His arrival is a very big event and he is always welcomed with a parade and lots of singing. He brings a big book of names of all the boys and girls and can look in that book to see what they have been up to all year. One year the Piets lost the book!! It was almost a disaster, but they found it just in the nick of time.

After getting off the boat Sint rides around Holland on his beautiful white horse "Amerigo" and the Piets walk along with him, taking care of all of The Good Sints needs. They are pretty much his personal assistants. The Piets also give candy and "pepernoten" (a very small nut formed ginger cookie) to everyone they see. I wouldnt want to act bad in fron of a Piet though, as you are likely to end up stuffed in a bag and taken kicking and screaming back to Turkey to learn how to be good! Sint arrived in my city today. He first went to the shopping center and talked to and sang songs with the childeren. He also did a question and answer session. I didnt stay long as I needed to get to work and it was very busy in the shopping center. I did stay long enough to hear one very adorable question from a child......

"Sinterklaas, how old are you"?

Sint couldnt really answer with a year number but he told us that he is older than "ALL the grandmothers". I imagine that is pretty dang old considering that all grandmothers also had grandmothers who also had grandmothers and so forth. WOW, that is one old, still going strong dude!! The Piets pretty much thought the same thing!

Obivously not every child and their parents can fit into the shopping center so Sint also comes to Markt 15, where I work, to have a little get together there. The childeren all sit on the floor in front of him and you wouldnt believe the looks of amazement on their faces. He then calls a child up and pulls him/her onto his lap and talks with them. He always asks the child what song they want to sing and all the childeren sing along. It is just too cute. Today he called Jerome, age 5 (a child of one of my co-workers) and told him how he had seen him swimming on Wednesday and how very proud he was of his swimming. The only thing Jerome could say was "Ja" (yes). Too stinkin adorable. The Piets generally pick childeren at random but Sint called Jerome out by name. I think that will be a cherished memory for him for years to come.

Jerome and Sinterklaas

The childeren had a wonderful time today and will be waiting for Sinterklaas's birthday Dec.5 when they set their shoes out and the Zwarte Piets fill them with treats.

You see, Christmas here is Jesus birthday and a very religious holiday. The Dutch do not generally do the gift under the tree thing. Instead on December 5, we all get together, have hot chocolate and lots of sweet treats and do what we call "pakjesavond" or little gift evening. It sometimes includes a couple of big gifts or a whole bunch of small ones. It usually always includes a poem about the gift and what the meaning behind it is. The gifts are officially from Sint and the Piets but you can usually guess where they really came from.

Here is a link to the Englishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas page of Wikipedia on Sinterklass

Visiting England

One of the plus points of immigrating and becoming a citizen of the European Union is the possibility of travel within the E.U. without hassle. I recently went to visit my great friend Clare in England. Clare is English, married to an American, and lives in Chattanooga. We have known each other for at least 15 years. We have lots of fun stories to tell, but once again, that is a different blog!! Clare was visiting her wonderfully hilarious family for her mother's "Miss Bib's" 80th birthday and invited me to come over for a few days if it was possible. I made it possible.


Until Sept 27, 2010, I had not been outside of Holland except for the yearly (or twice yearly if possible) visit home. I have always wanted to visit the English country side. I have an attraction to really small, cute, nostalgic things. English villages and houses are just my cup of tea. I actually still hang a Christmas ornamant that Clare gave me as a gift one year....A little hollow tea pot with a mouse family inside having tea....the cutest thing ever!!!

So early in the morning of Sept 27, I board the train to the airport with carry-on bag in hand and begin my first trip to England. Arriving in England at 9am local time, I quickly find my friend and we head to East Grinstead with Clares brother Widdy at the wheel. OMG, the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car!! Riding passenger was fun and not nearly as scary as trying to cross the street on foot when you are used to looking "left, right, left". You have to look "Right, Left, Right" or you will be run over!

We arrived at Clare's brother and Sister-in-laws house where Tim and Karen treated me to my first English "fry-up" breakfast, complete with black pudding and freshly picked sauteed mushrooms. Black Pudding isnt as bad as it sounds, I am happy to say I tried it, wont order it, but I did eat it! On the menu was smoked salmon, scranbled eggs with smoked fish (there was a name for it, but I have forgotten it) bacon, sausage, tomatoes, toast, and the mushrooms and black pudding. It was a wonderful welcome!!


After breakfast and a nice walk through the city to Miss Bibs house, we consumed several cups of tea before having pre-dinner cocktails of Dutch gin and tonic then a nice dinner of minced meat stuffed marrow (out of Widdy's garden) potatoes, carrots and green beans. I think we also drank 2 bottles of wine between the 5 of us at dinner! I was exhausted well before midnight and was really looking forward to the next day visiting Pooh and friends in Ashdown Forest.

