black and (A)broad

June 21st is supposed to be the longest day of the year, but not this year. December 31st stole that honor. In Holland this day is distinguished by what Julie Duke, a British woman and lovely writer in my Life Story writing circle, describes as being “beseiged all day by something that sounded like the intermittent gunfire of trench warfare, culminating in the outbreak of World War 3 at midnight!!”

Firecrackers. All day long. Fireworks. All night long. I only go outside when absolutely necessary, and unfortunately a minor emergency arose that necessitated my stepping out of doors. Hubby ran out of frosting about a third of the way through helping the girls decorate their gingerbread house (a thoughtful gift from Denise one of my dearest friends). As I quickly cycled to town, I passed groups of young boys, usually in three’s or four’s, who’d randomly throw a firecracker, seemingly with little regard to who may be in the vicinity. On every other corner stood hapless teens and younger children setting off fireworks. This latter group of unsupervised children have always put me on edge.

Chloe is terrified of the day-long bangs and booms that accompany Oud en Nieuw (New Year’s Eve). I got smart this year and bought a package of earplugs for her, but that didn’t stop her from walking around with her hands covering her ears. Paige copied her sister and ran desperately to me and literally jumped into my lap whenever a particularly loud clap struck, which was frequent. Hubby and I did everything we could think of to distract their attention from the outside noise: decorating the gingerbread house, singing and dancing to their favorite CDs, watching a favorite movie, coloring, etc. It all worked, I must say, but it was temporary. We even went to a friend’s house at around 8.00pm in the hope that a new environment might distract them enough to sleep. We left at 10.00.

When they finally fell asleep at 10.30, hubby and I sat on the couch and opened a bottle of champagne. For the first time in over ten years, we’d be bringing in the New Year, just the two of us and sober! Not my idea of a fun time on the one night per year that having fun is obligatory. At about 11.55 both kids woke up, so we decided to bring them downstairs with us, knowing that at 12.05 all hell would break loose, which it did.

As I sat on the couch with a sleeping Paige cuddled up in my arms, I looked over at Chloe, sitting on Vinz’s lap with her hands still covering her ears and her long legs dangling over the side of the chair, I realized I didn’t want to be anywhere other than where I was, comforting my children while colors danced in the air. This is where my life has brought me so far, and I love it.

That said, I was never so happy to see a day end, which of course, it made January 1st all the sweeter. Vinz had to go to the office for a bit, and I spent the morning cleaning the kitchen, while the girls colored and watched TV. We spent the afternoon at my sister-in-law’s snacking and drinking champagne (but not too much!) before coming home, eating, and putting the girls to bed.

2009 was a relatively quiet year for my family. We’ve had many blessings and countless beautiful moments. We’ve fared well in the midst of the global economic crisis and dodged the swine flu. We cried at Obama’s inauguration and cried at Michael Jackson’s funeral. We traveled to Portugal, Italy and twice to Austria. We worked hard and spent lots of time with our friends. We’re hopeful that 2010 will be just as beautiful and filled with as many (or more) blessings than the one we just said good-bye to.

Best wishes for 2010 to you all. I hope you have the best year yet.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 at 10:13 and is filed under Dutch culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.