December 2022

We made up for 2 years of locked-down Christmas seasons with 2 packed weeks of holiday cheer! 

First up, getting the tree at het Oosten. Jude picked out our tree this year and then we all helped deck the halls back home. 

Book club on Kai's birthday

Katie and Chris hosted a tricked-out holiday boat party. We went around the Amsterdam Light Festival, dancing to competing silent disco playlists. It was a really fun night making new friends and partying later than I have in a long time. 

Jude had a really cool field trip where they visited a mosque, Catholic church, synagogue, and Buddhist temple. I didn't chaperone but loved seeing the photos. 

We really enjoyed watching the World Cup, though it did distract from the Christmas season. It was fun to cheer the Dutch on! 

I took the rest of my inburgeren exams in October and got my passing scores at the beginning of the month! My intensive Dutch class paid off. The Dutch culture exam was the hardest by far. With these diplomas, we applied for permanent residency in early January and are awaiting the decision. We hope to  get long-term EU residency permits. We aren't planning any moves, job or country-wise, but it is good to have options. 

I spent a lovely Friday at the Haarlem Christmas market with Christie, getting some shopping done and drinking gluhwein. 

Cookie time! I'm quite proud of my Christmas sprinkles collection, amassed from various trips to the US and the UK. 

Rachel and Danny hosted holiday boat party #2. We had a solid ISA crew and enjoyed all of the gluhwein brought onboard! 

Jude performed with the percussion and choir groups for a morning assembly. 

Maeve had a writing celebration in the library. 

The week before we left was frigid and while there was no snow, there was a beautiful frost. The waterways froze enough for one day of skating, but we didn't get out to see it. 

We went to Gelderlandplein mall to try to get our annual Santa photos. The big man rode in a parade, so we had to snap a quick pic as he went by! 

We took turns shopping with the kids so they could pick out small gifts for each other and us. Their excitement in giving those gifts was one of the highlights this Christmas. 

Our Christmas photo this year

And the final excitement before we left for the States: Jude swam for his C diploma! He had just gotten his B diploma 2 weeks prior so we thought we had a while to go still. Way to go, Jude!

Bags were packed (to the gills) and we were off for 2 1/2 weeks in the Staets for Christmas!

Santa and his reindeer rehearsing at baggage claim

This year's embroidery

Added plaid cloth gift bags to the mix this year

The Merry Season of Sint

It was a busy, joyful season of Sinterklaas this year. Everything was back after a 2 year COVID hiatus and we soaked it all in. We know that we don't have many years left with believing kids. 

We watched the Sinterklaas Journal, following Sint's challenging journey from Spain. We consoled Maeve when Sint's boat sank (yikes!) and patted ourselves on the back for understanding more and more Dutch. 

We went to Lien's to watch the Amstelveen parade. Maeve had a sneak peek (and 2 bags of pepernoten) after her gymnastics teacher took the class to the parade start without telling any of the parents! 

The following day we biked into the city for the Amsterdam parade. Another gorgeous, warm day!

We missed the boat parade but saw a group of piets disembarking and followed them to Waterlooplein, where Sinterklaas was getting ready for the walking parade. 

Hats full of pepernoten

A visit to the hermitage museum while we were in the city

And so began the 3-week-long season. They choose 5 nights for the piets to visit and excitedly woke up to see what they brought.  

Maeve wore this outfit to school. A lot.

We returned to Archeon where they transformed the open-air museum into "het stad van Sinterklaas." There were a lot of cute activities for the kids to do- pieten training, metalwork, face painting, and bracelet making. After they completed all of the activities, they brought their checklist to Sinterklaas' house and presented it to the hoofpiet, who signed the executive order, declaring them piets. There was a pietenkort (piet shortage) this year due to the boat sinking debacle, so they were hiring a lot of piets this year!

Flat Zoe arrived from Austria and traveled with us

Hard at work with the pieten training

Lovely renditions of the classic Sint songs

Maeve became the new hoofpiet (head piet)! 

And Jude, a pakjespiet

Then on December 5th, Sinterklaas and the piets visited ISA (he makes it to every primary school in the NL if you can believe it!). The kids sang songs for him while bouncing around the parking lot to stay warm.

Some photos of his visit to the 3rd grade. Jude declared that he was not the real Sint, as they could see a string under his beard. Whoops! 

That evening was pakjesavond (present night) and Sint came! We heard a loud banging at the door and then the Sinterklaas bag magically showed up on our doorstep. Jude noticed someone running away, but couldn't tell if it was a piet or Sint. 

Happy kids with their presents. 

Thank you for coming, Sinterklaas. We'll see you next year!