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!