Ringing in the New Year - Dutch style!

(Here's another that's been sitting on my computer forever)

Now, I've never been one for partying on New Year's Eve, I think it's kind of a highly over-rated holiday.  I'd rather just eat some yummy food and get a good night's sleep.  This is not what happens in the Netherlands however.  This holiday is a big deal!!  We went to a movie early on New Year's Eve and then came home to go to bed because we had to get up the next morning for a fun activity (more info below).  However, the going to bed early thing was a little tricky because of this (note:  the video is actually terrible, mostly this is just audio):

No, we are not living in Syria, this is the Netherlands, this is what it sounded like from 3 pm New Year's Eve until 3 in the morning New Year's Day.  (At least that's what Kyle says, I'd fallen asleep by that time).  This resulted in an aftermath that looked like this:

Crazy!

Of course things got even more crazy.  Another great Dutch tradition:  the annual New Year's Day North Sea Swim!  Imagine 10 000 people running into the North Sea on New Year's Day.  Such fun!  Actually, I'm a total wimp.  We met up with some friends of ours; since both of them wanted to run I had regretfully bowed out (ha ha) and volunteered to be the photographer and toddler-holder.   Here is the "Before" photo (everybody got matching neon orange toques from a sponsor of the event):

As it turns out, it's difficult to hold a (fairly freaked-out) toddler and video tape at the same time, so this video is pretty bad, but you get the idea of the general chaos.

All's well that end's well:

Christmas in the Netherlands (an outsider's perspective)

(I haven't been a very good blogger, this has been sitting on my laptop for months...)

A great thing about going to live in a different country/culture is learning about the holidays.  Some of the traditions seem better than your own, some seem odd, all are interesting.  The Christmas season in the Netherlands really starts - at least from my point of view - in mid-November with Sinterklaas.  "Sinterklaas" is the name of an day and a person.  The story, as an outsider understands is as follows:  Basically he arrives in the Netherlands on a boat (ostensibly from Spain) in mid-November to great fanfare and excitement.  He is accompanied by his faithful servant "Zwarte Piet" (Black Pete) - no elves.

(Here he is arriving in the harbour of The Hague, somehow we managed to pick the right spot and be really close.   Traditionally there's only one Zwarte Piet but for some reason everyone dresses up as a Zwarte Piet - the boat alone had an entire marching band dressed up like Zwarte Piet)

(Here he is disembarking and getting ready to get on his white horse.  The "Spanish Ambassador" dressed in formal robes is accompanying him)

 He then rides around the country on his white horse (no reindeer here) for the next 2-3 weeks checking up on how good all the children have been/are.  The children leave their shoes out every night just in case Sinterklaas happens to pass by, because if they've been good, they will receive candy or treats in them (if bad, they may receive pieces of coal or other unpleasant things).  December 5th is Sinterklaas Day.  That day Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet will leave presents and treats for the good children and then mysteriously slip away for another year.

I kind of like this tradition - many people will exchange gifts with family members (part of the tradition is you have to write an accompanying poem to go along with the gift).  Then at Christmas itself there is much less focus on the gifts.  Previously the focus would have been on the religious celebration but now the focus is more on family time.  December 25th is for large meals and family time.  Second Christmas (Dec 26th - not joking, that's what its called) is for more family activities and many people even take a Third Christmas (Dec 27th - still not joking) for more fun and games.

My parents came for Christmas, which was a lot of fun.  This meant that they brought their cameras, which tragically translated into me reverting to my lazy habits of hardly taking any pictures...  We toured around all over the place and in reviewing my photo file, I'm pretty sure I took about 10 pictures, Kyle maybe 10 more.  Pathetic really.

Highlights included:

-A trip to the Lindt chocolate outlet store

 (here's some of the loot)

- Trip to Maastricht (Netherlands) Christmas Market

(Kyle discovers the best part of Christmas Market (according to him - BBQ meat)

- Trip to Brussels (Belgium) Christmas Market

- Christmas Baking with Mom (haven't gotten to do that for a long time!!)

- Trips to the Hague outdoor market and around the Hague

- Trips to Rotterdam (the place where we finally found a Christmas Turkey)

- Trip to Amsterdam

(Mom and Kyle in front of Rijksmuseum after we'd worn poor Mom and Dad right out)

- Trip to Germany including stops at the Cologne Cathedral (seriously no photos) and Cologne Christmas Market ( by this point you may have noted the Leitmotif of this posting ...eating high fat food...)

(See if you can find Kyle waiting in line for some high fat food (meat on a stick))

Mom eating a potato pancake (delicious!)

Actually, after Christmas things got less about food and we were able to take a short trip to Belgium.  We spent a lot of time in the Flanders Fields area, especially Ypres.  This was a really moving experience.  It was cold and miserable and probably a very appropriate time to visit the WW I trenches.  I kept thinking about sitting in these horrible places for 4 years getting shot at.  How horrible.  Although difficult, I would highly recommend visiting some of these sites.

Kyle in a (relatively) dry bunker

We also dragged my parents to one of our favourite places, Ghent and also stopped at Bruges.  It was whirlwind though, so they will have to come back!

Ghent, on a snowy night

The last day before they left we went to this cool place called Madurodam.  It's basically this little park showing all sorts of famous buildings in the Netherlands in miniature.  It gives you an idea of the diversity and coolness of the entire Netherlands in one teeny park.  Such fun!  And of course they play up the stereotypes:

Thanks for coming to visit Mom and Dad and sharing our Dutch Christmas (and Second Christmas and Third Christmas)