Charity Work

(Didn't plan on keeping up te theme of the last post, but guess it's on my mind.)  Ever since our 4 month old labrador puppy died we have been wanting to do something in her memory.  We actually wanted the three of us to do charity work with animals but to be honest it's not been easy finding something where they allow a 6yr old to join.  The holidays rolled around and the planning was put on the back burner until the new year.

But the feeling hasn't gone away, this need to help.  As Sinterklaas (Dutch holiday) and Christmas passed, I was overwhelmed with access around us.  And I don't mean our home alone, I mean the packed stores, the list of presents you hear people received, the endless parties full of food and drinks.  It made me think of the less fortunate... it made me often think if them.  Here some many people are ticking off their wish list when so many people have nothing or are extremely struggling.  I again expressed to my husband how much I want to sign up somewhere to offer our time.  But when you sign both parents up you start dealing with babysitters and logistics.

Then I was talking to my mother-in-law and she was having the same feelings as me, and we have decided to start exploring our options.  We hope to at least volunteer one time a month and see where it goes from there.  She is collecting a list of local places we can volunteer, and I can't wait to sit down with her and finally pick something.  Less talk and more action!

Do any of you volunteer?  If so, what have you found to be the most beneficial?  And for those of you in the Eindhoven area, do you recommend a place to volunteer?

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste! Salut!

:) Danica

Pumpkin Contest

I know I'm running late with this post, I'm just happy to finally find the time to write one!!!

 

One of the first memories I have of my relationship with my husband was carving pumpkins together in his parents back yard.  And since that time (many years ago), we have decided to share this fun time together with our daughter.  Her school was having a pumpkin carving contest and we happened to have a free weekend afternoon so we headed out to the farms and bought a few decent sized pumpkins.  In years passed we didn't take it so serious, but this year we wanted her to have something worth entering.  So of course my husband and 5 yr old picked out the biggest pumpkin they could find.  But see, we forgot just how hard it is to carve a thick pumpkin without the proper tools.  (Hey... Halloween only comes around once a year, it's easy to forget.)

 

We started with the medium sized pumpkin to practice.  And like I said, this year we weren't joking around so we even printed out templates to help with the design.  But after the hard work & time my husband put in just to get this pumpkin carved we realized the large pumpkin was going to be quite a challenge.  (The medium pumpkin turned out well, and looked quite scary at night!  But due to the strangely warm weather it rotted fast.)

 

 

Due to the amount of work, we decided we weren't going to carve the other small & medium pumpkin, we were running out of time & patience.  So instead of tracing around a template to cut, I just drew the template onto the pumpkins and let my daughter color them in.  (By the time she was finished coloring you couldn't see the template anymore, but she had fun.)

 

 

Now it was time to carve the large pumpkin, the one we actually wanted to enter in the school contest.  But we were tired, it was almost dinner, and none of the templates I could find seemed simple yet prize worthy.  Then my husband came up with the great idea to carve the school initials into the pumpkin, brilliant!  (It was the only one like it in the contest, we were quite proud!)

Did we win the contest?  Unfortunately no... but hey, the pumpkin hamburger deserved it.  Did we have fun?  Yes!  Did my husband come up with an idea for next year?  Yes, but that's our secret!

