Hurricane Hopkins

Happy (late) Thanksgiving everyone!

I got a special surprise for Thanksgiving. My family came to visit me in the Netherlands. Can anyone say “worlds colliding”?

Awwwww the reunion. P/C to my host mom Lonneke.

I’m just kidding, we had a lot of fun. I got to show them where I live and my routine with the kids. They got to see what I consider some of the best parts of Holland.

We went to Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Amsterdam (all by public transportation, my Missouri folks were SHOOK). They got to do a free walking tour, climb a windmill and eat lots of Dutch cheese.

Family picture in Amsterdam! Aren’t we cute?

I think everyones favorite part of the visit was the last day, when we all celebrated Thanksgiving together, family and host family.

Thanksgiving is not really a thing here in Holland. My host mom had celebrated it once, during her study abroad year in Oregon, but for everyone else it was just something they had seen in films and shows.

We had my family, my host family, the grandparents and a whole mess of aunts, uncles and cousins. All of my host families extended family wanted to see what a real Thanksgiving would look like, and we did our best to give it to them.

Of course we needed the main dish, the turkey. Something I’ve learned since arriving in The Netherlands, the Dutch do not eat a lot of turkey. We had to order turkeys online, because we were concerned that the local grocery store wouldn’t have any. The ovens here in our house are a lot smaller than the ones we use in America so we had to get two small six pound turkeys instead of one big turkey. They ended up very “lekker” (tasty)! Shoutout to the chef- my dad.

My mom and I also made green bean casserole, cranberry salad, sweet potato casserole (recipes from Grammie Jo’s cookbook, If you can Read, you can Cook!) and mac-n-cheese.

The dutchies brought stampot for a potato dish and pea soup in mason jars as an appetizer. That way, the Americans were able to taste traditional Dutch dishes during the gathering.

Thanksgiving!

I had three au pair friends come to Thanksgiving, two are from the United States and one is from the Philippines. Part of the reason the Thanksgiving was so wonderful was because of the big family holiday atmosphere, I think all of us au pairs had missed that. Even if we don’t like to admit it.

My host family said they loved Thanksgiving, especially the part where everyone went around the table and said what they were thankful for that year. They want to make it a new tradition. I hope the next au pair is prepared to help with that dinner.

The week came to a close and I had to say goodbye to my family again. My mom believes that she will be back to see me before the year is over, but I won’t see my dad and brother again until June. I’ll miss them, but I’ve still got a lot to see in Europe.

Tot Ziens!