A.A. Milne lived in the very beautiful village Hartfield, next to Ashdown Forest, otherwise known as the "100 Akre Wood". Christopher Robin, in case you dont know, is really the authors son, Christopher Robin Milne. What an inspiration!! The area is magical. Clare and I drove to Hartfield, went to Pooh Corner, a little gift shop, and looked around before heading out to "Pooh Bridge". Now, talk about bringing out your inner child!! There is nothing more magical than standing on that bridge with a twig in your hand ready to play a game of "Pooh Sticks" I dont care how old you are!! (That pic is of me playing on "Pooh Bridge")

So after Pooh Bridge and a lunch of fish and chips, it was back to Miss Bib's house to celebrate her 80th with her wonderful children. We made up poems about each other and they got out the musical instruments, inluding the beautiful voices, and played and sang for their mother. We had a wonderful time. It was my last night and I really hated to go to bed but was looking forward to taking a walk in the country side the next day.

My last morning was filled with having toast and tea for breakfast with Widdy and Miss Bib while waiting for Clare to be up and ready for our walk. We walked down a little lane that turned into a bridel path that went past a big farm and turned into a concrete path that simply went through the counry side between the rolling hills. Beautiful! There were blackberry bushes along the way that we couldnt help but pick some berries from and eat them..some were bitter and some were sweet, just like the day, but beautiful none the less. Wonderful walk then a nice lunch with Clare before I had to get the taxi to the airport and come back to Holland.

I was so pleased with my first visit to England and am so happy that I got to experience it with Clare and her family. No better way that I can think of!
Thank you Miss Bib, Jeremy, Tim and Karen, Anne, Widdy and Clare, for beautiful memories!!

Holidays in Holland

We celebrate most of the same holidays here as we do in the States with some added days to Easter and Christmas.

Christmas has "Kerst Avond" or Christmas Eve and first (25) and second (26) Christmas day. These days are usually celebrated with a family dinner at home. Santa, however, does not bring gifts to all the good little boys and girls. Sinter Klause does that on his birthday, December 5th. The good Sint is a blog for later, with pictures. New years is "Old and New" being New Years Eve and New Years Day. Easter has 1st and 2nd Easter day, being Sunday and Monday. We do not have a Thanksgiving day, my favorite holiday ever.

I do not feel that I have to be in the States to be thankful for what I have and to celebrate Thanksgiving. So the first year I invited the friends and family over for a good old fashioned Thanksgiving in Holland! This was a fun challenge as not all ingredients for a proper Thanksgiving dinner are readily available.

I had canned sweet potatoes sent from the States because I couldnt even find fresh ones over here at the time. I have figured that one out tho. There are enough produce stores here that are willing to order that kind of thing for you. Canned pumpkin is also not available so I made cheesecake instead of pumpkin pie. Now, get this, the Dutch do not make a whole bird!! I was able to order a 10 lb bird from the butcher, at quite an expense. It came to about $70.00! A girl can go broke trying to keep tradition alive over here!

The next challenge was getting the thing in the oven. Not only was my oven small, but I could not find a roasting pan over here big enough for the Turkey. Ex mother in law to the rescue, she had a big round oven pan and I used racks for hot pans to keep Tom Turkey off the bottom. I really wish I had some pictures of that for you. It was pretty comical. I made dressing, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, glazed carrots and fried corn. Served it all up buffet style and watched all the boys fight over the drumsticks. Every year in November I get the question, "When is Thanksgiving". They loved it. I am looking forward to getting a new oven and making dinner for all the people that have helped me through the last year. I still have things to be Thankful for!

Birthday Parties....

In the States the one having the birthday gets treated. In Holland, the one having the birthday treats. This can be so much fun especially if it isnt a "big" birthday.

The typical birthday party in Holland takes place at home. You invite your friends and family over. You provide beer, wine and whatever you know your guests will want to drink. You also provide snacks. You can choose between what YOU like or what you know your guests like. Most snacks consist of platters passed around....sausage and cheese, other snacks, warm deep fryer thingies...It is just totally different than home.

Big birthdays.....40, 50, 60...can be really expensive. Most expect a big party in a ballroom somewhere where no one had to do any work. I, personally, prefer to do it the American way!!! That said..I will next blog about Thanksgiving!

Come September....

Come September, we had permanent housing! A nice "Two under one roof" or duplex as we call it in the States. Three bedrooms, a bath and half and a yard a little bigger than the postage stamp yards that most people in Europe have. We were also very lucky that we had a "mud room" to put the fridge in and where the dogs could sleep warm at night AND a laundry room!!

Jeremy had his "summer break" from school and was now enrolled in a school for "international" students. Out of the 20 class hours a week, 16 hours were Dutch language. The other 4 were Math, Science, Biology, French, German and English. When he started correcting the English teacher he was told he could drop that class, after all...English was his first language!! I still havent figured out how they fit all the other subjects into those 4 hours a week. Not only did he get an education in a foreign language, he got a big culture lesson, not just because he lived in a foreign country but because he went to school with immigrant kids from ALL OVER. I would love to post his experiences but wont because they can be pretty "Politically incorrect". Nuff Said??

