Fourth of July Fun!

Some of the hardest times to be away from home are the holidays... both because we don't get a day off work and because I'm not actually celebrating them with friends and family like I usually do. Memorial Day was kind of weird, but the thought of being here for the 4th made me pretty sad. That problem was easily solved when I decided to have a 4th of July party with my co-workers. :) It was so much fun to think up an "American" menu, which consisted of "pigs in a blanket" (unbelievable that I could find cocktail wieners here, but I did!!), hot dogs (the buns were a bit of a problem, and the hot dogs came in a giant tin can! Different), potato salad, deviled eggs, pasta salad, baked beans, watermelon, corn on the cob, chips, brownies, and, the piece de resistance, the apple pie!

I went to the grocery store on Thursday to get all the goods. Now, let me paint a little picture of how this works. In Holland, you either bring your grocery bags, or you buy them (for 20 Euro cents each), and then you bag your own groceries. I was planning on having about 20 people over, so my grocery cart was FULL! Now, bagging your groceries is always the stressful part of the trip to the grocery store for me, because the checker doesn't really give a darn if she is putting bread down the chute before a giant can of hot dogs, and, so if you aren't quick about things, you are going to have some mighty squished hot dog buns. It used to piss me off, now I'm getting used to it, and it's kind of a game for me. Anyways, what happens is your groceries go down one side of the bagging area, and then there is an arm that moves back and forth on the bagging area, and the checker moves this arm to one side to send the next person's groceries down the other side. Well, I bought so much that the ENTIRE area was full of my stuff, so I was totally holding up the line as I madly tried to bag all of my groceries. You wouldn't believe the strange looks I got! Anyways, after that, I was feeling a sense of accomplishment... all in all, the trip took about an hour and a half (I'm usually only at the store about 15 minutes.) Here is a picture of everything I bought all spread out... if you double click, you can make it bigger to look at some of the names of things... note the "Cool American" Doritoes (same as our "Cool Ranch").

Five trips back and forth to the car later, we have everything! Double click to look at some of the names of these things! :)

Friday night, Kristin, my fellow Ohioan, came over to help me peel potatoes and apples, bribed with a promise of a yummy dinner. She peeled like a champ and made Ohio proud. While I made dinner, I think she peeled about 20 potatoes! That night, we got the potato salad (my mom's yummy recipe) and the apple pie filling all done. Whew!

Kristin - the apple and potato peeling machine!

Saturday morning, I was too excited/stressed to sleep. So, I was up early, making brownies and deviled eggs. I was surprised by a phone call at 9 am from Sean, who was on his way home from the 4th of July party he had been to... it was midnight there. That was a really great surprise, and made me feel like it was meant to be that I was skipping my long run (which I did do later!) to cook! :) Just a side note on that... things are going really, really well. This distance thing has been very, very hard at times... sometimes hard for one person when it's not for the other and vice versa, but, I think we've finally gotten into a good rhythm, and we're feeling stronger than ever. I think the countdown is 46 days until we get to be together again, and I can't wait!!!

So, on to the party... I had asked people to dress up in their best American outfit, and some took it more seriously than others. It was great! I offered prized to the people who Kristin and I (the only Americans at the party) deemed to be the best-dressed. I was able to find Nutter Butters, Pop Tarts, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at the American Food Store, so the winners were happy to get these tasty American Treats. This was definitely the most multi-cultural 4th of July I've ever had - we had people from Italy, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Thailand, Scotland, Mexico, and, of course, the US of A. It was great. I had asked everyone to just bring beer from their home country, so it was fun to try beers from all over the world. Here are some of the pictures. Of course, being the hostess, I forgot to take a lot because I was making sure that everyone had a beer in hand and food in their bellies, so, when I get more, I'll post them separately!

The American Spread

What's more American than Apple Pie?? This was SOOOO yummy!!

Kristin and Alex went the cowgirl/boy route...

Kristin and Olivier

Kevin and his girlfriend Nicole - Kevin won first prize!

Alex brought Tiramisu... yum!

Kevin really WANTS to be an American!

Fun times at K Pitty's

Happy 4th of July!!!!