Ahhhhhhh.....Gezellig!

Gezellig!  The literal translation for this word is "cozy". However, as in most languages, you can't literally translate this word with just one word!  It means cozy yes, but so much more. It mean festive, comfortable, warm, relaxing, restful, peaceful, intimate, welcoming......

Over the past couple of weeks we have been to and seen many "gezellig" places. Most recently Andrew and I were complimented by our neighbors who described our home as "Gezellig"!!!

This past Saturday night we had a neighborhood party at our house. We had decided a few weeks ago to ask people over for wine and dessert thinking it would be a nice way to get to know our neighbors and push out the empty feeling we've been having lately with the holidays around the corner and being away from the children and grandchildren.

We put the invitations in our neighbor's mail slots the day before I left for Vienna and asked for RSVP's via my cellphone, text or email. Over the next couple of weeks we received many more "yes" RSVP's than we really expected!  Sooooo exciting!

Last week I went shopping and got the supplies I needed to make several batches of cookies for the party. I couldn't find semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I did find dark chocolate fondue chips, which ended up working out just fine!  I found peanut butter (Skippy!), but I never did find vanilla extract. After scouring the stores in town I did find vanilla "aroma" at the Mabrouk Toko...and that actually worked out fine!

There are a few different kinds of flour available at the grocery store, this wheat flour ended up working out great! Baking powder is not available here, and I didn't see baking soda either...luckily I had brought those from the U.S.! I discovered that the regular sugar you buy in the grocery store is much more coarse than what I usually use, so I used this fine crystal sugar I found at Mabrouk.

Friday I baked and baked!  I had never made cookies in the oven here, so I ended up ruining a few batches experimenting with different racks, conventional vs. convection oven, etc. I ended up baking one tray of cookies at a time, with conventional heat at around 325 degrees Farenheit. I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, double batch of peanut butter cookies (some with chocolate drops placed in the middle of them), and a batch of a new recipe of maple cookies.

Saturday morning Andrew and I went downtown and bought several more bottles of wine, scotch, water (still and sparkling) and snacks. Then we cleaned the house. Afterwards Andrew and I set up the house for the party.

The party started at 2030hrs. When people walked in they all said our home was very Gezellig! Hans, Angela, Gary, Louise, Bruce, Linda, Roel, Mildred, Joep, Astrid, Guido, Kim, Ian, Sieta, Floor, Helma, and Maryke and Elleke were here!  We had a wonderful evening!

Thanks to my friend Pat Jezo, I had recently learned about Gluhwein!  Sooooo, we decided to serve that at the party. It was a hit! I had it simmering on the stove and I had found a little funnel with a strainer built into it so I could pour and not worry about getting cloves in the cups. The first batch I made I put in slices of oranges with 4-5 cloves stuck into each, about 1/4 cup of orange juice, one bottle of "Gluhwein" wine, 3 bottles of a red merlot, a little bit of sugar, and 6 sticks of cinnamon. When the pot was down to about 1/3 left, I started adding more wine and other ingredients and just kept it simmering. I ended up using about 7 bottles of wine for the gluhwein....and we drank all but about 1 cup!

During the party we had decided to have a couple of contests...just to keep it interesting!  We have a glass container that we recently started filling with corks.

One of the contests we did was to have everyone guess how many corks are in the container...without going over the amount. The one who got the closest would get a small prize (two small bottles of chocolate liqueur I had bought in Vienna.). Bruce and Linda had guessed the same number....38.....There were 39 corks in the container. They won!  Guido also guessed 38, so he got two bottles of the chocolate liqueur also! Later on we had a "guess the name of the Christmas song" contest for two more small bottles of liqueur and some party poppers. Bruce had guessed it right, but said he would forgo his prize since he had already won. So, Helma ended up winning the poppers.

During the party I was really having a lot of trouble focusing on conversations...so every now and then I would go into the kitchen where it was quieter to take a little break. I also had to sit down a few times because I was getting dizzy. When there's a lot of activity and noise it really starts to get to me sometimes.

People ended up staying till after 0100hrs....we got to bed around 0200hrs. What a fun evening!

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The next day we cleaned up a bit...put most things back in their places and then headed out to Hans and Angela's house in Heemstede (which is just south of Haarlem). Their daughter, Carmen, had her birthday in July but she was gone at that time in Spain. So, they decided to celebrate Sunday. We went over there around 1300hrs. It was nice to have a little time to sit and chat with them. Carmen opened the gifts we had gotten her and seemed to love them!  She's such a sweet young lady.

After leaving there we went home for a bite to eat, then headed downtown to go to a concert that our neighbors Elleke and Maryke had invited us to at the Groenmarktkerk.

Maryke sings with the Vrouwenkoor Malle Babbe (which is a group of women).  We got there a little after 1500hrs, and the doors were closed because it was full. Some people were waiting outside told us that some people may be leaving in about a half hour, and we could wait to see if we could get in.

While walking through town I took a few pictures on the way....

Since we couldn't get in to see the concert right away we decided to try to get in for a cup of tea at Ma Brown's Restaurant across the street. We peeked in, it looked like a special event, so we started to walk out the door. A woman approached us and said they had one table for two left, so we were able to sit down for a cup of tea and some scones! While we were there a group of men and women were singing Christmas carols!  What a wonderful thing to see!

After enjoying our tea we found the doors to the church still closed....sooooo we walked around town for a bit...

It was getting pretty chilly outside so we headed home. It's getting dark around 1630hrs now.

Andrew and I were talking about what plans we have for Christmas (none!)! We decided to try to get reservations for dinner at a restaurant either in town or in Amsterdam. The place we really wanted to go to (Duin and Kruitberg) has no openings for lunch or dinner. Soooo, Andrew thought of the Sheraton Hotel Pulitzer for dinner. It's a world famous hotel and restaurant. He was able to get reservations for Christmas Eve lunch!!!  We will be trying to Skype with the kids, parents, siblings, etc. Christmas eve and Christmas day anyway, so lunch works out great!  This is the first time we've not had our children around during the holidays......We wanted to have something to look forward to!!!

We had a "fijn weekend"!!!