We were coming up on holidays that dont get celebrated here that we knew we would miss. Halloween, Thanksgiving......But little did we know, Halloween is not that popular but we could have fun with it and Oct 11 is "St. Martin" and the childeren make lanterns and go door to door, singing songs, recieving candy and treats just like we do for Halloween! It was so much fun. We had, however, already learned how birthday parties are held in Holland and Jeremy's was coming up in November.

The first few weeks...

The first few weeks were spent living at my ex-in-laws who were very happy to have their son home again. He got a job within a week at a very nice restaurant just outside of Amsterdam, earning enough to show immigration that he could support "his" family of immigrants without the help of the government. We were on our way..or so I thought.

"My Ex" had his work contract and we had all of our paperwork in order so it was off to the Dutch immigration. The system, which had previously taken 3 to 6 months had been recently changed and there were MANY hold ups. No problem for us to be here legally but it took almost a year before I could go to school or work. Most of you who know me know that I work very hard and have never really been idle. That sucked like crazy!

In the meantime, we got a temporary appartment and was able to move out of my "ex-in-laws" house. Jeremy was going to school at a local high school and being privately tutored in the Dutch language by one of the teachers. He was also making friends and adjusting well. Minors here have the right to an education, no matter if residency is approved yet or not..thank goodness. It gave the kid some opportunities.

I, on the other hand, was having a few problems. I was here, not allowed to work yet and by law was required to learn the language and culture, yet I was not allowed to go to school either! This limited my opportunity to make friends outside of "My Ex's" social network, not to mention it limited our income. So I put a little ad in the local newsletter for the village and took on a few houses to clean. Just like any good little immigrant! It did not limit my ability to learn the language. I bought childerns word books, watched childerns television ( Dutch Teletubbies are awesome) and learned from everyone that I could talk to. One of the ladies that I started cleaning for ( still clean her house now) only spoke to me in Dutch and I spoke to her in English...Now we only speak Dutch!

The waiting game was still on, but I was happy with it.

Arriving Holland

March 2 and we jumped 6 hours ahead in time after almost 8 hours of flying, arriving in Amsterdam at 7 am. I slept well on the plane, "my ex" slept well but my son was way too excited to sleep, opting to watch movies the whole flight instead. The dogs were safely boarded in baggage and probably freaking out the whole time but you couldnt see that when we finally got them back in Amsterdam. They were happy to see us and wondering what the heck was going on.

We did not have to apply for residency ahead of time because the laws here are different than in the States. We only had to land and go through customs. We simply had to show our passports and go through the door. We were in Holland and it was COLD! We left 90 degrees in Atlanta and came to about 40 in Holland. A VERY big shock. I ran out the next day to buy gloves and earmuffs! Everyone looked at me like I was nuts, but I was freezing!

On the other side of "the door" the in-laws and friends were waiting. It was a nice warm welcome with lots of happy tears and big hugs. After an hours drive we were finally "home" at my in-laws and the dogs joined two other family dogs. Jeremy went to bed at noon and woke up again at 7 am the next day..missing his whole first day in a new country. While he was sleeping, I went for a walk in the village, rode with my (now ex) mother in law to the grocery and went for a refreshing walk on the beach at the North Sea. Now the adventure really begins.

Leaving the United States....and events leading up to it.

While I am a few years late on starting this blog my experience is one that I would like to share. Some things you may not understand at first will become more clear as more posts come.

In the spring of 2000 I met a Dutch National that was living in the States and in 2001 I married him. He will now be referred to as "My Ex" as we are now divorced. I will not post pictures of him. I wont be posting pictures in this first and maybe the next few blogs because I dont have pictures from that time on my computer.

On March 1 2004, I left the United States with "My Ex", my 16 yr old son Jeremy and two American dogs, Lady and Peachy, to begin a new adventure in Holland (The Netherlands).

The thought of moving to another country is very exciting and scary all at the same time. A new culture, climate and set of rules. The preparation for that move is a whole other experience.

Years of accumulation of things had to be sold, donated or gifted. Just like moving from one house to another, utilities had to be shut off at just the right moment. Mail stopped. Bank Accounts diverted. We built a container to ship what we wanted to bring with us and drove it to Atlanta the week before we left to start the journey. The most harrowing of all.....Paperwork had to be in order.

Every official paper had to be "appostilled" meaning that the State in which that paper was issued had to attach an official letter saying the paper was valid. Birth certificates, divorce papers and marriage licenses had to all have this "appostille". What a pain. The dogs had to have a health certificate and a rabies shot within 30 days before departure. No one told us that the dogs also had to have a certificate of "acclimation" to move from a warm environment to a colder one..till we got to Delta check in. I called the vet..she was at lunch....She asked me if I had a blanket in Peach's carrier (of course I did, the dog has no hair on her belly and would definately get cold). Barbara (vet) rushed back to the office to sign said certificate and fax it to Delta. We were on our way!!!