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Sinterklaas & Santa Claus

It feels like endless weeks of holidays around here.  Being Americans that live in The Netherlands we end up celebrating some of their holidays and some of ours.  And occasionally they overlapse.  Sinterklaas celebrations last from the middle of November until the 5th of December... and Santa Claus celebrations last from Thanksgiving until the New Year.  In years past we toned down the Sinterklaas stuff, some years she only put out her shoe once and we didn't bother with "pakjes avond" (present night) on the 5th.  But now that our kid is in a Dutch elementary school we didn't have a choice but to join in the 3 week celebration.  Every night she would place her shoe at the door with a drawing (and sometimes a song) for Sinterklaas & his Zwarte Pieten, and when she checked the next morning their would either be something yummy to eat or a present.  This takes more effort than you think, trying to fill a shoe for 3 weeks and keep the budget down considering our big holiday is still to come.  I managed though, picking up little toys on sale and even reusing things.  Yes, I did, I reused things she forgot she had, like unopened packages of stickers, strawberry milk mix, and even fruit we had in the kitchen.  (Keep in mind she's 4 yrs old.)  There were also a couple close calls, come on, it's hard to remember to fill the shoe every night, luckily we never let her down.  And her reaction when she found a burlap bag of presents by the door on "pakjes avond" was priceless.  But because the holiday carries into Christmas celebrations, we've had to put off the Christmas tree and Elf on the Shelf until this weekend.  We really enjoy the Elf on the Shelf, this will be our 3rd year!  So last night I happily read my daughter the book, and this morning she awoke around 6:30AM (as usual) ready to find the elf.  Oh no, I forgot to put the elf out!  Day 1 and off to a bad start!  My saving grace is that my daughter doesn't get out of bed in the morning unless given permission... I darted to where the elf was in the cabinet, yanked it out of the box, and in the dark found a shelf in the living room to place it on.  Whew!  After 3 weeks of remembering a shoe every night, we now have to remember to move the elf, what have we gotten ourselves in to, ha-ha!  One thing I do love about these holidays is being able to play the "if-you're-naughty-you-get-nothing" card, it's great!  Our kid is pretty good for the most part, but I still love using the card when she tries to be difficult.  We've decided to tone down Christmas this year though, we want our daughter to appreciate what she gets (plus there were plenty of Sinterklaas presents).  This year she gets 1 big present from Santa, and of course presents from the family.  It's kind of hard to explain the flow of deliveries arriving at house, so we told her that families also exchange presents, plus Santa Claus brings stuff to the kids.  How long will we be able to keep up this charade?  When I grew up my parents were too religious to allow me to believe in Santa Claus, but now that I'm a parent I'm doing things different.  Do your little ones believe in Santa Claus?

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Wordless Wednesday #82

Check my sidebar for WW link ups or

pop by my blog hop page! 

Our curious camera compilation can also be found here...

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Wordless Wednesday #77

Link up here for Wordless Wednesday!

Our curious camera compilation can also be found here... (added some new photos on the 15th)

Bye! Dag! Adios! Namaste!

:) Danica

Christmas is Coming

I was at my favorite bargain store the other day and I noticed they already have a small section of Christmas supplies on display!!!  Now I know in The States they start a couple months before the holidays with sale items, but I'm across the pond in The Netherlands.  They aren't even into commercial holidays like Valentine's, Halloween, & Christmas (delved into this in a post last year).  To be honest I was a little confused when I first saw the half full racks of cards and decorations, I actually had to question which month we're in.  I am so busy right now planning my daughter's b-day celebrations and transfers of schools & hobbies I can't even think that far ahead.  I really felt like the store had jumped the gun until I was at my in-laws and they started talking about where to put the Christmas tree!  Maybe I'm behind in planning???  Didn't summer just past?  Even the weather decided to jump on board, last week it was hot, shorts & tank tops kind of hot, and this morning it was 50F on our walk to school! 

We barely decorate for the holidays, and only thanks to our kid do we put up a tree at Christmas.  How many of you have started pulling out the boxes of autumn decorations?  Anyone started stocking up on Christmas decorations yet?

Sorry for the short posts this week, but like I mentioned I am slammed busy, hopefully once my daughter starts kindergarten full time I can get back to decent posts (even though I did promise you this a month ago)!

