Holiday Season Begins!!!

So the turkey defrosted and turned out great. See pictures above. Everyone came and they really enjoyed themselves. It was a pleasure for us to be celebrating thanksgiving with new friends and some of them are not American, so this was their first Thanksgiving. We had all the American staples, turkey, stuffing, cranberry, sweet potato, apple pie, etc. We received nice compliments on the food and everyone was amazed at the spread. This is Scott’s favorite holiday, so it was nice that we were still able to celebrate it outside the US. Then on the actual Thanksgiving Day, I was able to watch the Macy’s Parade in real time. This was very nice, but did make me a bit homesick and then later that day skyping with my whole family who were together celebrating made it a bit more difficult. It was nice though because my brother took the computer around the house, so Scott and I were able to say hi to all my relatives. After I watched the parade I had to start cooking because we were lucky to have our second set of visitors coming over from the US. We had some friends who decided to spend Thanksgiving in Amsterdam. We told them if they wanted they could spend Shabbos with us, so they wouldn’t have to worry about any plans. They came in Friday afternoon and Scott and I gave them a quick whirlwind tour of The Hague. Shabbos is starting early these days, so Friday ends up being a very short day. We started at Madurodam. For those of you who have never heard of this place, Madurodam is a miniature Holland. It is a very neat place that has recreated many famous sites in Holland in miniature. Scott and I had decided to wait until guests come to see this place. Was fun to see, but that day was a bitter cold day, so we look forward to going back in warmer weather. Then I gave our friends Debbie and Daniel a quick tour of the main city center of The Hague. They were happy to see I knew my way around. Then we jetted home for Shabbos and was great Daniel was here because he made the 10th person for the minyan in shul. Since we had guests over who were willing to play games, we played Apples to Apples and had a great time. Shabbos morning we went to shul and introduced our NY friends to our friends here in The Hague. Then we had over about 9 people for lunch including ourselves and Debbie and Daniel and was a great Shabbos afternoon. Before we knew it Shabbos was over and our friends left to head back to Amsterdam. It was great to have friends from home to show them our life here. It is always so nice for us having visitors and we welcome whoever wants to come. Please give us some advance warning.

Now we are in the midst of Chanukah. We started off the holiday with Scott making yummy latkes and we are picking up jelly donuts on Sunday. We have plans to celebrate the holiday with friends and should be fun. My only complaint is that it is so cold here and had been snowing. Not ready for real winter yet, but what can you do.

Happy Chanukah to all my friends reading who celebrate this holiday.