turkey day in a country without much turkey

funny thing about thanksgiving is that it is a holiday to celebrate all that the earth gives us in the harvest. the harvest here in Holland is a little bit different than it is out in the USofA. most of what we LOVE in the Thanksgiving feast is food that is really not natually occcurring here in Holland. so, it was a little expensive, but, we had some help from a friend back in the states come over and visit and pitch in for the big feast! we had a great time... i think the final count was 22 people in the house. it was so much fun! shawna's back room (not attached to the house... kind of an atelier) looked gorgeous - very warm and inviting, twinkle lights on the ceiling, tons of candles all over the room.... it was wonderful. we ate sitting on the floor on pillows - not normal, but very family-ish from the standpoint that we sat really close to each other and had to pass the food all over the room. it was a lot of fun. as ever at thanksgiving, we made WAY too much food, but we made the most of it and utilized our leftovers very well (quiche for the neighbors). 2 of the people that came to the house had never been invited to a thanksgiving dinner before, so it was really great to see how much they enjoyed themselves. everyone interacted as though they were all friends already.... even the 2 people who came with other friends who we had never met before. tons of laughs, food, wine, friends. it was wonderful... nice to have my fav holiday in another country and have other people that are not americans love it too ;)

"what in the name of ME is going on here?"

i just watched jesus camp and it scared the hell out of me. and not in the way they meant it to. if you have not seen it, i recommend it. watch it here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7168860244966080667

i had to consider carefully where in life i have seen this, where i have been prey to it and especially where it gets twisted. my heart breaks for these poor kids. they deserve to be loved better than this. again, read "listening for the heartbeat of God".... way better filter for life, i think.

i don't really want to be called a christian anymore... any other ideas for a different title? i don't want to be associated with these people at all...

YIKES.

not cultural news

this is short and without pictures.... because it is about the work that we are doing here and i don't really take pics of me on the computer and on the phone. you have all seen this before.

big things in regard to getting the business set up! as i mentioned before, my business will be called "embellish" and there have already been asked to work with people on more projects! more on that as it develops and the company is officially set up in the country... this is a PROCESS, to say the least, and i am happy to have as much forward movement as i do right now in it. please keep praying with me through this!

in regards to working on forming reckoning with shawna... we have had some really great meetings with many different people that are connecting us in ways that we could hardly have thought possible. the master plan to retool and work from is finished, and there is SOOOOOO much to do, but it is really coming along very well and i am so looking forward to seeing where this is going to go.... sunday was a really good day for us in terms of conversations.... more and more prayer, please!

i have started dutch classes with a woman named daphne that i met on the tram on the way to some other friend's house here in the city. she is a very dutch woman, kind and we are meeting twice a week for 2 hours per session. this has been really helpful and i am already getting better and i can sctualy nderstand some of what people are saying to me! every store i walked into today, i was able to do it in dutch (given, there were not that many words exchanged, but the ones i did know were the only ones i needed)! this will go through december and then we will see from there....

MY PARENTS ARE COMING OUT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! obviously, i am stoked about this. so is the Snow family :) being here this year rather than going somewhere is going to be hard, and having a warm house full of people is going to be really wonderful for all of us. Shawna's parents-in-law might come out, and another friend from Cali is coming out as well. this is going to be a good time!

i am looking to come back out to visit chicago after being at a conference in florida for a couple of days in february. what is looking the best right now is feb 10-26....

more to come, sorry all of this is so delayed and i hope that the pics help. it has been really busy..... really good. thank you for checking in, saying hello when you have a chance and i hope to hear from you soon!

much love and peace

Sinterklaas!!!... part I

it is almost christmas here... but they do sinterklaas here. christmas is not that big, but it is gaining attention. here is the wikipedia explanation of sinterklaas...

SINTERKLAAS is a holiday tradition in the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas' eve (December 5) or, in Belgium, on the morning of December 6. The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Eve, (December 5) is the chief occasion for gift-giving. The evening is called pakjesavond ("presents' evening"). Traditionally, presents are ingeniously wrapped, and are therefore called surprises. Also, presents are traditionally accompanied by a poem from Saint Nicholas.

so, what they don't well you here is that sinterklaas enters the city about 3 weeks before the 5th (so this past sunday) in a huge parade, and he is accompanied by "swarte piete"s... people in black face that are essentially elves. ...oh. my. gosh... needless to say, this is a real culture shock. doesn't seem quite right somehow... if do some research, there is actually some interesting history behind it, but it is still really awkward.

note the contrast in this picture...

so, all of the little kids are looking at sinterklaas as he is riding into town, and yelling "Piete! Piete! Piete!" so that he will come by and give them UNWRAPPED cookies and candy FROM THEIR UNGLOVED HANDS and put it into their bags to take home and eat. too funny. we laughed a ton and shea got a ton of cookies. welcome to sinterklaas.
dude... a whole float.

very impressive wheeling, and some form of princesses....

