A game and an important question

On the first day of Christmas we had about an hour to spare before we were supposed to go to my parents. We decided to go play a game of Rummicub. So I got the things ready, and started to sort my Rummicub stones, when M stood behind me. I said "Hey, you're cheating, move away from here!".
He laughed and put a wrapped box before me. "I bought you something". I was a little surprised and opened the box, to find this watch, only purple instead of white. When I got up to thank him, he said "I also had a question". He smiled and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! So we kissed and cuddled.
And then we played Rummicub....

Christmas in the Netherlands

After I told you about Sinterklaas, it's time I told you something about the way Christmas is celebrated in the Netherlands. But of course the Netherlands is a country with 15 million people and everybody has their own traditions, so I'll explain the way we celebrate in my family.

In my country, lots of people are secular and don't believe in God. To them, Christmas is a time of being together with family and eating a big meal. Lots of those people do a gift exchange at Christmas too, after their children don't believe in Sinterklaas anymore. I am pretty strongly opposed to that, because in my opinion gift-giving at Christmas is an American tradition. There's nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to hang on to our own, Dutch traditions and exchange gifts on the 5th. Besides, to me, Christmas isn't about presents, but about something else.

About a week before the 25th, we would put up our Christmas tree. My parents always have a real tree, and so do I. I love the smell of pine needles! I always love that moment when the Christmas boxes are taken down from the attic. I would open them up and look at all the stuff in there. I did that again this year too, but that was because this year is only our second year to have our own tree, and I forgot what all we have. :-)

Because we are a Christian family, my dad would always start reading the Christmas story from the Bible, a few days in advance. Every other year we would celebrate Christmas with my grandfather. But if we were home on Christmas Eve we would go to church, to the night service. I always think it's magical to attend that service, late at night and with lots of candles.And then, on both days of Christmas (in Holland we have 2 days! That is because in the old days people would go to church on the first day and spend time with family on the second. Easter is also a 2 day thing here.) we would have a nice meal, play lots of games, take walks outside and do things like that. We have a pretty harmonious family so I have lots of good Christmas memories.

St.Nicholas

This entry was inspired by DeepLight and Allis. I know that it is totally unnessecary for all of the Dutch people that read my blog. But I wrote it for my Xanga, so I decided to post it here too.

Tuesday, December 5th, we celebrated St.Nick's day. That is the day we exchange gifts in the Netherlands. In our country, the religious Christmas and the gift exchange are two different things. The day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ is December 25th, just like in other countries. We actually have a Second Christmas Day too, on the 26th. That's because, traditionally, people would go to church on the First and go see family on the Second.

But, back to St. Nick. We call him Sinterklaas, which is an abbreviation of Sint Nicolaas. He arrives on a steam boat (called Pakjesboot 12, or Present boat 12), about two weeks before the 5th. On a Saturday morning he arrives in the country, which is aired on national TV. The days after that he arrives locally, in ports, streams, or by car or other means of transportation.

St.Nick has a lot of helpers, called Zwarte Pieten, or Black Petes. They are boys and girls whose faces are black with soot, because they have to go down chimneys to distribute presents. Typically, little kids (the true believers) can put their shoes by the chimney (or back door, or somewhere else) before they go to bed, and when they wake up they find that their shoes have been filled with candy and little presents. This is done on the week-ends between the arrival of St. Nick and the actual celebration of his birthday (which is done December 5th instead of his real birthday, the 6th, because on that day he is too busy with his own presents).

On the night that his birthday is celebrated (typically the 5th, but the Saturday night is popular too, he can't be in all places at once after all) everybody is excited. After a knock on the window and a ringing of the door bell there is a big basket (which looks a lot like mom's clothes basket) full of presents and candy. There are traditional songs, and traditional candy. It's a great time for traditions.

The people that are not so believing anymore, usually draw names. It's kind of like a Secret Santa. You buy a present for the person on your paper and that's when it starts. You have to make up an original way to wrap it. For instance, if someone is a soccer player, you might hide the present in a papier-maché soccer ball. Or if someone asked for slippers, you can make him huge paper slippers and hide the present in there. Step 3 is to make a poem. In this poem, little jokes are made about the person. He has to read the poem out loud before he can open his present, so everybody has a good laugh.

Needless to say, St. Nick is my favorite holiday in the year. Anymore though, more and more people start giving presents at Christmas, once their kids don't believe in Sinterklaas anymore. I think that's a loss of our culture. Besides, Santa Claus was made up by Dutch immigrants in the United States who wanted to keep their tradition, yet change it to their new culture. And Coca Cola did the rest...Because St. Nick is so important, nobody has any Christmas decorations up until December 6th. That would be showing a lack of respect for St.Nicholas..

Sweet

Take a look at this. It's written by one of my two American host fathers. Isn't it sweet?

But you have no accent!

Every time I'm in the United States, people wonder why I have such a weird name (even though Nicolien tends to turn to Nikki pretty soon whenever I get there). When I explain to them that I'm from Holland, there are two responses possible.

1. "Holland, really? I just love Copenhagen! My brother recently moved to Norway, do you know him? His name is Jim Johnson."
   If this remark doesn't strike you as funny, try checking the map of Europe. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, which is two countries away from Holland (also know as the Netherlands) and not the same as Norway!
   
2. "Holland, really? I just love Michigan! My mother/aunt/cousin always dances in their annual spring tulip festival. Oh and Grand Rapids just has a lovely outlet mall, doesn't it?"
   If you don't understand this, you're probably not from the USA. There is a city in the state of Michigan called Holland. Lots of Dutch people emigrated to Michigan. It's fun to check their phone book and see how many Dutch names you find there..

The people who make remark #2 usually tell me: "But you have no accent! How is that possible?". I still find that hard to believe. But I think that the combination of watching American tv and musical ears made my accent a little less detectable than with most Dutch people. The no accent has turned out to be a reason for some funny situations. Like when I went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to get my driving permit, and they asked me: "Hey, I see you recently turned eighteen. Would you like to register to vote?" "Er, thanks, but I'm not American".

Actually, this has been sort of a problem for me too. When I first came to my American High School, I wasn't as interesting to the other kids as most foreign exchange students. They didn't realize I was one, most thought I had just moved from another town. It even took one teacher a week to find out I wasn't American! That was because I told him Anne Frank was not German but Dutch. Thank goodness I didn't really have problems making friends.
The handy thing was that whenever I didn't feel like explaining the whole Holland/Holland situation I would just introduce myself as Nikki Jarboe and nobody would think that was weird.

Anyway, the reason for this post is this. Thanks, Cltgrace! Even the internet thinks I have no accent. What a compliment!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The South
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North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

PS: I did not mean to brag in this post. So please don't take it that way. Everything I describe here has really actually happened multiple times!