Week of Thanksgiving 2011

Sunday I had Jason dig out the Christmas tree so we could take a look at it.  We had bought it from some expats leaving and it is a tree from the states so we needed an adapter to plug it in, only to find out the lights that were on the tree didn't work!  It looks kind of like a Charlie Brown tree, but we decided we will keep it and make do.  So we put it together and I had bought some ornaments and things to make it look a bit better.

 The kids love Chrismtas time, so why not just put the tree up and enjoy it.  The elf is coming this week as well, so I like it when the tree is up for his visit.
Then we went and did a Saint Nicholas train ride in the afternoon.  You ride this train from the 1900's, an old steam train.

On the train ride are what they call here the Black Santa.  I don't really understand it, but basically instead of telling a child if you are naughty you are going to get coal in your stocking, you tell him if you don't behave the Black Santa is going to come and take you?  So these 3 Black Santas were on our train.  They are wearing black robes with big black hodes, they have long black beards, and their faces that are showing are painted black.  They are carrying sacks and sticks.  They came by our seats and asked each child if they had been being good and then gave them a handful of nuts and candy.

A little scary!!

 The train drops you off at this station house and here you wait in line for your picture with St. Nicholas.  We went with 2 other preschool families and it was nice.  It was a long wait in line.  When it was their turn to talk to St. Nicholas who looks more like a Bishop than Santa Claus, you don't sit on his lap you just talk to him for a minute which I was glad to hear he spoke English and then he gave each child a huge goodie bag with cookies and candy bars. 

This is the huge goodie bag all the kids got from St. Nicholas.

After our pictures we quickly hoped back on the outgoing train to get back to the station since we had a b'day party to get too.
One of Amber's friends was having a b'day party in the evening and invited the whole family.  It was fun.  They had these fire pit things out back and we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows.  We all had a nice time!

Monday Jason flew to the Netherlands for a day.  The kids did not have school today for a teacher work day.  We got into the chiropractor, and then we were going to go to the big indoor climby place with friends.  We get there and saw that it is closed on Mondays ):  Many things are, but none of us even thought about checking that out.  So since it was a nice sunny day we took the kids to the big park and they all played for a couple of hours.  Burned off some energy! 
I had ordered a speedo for Jacob for swim class he will start in gym soon.  He was not happy about it, but I ordered him the longer one that looks like biking shorts.  I was so excited that I found it cheapier online.  The suit and shipping I only paid 20 euros for it.  Here in the stores they started at 24- 40 euros!
When we got home from the park we baked our yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip coffee cake for Thanksgiving this week!  For dinner we tried the Cranberry Salad I had made over the weekend.  It turned out ok.  More of a yogurt consistency then all set up, but the taste was similiar and everyone gobbled it up!

Tuesday I ran to the store to pick up the last few ingredients for baking things, and had French.  After Amber came home we made our poppy seed bread to take to friend's house for Thanksgiving, and then give one loaf to our good friend that is moving.  Then in the evening we baked Pumpkin Pie Squares that I will bring in to the preschool as my friend and I are doing a little Turkey/Thanksgiving presentation to Amber's class tomorrow.  Hopefully my voice will come back soon.  I lost it last week and I still sound like a frog!
Jason tried this morning to fly out of Amerstdam, only to have his flight cancelled until the end of the day.  The fog from the day before had hardly lifted.  We had other friends trying to fly in and out of there this weekend and also had delays/cancellations.  So he ended up taking a train to Brussells and then changing trains to get here.  So it was an all day travel day.

Wednesday morning my friend and I went in to the kids preschool class and did our Thanksgiving presentation.  I also brought my Pumpkin squares and everything went well.  We had kids that didn't want to try any pumpkin squares to some kids that had 2 pieces.  The teachers enjoyed it though! 

