Oh sheesh I am at my final strike. Thats two blogs missed with this duel. That means I can't miss anymore blogs or I lose. Though, yesterday was due to technical difficulties. My Internet didn't feel like working! Now, all of you who have been faithful with comments, don't fret. I promise not to let you all down!!! On with the blog...
Well, the last two days have been pretty normal. There was the party on Sunday. BTW My white elephant gift at that party was a cute purse/bad from Amsterdam which Becky won. The Gift I won...ummm was a cheesy 3 picture frame clock thing meant for a 3yr old! hahah I don't know who brought it, but LAME! hehehe Our friend Anel leaves in the morning to go back to SOUTH Africa. I spent today hanging out with Anel and taking care of some last minute things. We also met a new AuPair that took the place of one of our other friends. She was way nice and looks scared to death to be here! hehe I am going to try to show her around the area later this week. Anyhow, Anel has been great friend and soo dang funny to have around. I love being the annoying American around her. She can totally handle all our crap. We started a silly game of "Clicking" at her and joking about where she lives. Its all too funny to explain. Ahhh man I will miss Anel and her hut building skills. volgend jaar...tot ziens!!!
Now to answer a few questions:
* Christmas is celebrated her in a rather different way. It has been difficult to make it feel like the Christmas we are used to. In Holland Christmas is called "Kerstdag". Since they have "SinterKlaas" come on the 5th of December, his birthday, it is a bit much to have Santa as well. Sooo instead of two they celebrate Christmas with more of the dinner and family atmosphere. We did have presents under the tree, but its not quite as big of a deal. All the presents were opened on the EVENING of Christmas. I am not sure if this is traditional, but it seems to vary from family to family. One thing that is traditional is 1st and 2nd Kerst dag(Christ day)! That is the 25th (1st day) and 26th (2nd day). I haven't figured out why they do this yet. Maybe I should google it...later. haha Oh and both mine and Anel's families have a fire pit that they lit up on Christmas night. We didn't stand outside with it or anything. It just sat outside and burned all night. A homage to Christ? I am not sure. All in all its a centered around family and dinners. The Holiday figure of Santa Claus isn't really important. Oh and for a Christmas food tradition....ummm...hehe Chocolate letters (goes with SinterKlaas day too) and my family had an almond log. I forget what they are called in dutch. Its a flakey crust on the outside and warm almond gooey goodness on the inside! ...Also for SinterKlaas day they have something called Pepernoten...They are kind of like ginger bread. I will try to bring some of it home!
Tomorrow?....Becky is coming over to celebrate New Years! Wahoo!!! See you all tomorrow!
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2 comments:
Wooo hoo indeed lady! Woo hoo!
I found many webpages describing Dutch Christmas traditions... This one seemed pretty good.
The almond log you had is called a Bankestaaf, which is filled with an almond paste that sounds kind of similar to marzipan.
I didn't find anything about having a bonfire at Christmas. However, apparently it's tradition to make a bonfire out of Christmas trees for New Years various places around Amsterdam, including the Museumplein and on the beach. I guess most people don't water their Christmas trees there so they get dry pretty quickly.
Anyway, it sounds like it'd be fun to be in the Netherlands for Christmas. :)
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