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One thing I have discovered that I love love love about having Gwen in daycare is how active they are about celebrating appropriate German holiday traditions. One thing about raising Gwen away from family and outside of the country of our holiday traditions is that it's not always easy for us to keep up the traditions we grew up with; e.g., there is no Thanksgiving here, so it would be more of an idiosyncracy than a family holiday tradition; we don't have big Easter dinner with the family, etc. And since we don't know the German traditions, we wouldn't be able to raise her with them instead. Enter daycare.
Gwen was born on Saint Martin's Day (Sint-Maartensdag, Martinstag), which is far more widely celebrated/commemorated in both the Netherlands and Germany than Armistice Day. Our first year in the Netherlands, we were rather bemused when our doorbell rang one evening around supper time, and we opened it to little kids bearing lanterns who began to sing. Luckily, traditions aren't that different from the US to Europe, and thus it was clear that the appropriate response was to give them candy. :) This year, in early November, I was asked if I could bring in a brie or camembert container so that Gwen could make a lantern out of it, and then on the evening of the 11th they had a lantern party after it got dark out, where they walked around with their lanterns, had snacks, and sang songs. Gwen still sings those songs that she learned, and occasionally, especially in the morning when the house is still semi-dark, asks for her lantern so she can parade around the livingroom with it.
My side of the family intermittently celebrated St. Nick's growing up; however, we could never remember if he came the morning of the 5th or the night of the 5th, and thus we never knew to hang up our stockings on the evening of 4th or the 5th. To be honest, the bulk of my childhood memories of St. Nick's were making various small handcrafts, or saving quarters and chocolates, so that I could fill my parents' stockings. They were always thrilled when St. Nick brought them, e.g., giraffes made out of twist-ties, or helicopters made out of old toothbrushes. Coincidentally enough, one of the things I look forward to about rummaging through my stocking (which still gets filled every year) is the toothbrush and travel toothpaste that's in it -- except this year, when Gwen got a new toothbrush, but neither Joel nor I did! I feel gypped.
Sinterklaas is an incredibly big thing in the Netherlands, and last year he came to Gwen's daycare in Tilburg and had presents for everyone, but she was too young to really take any of it in. On Friday, when Joel picked Gwen up from daycare early so we could head to the train station (roughly 20 hours of travel to get to Yule Ball: 7 hours on 4 trains, and then the overnight ferry, then another train), he found that St. Nick had visited daycare (curiously enough, he'd also visited my office, as this greeted me when I arrived in the morning:
), and Gwen had a small bag which he had left for her. We ended up not having time to open it until we were on the ferry, right before we put her to bed, but no amount of tiredness was going to prevent her from enjoying pulling out a piece of evergreen, a chocolate santa, an orange, and an apple. (And she was equally thrilled about each -- especially when we told her she'd be able to have the orange and the apple for breakfast the next day!) And as she pulled out each item, I revelled inside. Because isn't that what Saint Nick always traditionally brings in stories and things? An apple and an orange and a treat! I love it that she's getting to be a part of all of these traditions. Yay, daycare. For as rough as our start was with the one in Heidelberg, I've become really, really happy with them.
Gwen was born on Saint Martin's Day (Sint-Maartensdag, Martinstag), which is far more widely celebrated/commemorated in both the Netherlands and Germany than Armistice Day. Our first year in the Netherlands, we were rather bemused when our doorbell rang one evening around supper time, and we opened it to little kids bearing lanterns who began to sing. Luckily, traditions aren't that different from the US to Europe, and thus it was clear that the appropriate response was to give them candy. :) This year, in early November, I was asked if I could bring in a brie or camembert container so that Gwen could make a lantern out of it, and then on the evening of the 11th they had a lantern party after it got dark out, where they walked around with their lanterns, had snacks, and sang songs. Gwen still sings those songs that she learned, and occasionally, especially in the morning when the house is still semi-dark, asks for her lantern so she can parade around the livingroom with it.
My side of the family intermittently celebrated St. Nick's growing up; however, we could never remember if he came the morning of the 5th or the night of the 5th, and thus we never knew to hang up our stockings on the evening of 4th or the 5th. To be honest, the bulk of my childhood memories of St. Nick's were making various small handcrafts, or saving quarters and chocolates, so that I could fill my parents' stockings. They were always thrilled when St. Nick brought them, e.g., giraffes made out of twist-ties, or helicopters made out of old toothbrushes. Coincidentally enough, one of the things I look forward to about rummaging through my stocking (which still gets filled every year) is the toothbrush and travel toothpaste that's in it -- except this year, when Gwen got a new toothbrush, but neither Joel nor I did! I feel gypped.
Sinterklaas is an incredibly big thing in the Netherlands, and last year he came to Gwen's daycare in Tilburg and had presents for everyone, but she was too young to really take any of it in. On Friday, when Joel picked Gwen up from daycare early so we could head to the train station (roughly 20 hours of travel to get to Yule Ball: 7 hours on 4 trains, and then the overnight ferry, then another train), he found that St. Nick had visited daycare (curiously enough, he'd also visited my office, as this greeted me when I arrived in the morning:
), and Gwen had a small bag which he had left for her. We ended up not having time to open it until we were on the ferry, right before we put her to bed, but no amount of tiredness was going to prevent her from enjoying pulling out a piece of evergreen, a chocolate santa, an orange, and an apple. (And she was equally thrilled about each -- especially when we told her she'd be able to have the orange and the apple for breakfast the next day!) And as she pulled out each item, I revelled inside. Because isn't that what Saint Nick always traditionally brings in stories and things? An apple and an orange and a treat! I love it that she's getting to be a part of all of these traditions. Yay, daycare. For as rough as our start was with the one in Heidelberg, I've become really, really happy with them.