After school we met up again with our 4 other preschool friends and their moms for lunch at a Italian restaurant that is very kid friendly with a little kids corner.  This restaurant has no parking so I ended up having to park like 3 or so blocks away, about half way home to my house!  To park here you need to either pay or you have a disk that you can use for up to 2 hours.  So I am always using my disk, but not really entirelly sure I am allowed to use it everywhere.  So as usual it is right on the 2 hour mark when we make it quickly back to the car and I am always wondering if one day I am going to end up with a ticket. 
Amber had so much fun in the kids corner at the restaurant she came home with gum in her hair!  It was at the ends but so tangled up in there, so I just cut it out.  Since it was at the ends it isn't too noticable.
I finally found/figured out what bleach is here so was able to buy that to help my whites look whiter. 
I still don't understand how I can put something in the wash, any color, the machine washes it for like 2 hours or so and it still comes out with stains on it?  I even put on stain remover!  ugh!  I miss my machines from home ):
I washed Jacob's comforter oh my gosh you should have seen me try and shove that thing in the machine, ha.  To get it out I basically had to put my foot on the machine and pull it out!!
The other thing I can't stand is when I open the washing machine and start to take out the clothes everything falls onto the floor- can you tell I don't like these machines (:
After guitar tonight we came home and I made the yummy Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving.  Here all the ingredients for things are no where to be found!  The corn syrup and brown sugar are from the Brititsh store like 30 min. away.  The pecans Jason brought back for me.  And the pie crust dough was from the American Woman's Club.  They don't have 9 in. pie pans here either. Here they have tart pans.  So it is more a Pecan tart looking thing!  And no cool whip here either.  I bought that from the Woman's club as well.
Jason finally received his company car that he ordered 3 months ago!  Automatics are hard to come by.  So what he ordered was a BMW X5.  It is like a small SUV.  It seats 7 but it is tight for the 2 in the back.  Keep in mind here these higher end cars are everywhere.  Even the cabs are Mercedes Benzs.  The other day I saw a cab that was a Jaguar!
Tonight it is time to get the Elf out and ready for the children!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  The elf came last night and brought his note and a few little gifts for the kids!   They didn't even notice him over by the tree.  I finally had to lead Amber over there to see him.

Jason really likes driving his new car.  I emailed him and asked him if he really went to work today or was just driving around in his new car!  He said not to bother him b/c he was driving around in the fog and had to be careful! Ha!  It is still so foggy here.
Jacob was buying lunch today and they were serving a Thanksgiving meal with turkey and sides and such so that was nice.
I made one last thing to bring for the Thanksgiving dinner, a yummy sweet potato casserole that my friend here had given me her recipe.  It was a little crazy after school getting that ready, having the boys hurry up and finish with their homework and get everyone changed.  Not your typical Thanksgiving for us!
Jason came home from work early and we went to some friends house tonight to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It was lovely.  They had 5 families over and then one couple just came for drinks before dinner.  They had made 2 turkeys and kids meals and everything was so good!  We enjoyed everyone's company and gave thanks for all that we are thankful for (:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday was a hard day for everyone to get up early.  I brought in some of my pumpkin chocolate chip coffee cake to share with friends at coffee.  Later in the morning I went into Sean's class to volunteer.  I helped with a craft project they were making for the holidays.  While I am there I get a call from the school nurse, and I am thinking well this can't be Sean, that Jacob isn't feeling well and to come get him.  Since we wasn't getting sick and didn't have a fever I asked if he could stay with the nurse just a bit longer until I finished with Sean's class and that was fine.  So I went and got Jacob and it was around 12, and then we went and picked up Amber about 15 min. early too. 
He must have eaten something yesterday that didn't agree with him, b/c he wasn't feeling well at home, then once it got out of his system he was feeling much better. 
Jason was having a slower day at work as I am sure not many people were working in the US, so he was able to pick Sean up from school and then they ran downtown to do some more moving paperwork!
With it being Black Friday I did some online shopping today, and got some good prices on things so I was happy with that.
Tonight we had movie night that we were able to rent through the TV, Spy Kids 4.  We decided to try and do a kids movie night and adult movie night.  So after the kids were watching their movie we started it with them, and then a bit later we rented The Change Up on the Ipad for us.  The movie was funny, but it took us 3 1/2 hours to get through the 1 1/2 movie b/c we had to keep stopping it for multiple reasons.  So much for our movie night!

Saturday we went to the farmer's market in the city and then the Christmas market there was also open.  Here they build these little wood houses and people sell their things.  Christmas markets are very big in Europe. They had a nice stage with trees where people were singing.  They have a big tree decorated.

The boys don't like their picture being taken anymore, but can you tell who still does!

We shopped around and tried to convience the kids to eat the brats/sausages for lunch, but they wanted McDonalds which was right there.  So that is where we ended up.
In the afternoon Amber had a b'day party to attend.  She had a lot of fun.  It was on the other side of town at a tennis club.  They had a face painter come and do the girls' faces.  Amber wanted a butterfly.
She did a great job!

They did crafts at the party, had pizza, fries, cupcakes and played a game.  Amber loved it all!
Tonight we finished putting up our few other christmas decorations and the kids wrote their letters to Santa and we are almost finished reading our Turkey/Thanksgiving books, and we finally read the Elf book!