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Holidays + Birthdays

The fall is always a busy season for us with Sam and Ryan's birthday plus the usual holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving and now celebrating Sinterklaas.

Halloween

Sam wanted to be Greg from Diary of a Wimpy Kid for Halloween. That was amazing since it required nothing except printing a mask I found on the internet and tying a string to it.  Not the most durable or comfortable but free and easy which is how I roll.  

There is also Sint Maarten which is a Dutch holiday similar to Halloween in which kids go door-to-door and get candy.  It involves the kids signing songs and making a lantern which we were not prepared for so we stuck with just celebrating Halloween.

Sam's 9th Birthday 

As seems to be standard now, Sam wanted McDonalds for his birthday dinner. So we headed to the canal district and he enjoyed his first Big Mac. Then he opened his presents which included the Arctic Exploration Lego Set that he has CONSTANTLY been asking for.  So pretty good day for him.


On the Saturday after his birthday we planned a small party for him at the restaurant/playground near our house in Vondelpark - De Vondeltuin.  It is questionable to plan an outdoor birthday party in Amsterdam in November due to the weather.  It did in fact rain (it had been raining A LOT in October) and when we got to De Vondeltuin they definitely were not prepared for us.  But we cleaned off the tables, put up the umbrellas, turned on the heat lamps and we were good to go.  



Ryan's Birthday

Ryan's birthday is 3 days after Sam's birthday, which means it basically doesn't exist.  I did plan a dinner at a popular restaurant here - Moeders. Ryan had the stamppot which is a traditional Dutch dish with potatoes and meat and that worked out well for him.


Thanksgiving

My friend Dawn from Milwaukee visited over Thanksgiving week.  We spent most of the time exploring Amsterdam but went to Paris for 2 nights and met up with Gretchen (from the UK/also from the Italian farmhouse - see prior posts!).  Our Thanksgiving dinner was at Cafe de l’Homme which has a view of the Eiffel Tower. This is a decent way to spend Thanksgiving!


Sinterklaas

In The Netherlands they celebrate the arrival and departure of Sinterklaas. He comes from Spain (what?!?) on a boat and hangs around for a bit and then goes back on December 5th.  So the 5th is the gift night.  I actually think gifts can happen throughout that time but to simplify we just planned for Sinterklaas to arrive on the 5th.  The preparation involved leaving out a shoe with a carrot and/or apple for the horse that Sinterklaas rides on (gross?). He actually came while we were upstairs watching a movie and left some gifts for Sam.

Pictures below of Sam meeting Sinterklaas both in Amsterdam and Leiden (smaller town outside of Amsterdam we hung out in for a day).  Also a letter that Sinterklaas left for Sam explaining his collaboration with Santa on his gifts for this year. 😉  The boring gift that Sam got was socks.






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