Queen's/King's Day

Queen's Day is was one of my favorite Dutch holidays.  (Since I've been blogging for a while now this isn't the first time you've heard about it.)  But this year's Queen's Day is the last one for a long-long time.  The Dutch Queen has stepped down and her son has taken over, so next year we'll be celebrating King's Day instead.  Not really sure if that will have an effect on the fun holiday or not, a holiday known for its markets, music, and of course orange clothing/accessories.  Since I've lived in The Netherlands I have participated in as many Queen's Day (April 30th) celebrations as possible, and this year was no different.  Well, the atmosphere was different, more subdued... maybe I'm getting older or maybe the Dutch were just more focused on the Queen's abdication.  Last year there were dj's everywhere and lots of space to dance and party.  But this year, there were a lot of tables and chairs, and the weather was cooler, all of which have an influence on the day.  It didn't stop us from having fun though.  And this year I lasted twice as long as last year!  Last year we found one great bar & dj and basically stayed there, this year, we were all over the place.  We hit up at least 4 or 5 venues and squeezed in dinner at an Indian restaurant in between.  As usual I took a ton of pictures, with 7 people roaming mass crowds there was always something going on.  We were even separated for a while!  A couple holidays ago I realized it was quicker and cleaner for me to walk back to our apartment to use the bathroom than wait in line for a port-o-pot or use one at a bar.  First bathroom break went well, second one (after a few more drinks) ended up in a 30 minute search to find our husbands again.  I told my husband we should have picked a meeting point, oh well!  As I mentioned we had dinner reservations, I seriously doubted we would make it but we did, and it was great.  We even had half the restaurant to ourselves, thanks to a partition wall.  In all of my Queen's Days I've learned to stock up on the orange accessories early.  I bought a pair of orange sunglasses for 80 cents in the weeks leading up to the holiday and while we were in the middle of the crowds I saw someone selling the same ones for 10 euros, crazy!  I've also learned don't take anything you value, because you'll either lose it or get it so dirty you'll want to toss it afterwards.  You can only imagine thousands of people littering their food and beer cups everywhere, not quite nice to walk through by the end of the night.  I'll leave you with pics as always, and a big thanks to the old friends & new friends who helped make the day a blast!  And to my in-laws for babysitting!!

And of course, happy birthday Mom (next year the day is all yours because King's Day is on the 27th)!!!

February 14th

A couple weeks ago it actually took me a minute to remember when Valentine's actually was, I ran a couple dates through my head before it came to me.  Hard to believe I could forget the date!  Commercial holidays aren't very important around our house, and Valentine's isn't as big of a holiday here in The Netherlands as it is in The States.  I do tend to get my hubby a nice card and make him something yummy for the occasion and this year was no different.  Well, this year I did involve our toddler a bit more.  Since she loves arts & crafts I decided her & I would make my hubby Valentine's Day cards instead of buying them at the store.  We had a fun time gluing & cutting, and she even managed to keep the cards a surprise until this morning.  Unlike our idea to make a cake!  I was going to surprise my husband with a heart-shaped V-Day cake, but she blew the surprise last night, ha-ha!  My toddler loves baking so I should have known she'd tell him.  Oh well, the cake will still be a yummy desert after dinner this evening.  We're both happy to have our Valentine's back home, considering last week he was away on business in Rome.  For those of you celebrating today, I hope you have a loving V-Day, and for those of you not, I hope you have an enjoyable Thursday!

My husband decided to email me a pic he considered thoughtful and sort-of romantic... morbid but sweet in its own way!

