November Traditions: Thanksgiving & Sinterklaas
Well, we've been remiss in our blogging duties (as many of you nicely reminded us). So, even though it's after the fact we wanted to post our goings-on from November. It was a busy month, with a mixture of both American and Dutch holidays.
We started off attending a charity premiere for the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. The event was hosted by a company that Brent works with and held at an art deco theatre from the 1920s. We got to see the movie a full two weeks before the US release! Ruth's cousin, Elizabeth, was our first house-guest here in Amsterdam and attended with us. It was a great excuse to dress up and we had a blast.
Giving Bond a run for his money!
Zwarte Piets
Each year he arrives in late November and stays until Dec 5th, which is when most presents are exchanged (along with poems written by parents for their children). If this all sounds a bit hard to believe, there's a really funny bit by David Sedaris that you should check out. You can watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjUFl1mEpX8. Suffice to say it was a hilarious new experience and we had fun cheering for his arrival with thousands of kids also dressed at Zwarte Piet.
Sinterklaas
Thanksgiving in the Netherlands was truly a celebration in the spirit to thrive despite all odds! It's challenging enough in the US, but here we had to search all over town for even the most basic thanksgiving items. Pumpkin pie filling, sweet potatoes, graham crackers, and most importantly- turkey are all hard to come by. Don't even think about finding stuffing. Luckily, being the type-A planner that I am, I brought back many key ingredients from the US from my September visit.
Turkeys are not raised in the Netherlands and aren't part of any holiday meals, so we had to special order one several weeks in advance. It was a beautiful bird, but still had feathers on it! Brent had to use needle-nose pliers to get it ready.
The turkey ended up being bigger than what we ordered, it was over 16 lbs and just barely fit in our tiny oven. Even being on the lowest rack, there was only half an inch between the bird and the top of the oven...
My brother Derek and his friend Jake arrived from their backpacking trip across Africa just in time to join our Thanksgiving feast. Since they hadn't exactly been eating 3 square meals on their trip, they were the most appreciative dinner guests one could ask for!
That's a wrap-up of November and hope you all had a wonderful time as well. We've been particularly missing all our friends and family and hope to catch up more now that we're on facebook. Coming up next, highlights from our December travels to Scotland, Germany, and Prague!
We started off attending a charity premiere for the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. The event was hosted by a company that Brent works with and held at an art deco theatre from the 1920s. We got to see the movie a full two weeks before the US release! Ruth's cousin, Elizabeth, was our first house-guest here in Amsterdam and attended with us. It was a great excuse to dress up and we had a blast.
Giving Bond a run for his money!Another event in November was the arrival of Sinterklaas, essentially St. Nick. We find him to be similar to Santa Claus (though any Dutchie would passionately disagree). He arrives by boat and parades through large cities in the Netherlands on his horse. His helpers, called "Zwarte Piets," meaning "Black Petes," throw cookies and generally goof around. We won't even get into how un-PC they are, but yes, it really is as bad as it looks.
Zwarte PietsEach year he arrives in late November and stays until Dec 5th, which is when most presents are exchanged (along with poems written by parents for their children). If this all sounds a bit hard to believe, there's a really funny bit by David Sedaris that you should check out. You can watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjUFl1mEpX8. Suffice to say it was a hilarious new experience and we had fun cheering for his arrival with thousands of kids also dressed at Zwarte Piet.
SinterklaasTurkeys are not raised in the Netherlands and aren't part of any holiday meals, so we had to special order one several weeks in advance. It was a beautiful bird, but still had feathers on it! Brent had to use needle-nose pliers to get it ready.
The turkey ended up being bigger than what we ordered, it was over 16 lbs and just barely fit in our tiny oven. Even being on the lowest rack, there was only half an inch between the bird and the top of the oven...
My brother Derek and his friend Jake arrived from their backpacking trip across Africa just in time to join our Thanksgiving feast. Since they hadn't exactly been eating 3 square meals on their trip, they were the most appreciative dinner guests one could ask for!
That's a wrap-up of November and hope you all had a wonderful time as well. We've been particularly missing all our friends and family and hope to catch up more now that we're on facebook. Coming up next, highlights from our December travels to Scotland, Germany, and Prague!
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