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Monday, December 22, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Bringing American Tradition to the Netherlands!
Well, it has been a while and I have taken a rediculously small amount of pictures here, but I am getting back on that!
When Thanksgiving was coming up I realized that it is purly an American/English holiday. I was not about to have such an important openning holiday to the season go by without celebrating it! I am AMERICAN and I wanted my turkey! So... I talked to a few of the missionary couples and asked them if they were planning something or if maybe we could get something together. Our institute teacher served in America and he was also a fan of the GREAT Thanksgiving holiday. Richard suggested that we could have it as an institute activity, and our teacher (Pres. Santos) thought it would be fun... so we arranged it and had a big Thanksgiving dinner with young adults from our stake on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I will certainly keep this tradition in our family here! Gotta bring the low lands up to America's standards!
Joylee Winters loves to cook, so her, Ronnie (her mom), and Sky (her little sister) helped make
the turkey. This is the first Turkey I have ever done (they did most of the work though). Her dad and grandparents are from England, so they knew what would work best. We stuffed it with a whole orange, a cored apple, half an onion, and a couple cloves of garlic. The fruit is supposed to keep it moist. Then we put bacon on the skin, stuck in in a turkey bag and popped her in the oven!
The turkey turned out AWESOME it was so delicious! Here is Elder Servoss carving it up! Here is also a pic of everyone dishin up the delicious dinner! We had tons of help and it turned out great!
We had a young women activity the Friday before our Thanksgiving dinner in the church and we went over to Zuster van de Berg and cut 3.5 Kg of green beans for the casseroles. It was actually pretty fun. Gezellig!
We had some fun with the camera in the street as we left Zr. vd Berg's house... which made us even later back to the church.
When Thanksgiving was coming up I realized that it is purly an American/English holiday. I was not about to have such an important openning holiday to the season go by without celebrating it! I am AMERICAN and I wanted my turkey! So... I talked to a few of the missionary couples and asked them if they were planning something or if maybe we could get something together. Our institute teacher served in America and he was also a fan of the GREAT Thanksgiving holiday. Richard suggested that we could have it as an institute activity, and our teacher (Pres. Santos) thought it would be fun... so we arranged it and had a big Thanksgiving dinner with young adults from our stake on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I will certainly keep this tradition in our family here! Gotta bring the low lands up to America's standards!
Joylee Winters loves to cook, so her, Ronnie (her mom), and Sky (her little sister) helped make
the turkey. This is the first Turkey I have ever done (they did most of the work though). Her dad and grandparents are from England, so they knew what would work best. We stuffed it with a whole orange, a cored apple, half an onion, and a couple cloves of garlic. The fruit is supposed to keep it moist. Then we put bacon on the skin, stuck in in a turkey bag and popped her in the oven!
The turkey turned out AWESOME it was so delicious! Here is Elder Servoss carving it up! Here is also a pic of everyone dishin up the delicious dinner! We had tons of help and it turned out great!
We had a young women activity the Friday before our Thanksgiving dinner in the church and we went over to Zuster van de Berg and cut 3.5 Kg of green beans for the casseroles. It was actually pretty fun. Gezellig!
We had some fun with the camera in the street as we left Zr. vd Berg's house... which made us even later back to the church.
I was also invited by the missionaries to join them on Thanksgiving day to eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant owned by a new member in Dordrecht (Jan-Willem). I joined all the missionaries in the area and a couple others from the stake and it was delicious! Then I was invited to join the missionary couples to go to Delftshaven which is where the pilgrim fathers church is. They give a tour and brief history of the church and the pilgrim fathers. It was WAY special to be able to be there on Thanksgiving day. This is the place where the pilgrims departed in the Speedwel to catch the Mayflower in England to journey to the New world. They are the ones who were at the first Thanksgiving dinner! They were reformists who, because of persecution in England, fled to the Netherlands where they were welcome and helped by the Dutch.
The Pilgrim Fathers Church from the entrance. Above the group is the organ (on an upper level)
The Mayflower and the Speedwel ship models.
(left)A scroll comemorating 350th anniversary of pilgrims leaving Delftshaven for the Mayflower. (middle) A cool bronze cast that says "The tide which stays for no man was calling them away".(right) A neat memorial plak reading, "One In Christ"
This was pretty cool, it is articles of faith from back in the time (I assume from the reformists)writen in old Dutch. And a picture of me with part of the group.
Sister Crowthers, and Jan Willem. GREAT people. The ladies helping in the restaurant made napkins into the shape of a turkey for us, so fun!
The missionaries seem to get younger and younger! Growing up I used to think they were so big, then when I was in high school I thought they were cute, and now they just seem so young! But you gotta love 'em. Some of them are strange, but they are GREATguys working hard for the Lord. One of them is actually from Lake Oswego, and he just got transefered to our ward. Here we all are just before dinner was served.
Me and Sister Servoss. She is the sweetest lady you will ever meet, and Elder Servoss is equally as awesome! Geweldige mensen!
That's all for now. Richard and I are chomping at the bit to get to work on our house, but time just seems to be swallowed up in the season, and making it over to work on the kitchen has been quite the challenge. Next week is Christmas and my birthday, then in the weekend we will go to England to see Dave, Erin and Roy boy! Then for New Year we will do the UNOX NIEUWJAARSDUIK! Check it out:
Freeeezzzingly Fun stuff!!
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New year!
Friday, December 12, 2008
Another extremely delayed post...
Anouk (a future niece) turned 5! She loves to dance and sing and pretend she is Mega Mindy who is a cartoon action hero that is very popular for girls her age. She LOVES Mega Mindy. She is such a sweet, happy, and fun little girl! She has helps me with my Dutch sometimes by pointing at things and asking me what they are. Her and her brothers have learned a little bit of English with the Dora program. FUN kids!
We bought some fun little markers for Anouk's birthday and a Mega Mindy memory game. Here she is opening it, and then coming to give us hugs and kisses because she loved it!
Anouk blowing out the candles on the cake that her cousin Sappora made. Sappora will be making our wedding cake too, she makes AMAZING cakes!
Here is Anouk entertaining everyone in her Mega Mindy costume. She has got some great fighting moves. Then she got Rob Zwakhalen (the guy next to Richard and I) to fly her around/ toss her to the people in the room about a million times haha! We all know how that goes with kids..."again, again!"
What is Halloween????
Thanks to the Linthorst fam and Care's fantastic thoughtful little "care" packages, we had a little taste of Halloween this year... That and the few neighbors who decorated and had some treats for the few little ones who dressed up and went to their doors for goodies. Halloween is recognized and somewhat celebrated, but the dress up and trick-or-treat part of Halloween is just not nearly as big of a deal here as it is in the USA.
Anna Lisa (the little girl I au pair for) got some vampire teeth with a chuck of "blood" from a candy machine. Scary!
Richard and I enjoying our Halloween care package.
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