December 2010

December 5th is traditionally the day for Saint Nicholas celebrations and this weekend there were many events organized by the Dutch-American community. Our calendar showed more than 20 public appearances by Saint Nick in the United States.

Of special note was the arrival of St. Nick in the Los Angeles harbor, organized by the Dutch School of Los Angeles. With help of the LA Harbor fire department St. Nick and his helpers arrived by boat to a huge crowd of children.

Below you'll find a selection of photographs of those events this weekend; there are many more on our Facebook page.

Saint Nick in Los Angeles.

A big crowd of children waiting in Los Angeles. Photos courtesy of the Dutch School Los Angeles & Caroline Verhagen.

Saint Nick in North Carolina, in a celebration organized by Dutch Club De Wieken.

Chocolate letters and speculaas.

In Solana Beach, California, organized by the Dutch School San Diego, the San Diego Dutch Meetup group and the San Diego Belgian Meetup group. Photo courtesy of Tjitske Zitman.

Sinterklaas in New York city Friday night. Photo courtesy of NLBorrels.com; see more on their Facebook page.

Sinterklaas arriving in Virginia Beach, VA. Photo courtesy of Bas van Rijswijk.

Sinterklaas at the Dutch School in Boston, MA. Photo courtesy of http://www.ensib.org.

Saint Nicholas in Michigan. Photo courtesy of Michigan Cottage Cook, a blog about Dutch heritage information and interesting links to all things Dutch.

On Thursday I was in Leeuwarden, visiting Ettie, Gerben and Jasper.

It was great to spend the day with little Jasper. He was experimenting with his feet, and had a lot of fun grabbing them.

In the afternoon we went for a walk through the city. We had warm chocolate (haha) in Bagels & Beans, and we went to an Indonesian store for some herbs.

I saw the new part of the house, and the new fence in the backyard. Gerben brought me home -- thank you!

"Hey, I have feet!"

A happy smile.

On Wednesday I spent the day in Rotterdam. I spent the morning in in bookstores, and in the afternoon I had coffee with Eveline and Paula.

In the late afternoon I went to Joost's new office. Joost and Alle Jan started a company earlier this year (they are architects) and it was fun to see their office in downtown Rotterdam. It looked really creative. We went out for drinks, where Ankie quickly joined us, and we had a excellent evening together.

I've been getting up early this week. Today I woke up at 6.00 am; clearly I'm still adjusting to the time difference.

I have a cold, and went to bed early yesterday after a great dinner. We went to Pho 9N9, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Research Triangle. I had pho, a dish I know well from our time in DC, and it was delicious.

Today Petra and I went for lunch in an Thai/Chinese/Indonesian cafe in Cary. It was nice to catch up with her.

We examined the nasi goreng and satay with a critical Dutch eye. The verdict: it was delicious, but the nasi goreng especially was different than in the Netherlands.

Later I prepared my cubicle at work for the holiday season.