More to come after the 5th of December on that...

bollywood

noelle went to a party for the church that she goes to called the Zolder (planted by GEM, i think) called "Bollywood" for the intention of raising money for a community in India. we had a great tie getting her all ready. I couldn't tell her that it is really downhill after the dress. but, when she came home, i think she actually had a better time than getting ready! she said it was a great party and really just lights up when she gets to be around people :)

Mia the starlette

one of the pics that we sent into the casting director

so Mia was in a dutch movie! it is a movie based on a dutch teen book called "how do i survivie myself" (but think of it as though you were listening to someone speaking dutch)... she was one of the main extras as the lead character's alter ego that is a talented in-line skater!

mis is the one in the hot red wig!!!!

she had such a great time and it the casting people have offered to contact her for future stuff!

about a week later, she was in a competition in Rotterdam at Skateland in which she was the only girl competeing and made it to the finals!!!! she did really well... many of her friends were in the competition and placed really well too! we had a great time... Noelle and Shea came too, so it was a girl's day ;) mia did great and things are going really well for her at the moment. some of her friends are coming over to the house for dinner this friday so, it should be pretty fun getting to know the people that are a big part of her life ;)

you say it's your (princess) birthday

the party-goers



on the 8th of November, it was SHEA'S BIRTHDAY! the darling little munchkin turned 5... and has not let us forget it since :). it was the cutest thing... Shawna decided to let her invite 5 friends over for the the party on the 7th. The back room (separate apartment, basically) has been finished for the time being, so the party was back there. sidenote: this room is going to be our work room/guest room/my room/whatever else we need. it was so cute... all of these little girls speaking dutch, all from different backgrounds.

noelle being beaten mercilessly by.... 5 year olds. with balloons.

here is the thing... we were expecting a room full of really off-the-wall girls, and they were super mellow. they played well, didn't fight, sat and listened to our friend Harmine read a book to them, sang to Disney Princess Music... it was adorable and really wonderfully low-maintainance. so fun. by the way; our friend Harmine totally came in and saved the day - she is dutch and was soooo good with all of the girls. she really made the day and was such a great person for all of the girls. Such a fun day... different from what i was expecting, but such a fabulous time hanging out with these little princesses :)
this little one was having a particularly hard time... harmine was so sweet to keep reading to her :)
Andrew smuggling cake

Embellish...

OK!!!! it has been too long since the last post.... much has happened, so i am going to break it down into bite-sized chunks for you. we'll start with the 3rd of november....



the company that i am working hard to set up, called "Embellish", had it's first job on Saturday the 3rd! We were asked to do the catering as more of a promotion for our work and and the exhibit... the exhibit was called "ViceVerse" and is an exhibit that has been done in Cadiz in Spain and featured over 20 artists. The exhibition poening was held in the Oude Kerk ("old church") in the middle of the red light district. the exhibit it really beautiful, man talented artists including our friend, Wanda (connector for this event and our biggest cheerleader :) ). The food really centered around an idea of bright veggies, spanish-style hors d'oevures that were presented in a "horn of plenty" presentation for all to share. it was really fun to set up, prep was easy, and THEY LOVED IT! we had a number of people thank us profusely, saying that it was a work of art in itself and asking WHAT OTHER WORK WE ARE DOING! mission accomplished! it was really great to have it be well recieved and give the artists an experience of really feeling taken care of and showcasing their work. sidenote: people are amazing. they absolutely annihilated the table... i am not kidding. we saw a woman towards the end of the opening actually pick up one of the cabbages that the dip was in and start eating it with a serving spoon. they ate the decor, for crying out loud! very hilarious. it was pretty interesting to see people practically climbing over one another to get at that food. it was a great time, we are fielding requests for more work in the wake of still working to get it all set up through the country... we had a great time and can't wait to do more to expand the businesses of these people...

wanda's son sebastian and his girlfriend Arianna
our darling wanda and friends
this is the beginning...