Reverse Thanksgiving- Bringing the New World to the Old World

  A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Before you start feeling bad for us poor expats stuck in a non-Thanksgiving country around Thanksgiving let me reassure you that we rocked Thanksgiving Nederland-style. 

  Our good friends, Carrie and Richard Russel, who are on sabbatical in Scotland, hopped a plane over the channel with their adorable kids, Henry and Beatrice. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and we immediately took them for a walk downtown. The market was just ending but we caught the waffel guy before he closed up and introduced the Russel family to fresh warm stroopwaffels. We then herded our sticky brood up the 40 steps to the Burcht, successfully completing our goal of taking all our guests to our favorite spot in Leiden.

  For dinner we ordered in a vegetarian rijsttafel from our go-to Indonesian place, Surakarta. After waiting around for the delivery guy for about a half hour Kurt realized that he had received a text from the place saying that our order would take 1 to 1.5 hours. The bedtime clock was ticking so we hurried up and made the kids some food. Thanks to our slow eaters we were still at the table when the take-out arrived and even the kids tried some. All the adults enjoyed it but the kids only seemed to like the sweet topping (we are still not sure exactly what it is). Go figure!

 Since the Russels are Jewish we also celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. Leif and Klaus are always up for holidays which include chocolate and presents and Kurt and I are always up for festivity but due to Kurt's passive Jewish heritage we don't really know how to celebrate Hanukkah. Lucky for us the Russels know what they are doing. Also lucky for us Carrie was able to find a menorah and candles in the UK; I haven't seen any in the stores around here which I'm not sure is a reflection of a low Jewish population as much as the fact that the Dutch do not seem to be interested in commerce. There isn't a whole lot to buy for anything any where. 

 

 Thanksgiving morning we had planned to borrow our friend's bakfiets (a bicycle with a large wooden box on the front for hauling kids and groceries) so that the whole crew could take a ride around town. Unfortunately our friend's baby got sick and had to go to the doctor so the plans fell through. Instead we briefly attended an American Thanksgiving service at Pieters Kerk, an old cathedral where the Pilgrims just happened to worship when they lived here. The kids sat for all of two minutes before they were up running around. We prepared to leave but one of the event organizers begged us to stay assuring us that it was a family service and it was to be expected. So we stayed for about a half hour more and the kids ran around the empty area sectioned off for protestant services while the adults listened to a few of the speakers. We left after a stirring rendition of America the Beautiful and headed home for nap and dinner prep. 

 

While Klaus and Henry napped and Kurt cooked the rest of us went to the Pilgrim Museum (finally! and it was free that day!) Contrary to previous reports I though it was thoroughly enjoyable. None of the actual pilgrims are known to have lived in the 12th century building but it is chock full of items from the era and gives a good sense of what life would have been like for the Pilgrims. The rooms were small and dark with one hearth for heating and cooking. There was a small bed built into the wall where adults would have slept in a semi reclined position (it was thought to be better for the adult body).There was also an inhouse (as opposed to an outhouse) but rather than leading to a sewer it collected in a cistern under the floor. When it was excavated the museum found all sorts of small ceramic catholic icons that must have been dumped there during the protestant reformation. The curator of the museum was very sweet; Almost as soon as Leif and Beatrice stepped in he was handing them all sorts of period clothing to wear. It was a surprisingly hands-on museum for a place stuffed with antiques. The kids got to sit in a 800 year old chair and Bea got to wear a 400 year old headpiece. 

 

Now on to the feast! Kurt pulled off an amazing meal for cooking in a small kitchen with little more than a cook-top and easy bake oven. Since turkey isn't common here, he made chicken (made no difference to pescatarian me) which everyone seemed to enjoy. At my request he re-created his mother's patented stuffing balls. There was also corn, mashed taters, rolls, green bean casserole(also me), cranberry sauce, sweet taters, and pumpkin pie. Everyone ate their fill and we had enough for lunch the next day. I had made hats for everyone but no one wanted to be the pilgrims so we had a table of Wampanoags.  

 On Friday we escorted the Russels to the Oude Rijksmuseum, the Netherland's antiquities museum. I am really going to miss this one when we go. It is a world-class collection with a talented museum staff. The top floor, a permanent exhibit which explores the history of the Netherlands, is especially great. It is brilliantly set-up to appeal to both kids and adults. For the kids there are hidden "bedrooms" scattered about the exhibit where they can climb into all manner of beds from throughout time. Leif's favorite was the viking bed. For adults the exhibit is informative but not overwhelming with a wide selection of artifacts.

 

Friday night we indulged in some greasy food from Hendos claiming that it was fulfilling the Hanukkah custom of eating food prepared in oil. After putting the kids to bed we tried to coax Carrie and Richard into watching a holiday flick (which is what Kurt and I always do on black friday) but we failed and ended up introducing them to pbs' new Sherlock. 

 

On Saturday we squeezed in a trip to the Saturday market before the Russels had to catch their plane. Carrie and Richard boldly tasted the raw herring and the kids munched on kaas stangels (cheese sticks), strawberries and suiker waffels. 

 An all around fabulous Thanksgiving! Take that Pilgrims! The old world still has some charms.

 Thanks, Russells! We will miss you state-side! Come home soon!