Carnaval Time

It's time for "Carnaval" in The Netherlands again (well technically it's almost over).  To be honest I have never really bothered to look up the meaning behind all of the Carnaval celebrations.  I know it has it's backgrounds in the Catholic roots and ends on Ash Wednesday.  To me Carnaval is just a big celebration where the Dutch get dressed up in Halloween-ish outfits and drink & party for a good 3-5 days.  Oh yeah, and there are also parades on the weekend leading into Carnaval.  Of course all of the partying has it's up and downs.  For those of us with children trying to carry on our normal lives, the drunks and trash littering the streets can easily be hindering.  Plus there are also the people that decide to get violent, nothing like a 3-5 drunken celebration to bring that side out of people.  Last year my husband was actually involved in a fist fight while trying to help some teenage girl out of a bad situation.  When this year rolled around neither one of us felt like dressing up and joining the raging party in the center of town, but some how or another, there we were.  We had a babysitter for the night and after dinner with friends we ended up at one of the few acceptable bars, Dr. Ink.  But since we were not dressed in a costume we were harassed, which inevitably sent us home to come up with some sort of outfit.  Since we live within 5 minutes of the center this wasn't a crazy plan, not to mention I desperately needed to use the restroom but the one at the bar was beyond dirty.  We popped home with a friend and grabbed some of our masks, combination of el-cheapos that belong to our toddler and an old Frankenstein mask that's been handed around our friends.  But since this just wasn't enough my husband also lent us all some of his sports jerseys from when he was a kid.  Now, I wouldn't quite call this a thought out costume, but it was enough to make us look colorful and silly, which would keep us from standing out (as funny as that sounds).  When we returned to the bar, no one said another word, it worked!  It turned out to be quite a night - we started it out by losing our money before even entering the bar, eventually being forced to use the disgusting bathrooms, and there was some girl unhappy with my dancing (I guess I kept bumping into her) - among all of this we had a great time.  My husband promised to take pictures for me while we were out so I didn't need to take my purse, but once the night started going he didn't appreciate the shots I wanted to capture.  I did get him to take at least 5-10 pictures and now it's been like pulling teeth to get them off his phone.  I did manage to get at least 3 pics from him.  The first was on the way to the restaurant, it was still day time and things were still on the fun family side of Carnaval (entrance to one of the busy party streets).  The next pic was me in a mask but before changing into the jersey (I eventually ended up trading masks with our friend and I think I possibly lost mine by the end of the night).  And the last pic was of the bikes covered in snow, we didn't expect it to be so cold, much less a small snow storm, but by the time we walked home we weren't feeling much.  Overall Carnaval has been fun this year, my toddler loves seeing all of the people dressed up in costumes, we're inside by the time the crazy people come out, and our night out was expensive but still worthwhile. 
(Oh yeah, and the gloves my husband blames for losing the money were ones I forced him to wear because they're for smart phones, since then I've missed placed all of my gloves, borrowed these for a trip into town today, and lost one somewhere near McD's, I guess that set of gloves was doomed from the start!)

New Year's Eve

I hope you all enjoy a safe and happy New Year's Eve.  Don't forget to reflect on all of your successes in 2012.  Tomorrow 2013 begins... for many of you this means the beginning of new resolutions and new phases of life, I wish you all the best!   
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Worthy Wine

I'm a big fan of dry red wines, you'll almost never see me with a glass of blush or white wine.  This Christmas season my husband decided to surprise me with two bottles of lovely red wine.  Not the usual reasonably priced merlot I pick up at the grocery store, but bottles that cost more than I would ever fork out for wine.  I am happy to say I enjoyed each one to the last drop!  I am far from a wine connoisseur but I could definitely taste the difference between the two bottles, and if I had to choose again, I would go with the Amarone over the Château Preuillac any day.  I can not justly describe the wines to you, so I looked up the descriptions.  And since I couldn't find the right photos (Google let me down), I took my own!  Anyone else enjoy a worthy bottle of wine this holiday season?   
 

 

Amarone Villa Arvedi 2009 Valpolicella Bertani
Borrowed description :
Deep dark ruby with a violet rim. Notes of black and sour cherries, berries, spices and dried fruit. The palate is creamy with soft tannins and integrated oak. A lighter, fruitier and younger version of Bertani’s icon Amarone Classico.



Château Preuillac Cru Bourgeois 2006 Medoc
Borrowed description :
Classic, balanced wine with a twist of richness. The black currant flavors are almost jelly-like in their sweetness, although these flavors are well balanced with acidity and a firm layer of dry tannins.

