Thanksgiving, Belgian Style and Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

What started out as a simple Thanksgiving dinner with another American family, turned into a somewhat large celebration including some of our Dutch friends. My friends Amelia and I had been working all week planning the right menu and dividing up who would make what. Our biggest obstacle turned out to be the turkey. We knew that we would be able to order a turkey from a butcher but could not stomach the idea of having to pay the equivilent of about $8.50 a pound. I even tried to see if the food store could get one in for me but was told they would not have have them until Christmas. We were told that a German food store chain carried frozen turkeys, so Amelia and I set out to the closest store in the bordertown, Aachen to get some. We were able to buy 2 - 6.5 pound frozen turkeys for about $2.50 a pound. The next day, I almost lost it when I went to the food store down the street and saw huge fresh turkeys in the case. 

Getting dinner on the table was a little hectic but convincing 9 little pilgrims to sit down and eat was easier than I expected. Our meal turned out great and it was so nice to be able to share some of our Thanksgiving traditions with friends who had never experienced it before.

The next day, we sent the kids off to school and went to Brugge. We didn't have much time there, but were able to squeeze in a brewery tour, which we would never have been able to do with the kids.

Saturday, Campbell's hosted Sinterklaas and his 2 of his Zwarte Piets. The event was really nice with pancakes (crepes), ice cream and candy. Campbell's gave us a choice of gifts for the kids. All of the options were very nice. Sinterklaas called each child up indiviually and gave them their gift. Seeing Sinterklaas is always nice but I still find the Zwarte Piets very odd.