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So Peter and I traveled to Amsterdam to celebrate Oma Annie’s 100th birthday. (Oma = Grandma). Oma had 11 children, those 11 children had an unknown (to me) number of grandchildren. Of those grandchildren about half had had their own children resulting in 39 great-grand children present at the celebration. I would estimate that 200 people attended the party and they were all directly related to Oma. Whew!
I met Oma shortly after we we arrive din the country and there is no way I would have looked at her and said, “Oh ya, she’s 100 years old”. She was a vibrant, loving, wonderful woman and I am sorry that I didn’t get to spend more time with her but I am honored that I got to meet her. The outpouring of love and respect for this woman brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. Given how incredibly important my family is to me I was thrilled to discover that my new family has the same tradition of closeness and respect. The cousins are all wonderfully close and the assorted Aunts and Uncles are involved with all of them. Children are cherished and ran rampant the day of the party with whatever adult near keeping a lenient eye on them. No one worried, no one stressed. They were all there to honor Oma and family. Beautiful.
We all formed up a few blocks away, the marching (yes, we had a marching band) tuned up and then we paraded, streets closed, police directing traffic and all, to Oma’s house. She was installed proudly at the head of the parade and we continued our march to a small farm park (goats, sheep, cows and horses) for the party. The farm was created as a learning/play area for children so it was completely fenced with only 1 point of entrance which meant the kids ran wild and parents didn’t need to worry about them. There was singing and dancing, with even Oma taking a turn at the head of the dance line, great food and an overwhelming number of people.
The dutch greet and take leave of each other with 3 kisses, 3! By the time we were able to leave my face was chafed from all the 5 o’clock shadows sported by the men by 7pm but what a wonderful (and handsome) family.
Sadly, 10 days after her birthday, Oma passed away. She had all of her children with her and, I believe, she chose that time to go, having seen and celebrated with her family, before her children dispersed to their homes.
Peter and I walked our feet off (and some weight), leaving the house at about 10am and not usually coming home until 7pm. We cycled, we toured the red light district, we shopped and best of all we went to see Molen! (Molen = windmill) We toured a working molen that produces pigment powders and saw another windmill that was a lumber mill (sadly closed on Sundays). Amsterdam is gorgeous , aside from all the rubbish everywhere from the striking garbage men. The people are friendly and most everyone speaks English. However, the food was less than stellar, very salty, really really salty.
I’ve uploaded photos of our adventures, enjoy!
Love,
Arwen
….was actually grey. Why is it so cold? It’s the end of May? I am ready for summer and sun and I’m not going to get any.
Yesterday I started feeling quite down. Nothing went the way I needed it to (except having my great friends with me) and I just couldn’t pull myself out of my funk. Today I caught myself being jealous of Pete going on a field trip with work and feel lonely and abandoned (from the other side of the planet? I know, it makes no sense). Why? I couldn’t figure it out. But I think it’s really the weather. I just can’t handle this grey damp anymore. Then I realized that instead of having a lovely sunny warm break from it I am moving straight back into winter! July is the middle of winter in Australia, what am I doing? How am I going to stay sane? 2 winters in a row? feh!
Wedding planning is going pretty well. 3 weeks left but still some things to sort out, like a DJ. Gown fitting on Thursday and going to try to meet with Caterer that day as well. Just feeling overwhelmed, stressed, not enough time to get everything done, sick of spending money, wish I could cancel all the contracts, tell everyone it was potluck and just relax. My whole life I’ve wanted a lovely, catered wedding with the fancy dress and DJ; now I want the kickback picnic wedding (still with fancy dress) with an ipod play list and badminton.