Christmas Shopping

It's time for dreaded Christmas shopping again.  Just in case you missed the post, I am a big 'ol scrooge.  Every year I plead with my husband to change our ways, and yet every year some how we wait until the last minute to go shopping.  So not only are we shopping (which we don't like), we're shopping under pressure and fighting large crowds while doing it (prime ground for bickering).  My husbands work schedule has been slammed for months now so there's no time for shopping after work.  Last weekend we were all sick, leaving this weekend to shop.  And now somehow our schedule is filled with everything but Christmas shopping, argh!  I feel sorry for the guy, he hasn't had a break in forever and now he doesn't even get a moment of relaxing down time this weekend; any spare moments will now be filled with unpleasant shopping.  While being pushed through the stores, disagreeing about Christmas present budget, and trying to keep a 3 yr old entertained while going store to store, I am going to have to keep one thing in mind.  We get to go see Disney on Ice this Sunday.  It'll give us all a moment to regress to childhood, take in a well done Disney show, and also see the twinkle in our daughters eyes as she gets to watch the characters from the 2nd row!

Holiday Season

O.k., I know there are not many of us out there, but I don't like holidays.  Why you say?

1) extra costs.. food, decorations, presents, costumes, cards

2) storing the decorations the other 11 months of the year

3) the endless preparations and discussions

At first holidays seem like a fun and pleasurable experience; especially when someone else is doing all of the work.  Then I remember the above 3 reasons and I cringe.  Moving abroad helped to eliminate some holidays, at least for a few years.  My in-laws rarely bothered to celebrate Thanksgiving, the Dutch didn't really understand Valentine's & Halloween, and Christmas, well my husband & I never bothered to decorate.  But times are changing, unwillingly I might add.  Mostly adding a child to the family changed things.  People expect you to decorate and make a big deal about holidays, kids love it. 

Sure as a kid it's great, you do no work and you don't foot the bill either, ideal!  You just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, but becoming an adult ripped the fun right out of it.  I hear some adults actually still get pleasure from the holidays, for example, my in-laws love Christmas.  Which makes it even harder to be the Scrooge of the family.  Maybe I'd enjoy holidays if they were simple.  One present per person on Christmas, everyone bring one dish of food to Thanksgiving, and instead of buying a costume for Halloween the kids just wear something they already own.  Oh yeah, and no more cards!  No more celebrating because some commercial holiday was created, how about celebrating your love because you love someone, not just because the store tells you it's the 14th do something romantic!  Again, did I mention the costs.  Between divorce and marriage in the family, at Christmas time alone we have to buy presents for around 14 people, that's a lot of money.  And the kids (I'm not talking about our family alone) don't appreciate Christmas (or birthdays), because it's become present overload. 

And now that we're a part of an international play group, holidays like Easter & 4th of July are being reintroduced, c'mon, I can't do it all.  You're probably asking normal questions right now, like... don't you enjoy seeing the city decorated for the holidays, don't you like receiving presents, don't you love the honey glazed holiday ham, don't you get pleasure from the glimmer in your child's eye during the excitement?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  So I guess there's a little bit of humanity left in me after all, ha-ha.  (Sorry for the rant, but it's mid-October, and Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas are quickly nearing!)

Queen's Day

Well, my favorite Dutch holiday has come and gone, Queen's Day (aka Koninginnedag).  And like so many times in the past it didn't let me down!  I wish I could post more photos from the day but I don't think my friends want their drunken faces plastered online, so all I can say is I'm glad we had a babysitter because I didn't make it past 7PM!!!  (I apologize to the bbq guests.)  I can give you a glimpse of what Queen's Day entails and a bit of what I saw. 

There are the markets, it's the only time you are allowed to sell items on the street without a license or paying/claiming taxes.  

There are the bands.  All over town there are stages setup where bands and dj's can perform.  Everywhere you turn there is music and dancing. 

There are hundreds of people dressed in orange (the national colors are red, white, & blue, but thanks to Willem van Oranje we get to don bright orange at most holidays/events.) 

There's the alcohol of course.  Oh, did we really need the vodka red bulls on top of the beer and champagne? 

And there's the food.  Luckily we didn't have to settle for a snack bar (aka friettent) because we had a bbq after enjoying the beautiful weather and events in the center of the city. 

We've celebrated Queen's Day in Amsterdam, Best, Eindhoven, & Utrecht each event was very different and each equally as fun.  And like most holidays the Dutch  make it a two day event, so if the day time events don't speak to you then there is always Queen's Day Night (April 29th).  By the way, happy birthday Mom, she always gets strange phone calls from where ever we have ended up on the 30th!

Carnival Chivalry

Carnival (Dutch = Carnaval) celebrations aren't high on our list of priorities but we do occasionally join in; most years we don't even bother to dress in costumes or even step foot in the city center.  The idea behind it is fun; dress is crazy costumes, get drunk, and listen to Carnaval music while crammed into a dangerously full bar.  But the level the Dutch take it to can sometimes be intimidating, drinking for days on end, all hours of the day, can make most foreigners shy away.  I have nothing against alcohol or even getting a babysitter and having a wild night but I just can't hang with the Dutch when it comes to Carnaval.  I've heard rumors that some people are actually afraid to go into the city center during the celebrations because the level of aggression and drunkenness is too high.  This has never affected me or my husband until this past weekend.  Friday night my husband and a friend decided to head into the city center during Carnaval and grab a drink at a couple of our favorite places in town.  They first stopped at Popocatepetl, a Mexican restaurant that was selling beer outside for Carnaval (that's where the above photo was taken).  After that they headed on to Dr. Ink, a unique bar we pop into occasionally.  Then between Dr. Ink and their next stop, O'Sheas Irish Pub (another favorite of ours) they made a chivalrous decision that ended in a fight!  "Fight" is a strong word, it implies everyone was fighting but that wasn't the case.  "Jumped" that's also strong, it implies a group of people attacked them, which didn't happen.  I'll just get on with the story... my husband and his friend noticed a young man in his 20's arguing with a girl around 15 yrs old.  He was forcing her along, yelling at her, while she pleaded for him to stop & let go of her.  Ryan hoped it would diffuse without his involvement but it kept on, she would get away and the man would again latch on to her.  The couple weren't alone, all of the friends with them (guys & girls) were also trying verbally to get the man to stop.  When my husband & his friend realized he wasn't going to give up and he was going after the girl again (she had managed to break free for a moment), they yelled and caught his attention and told him to leave her alone.  Ryan said all he could think about was our daughter and that he would want someone to help her.  The man, his face painted white for Carnaval, decided to then unleash his anger on Ryan & his friend.  Ryan's friend, dressed in a Sumo costume, took the first punch.  The man hit him in his face sending his glasses flying, he ended up getting punched in the face 2-3 more times.  My husband doesn't like to fight, he is anti-fighting, so when the psycho went at him he was smart enough to block his face.  The man put him in a headlock and repeatedly tried to punch my husband in the face.  Ryan blocked all the shots but one, when the psycho clipped my husbands forehead causing him to bleed he had enough, put him in a headlock then forced him to the ground.  The man jumped up and continued yelling at Ryan & his friend, but eventually conceded and ran off.  The girl luckily got away and the man luckily didn't pull out a weapon or involve his friends, but my husband & his friend ended up with cuts & bruises just for trying to help out a young girl.  They never once threw a punch and yet were attacked repeatedly.  I sometimes wonder what this world is coming to, I'm just glad my husband got involved.  People think they can get away with everything these days, they think people are afraid of them, and will not step in.  But guess what, there are still decent people in this world, people willing to help and willing to get involved even if the person at risk is a stranger.  In this day and age everything goes viral, there's always someone standing around with a phone/camera, so of course I checked You Tube.  A guy in Sumo suit getting punched in the face or a brawl in the middle of town near the main cathedral is something I thought would end up online, but it hasn't.  We'd love to be able to take the video to the police, but then again being that it was Carnaval and the man's face was painted it would make it hard to identify him.  If you happen to have heard anything about this, please let me know.  I've included a photo of my husbands forehead, hope no one is squeamish.  Despite this incident it does not make us fearful of Carnaval or going out in Eindhoven, we've enjoyed Dutch celebrations and the city center for years with pleasure!!!