Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

First off, we hope that all of our Canadian friends and family had a wonderful Thanksgiving, however you were able to spend it. We had a small dinner get together here on Saturday with some friends and had a lovely time. Our friends had never been to a Thanksgiving dinner before, so we were pretty happy that we had a pie plate (thanks again Mom!) and could bake some classic Pumpkin Pie to serve them. 

This photo was taken before we baked it. We meant to take a photo afterward but ended up getting side tracked.

Saturday morning we headed out as a family to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (National Antiquities Museum) and were able to check out the Egyptian exhibit and the Greek exhibit; both of which we all enjoyed. Atticus walked the entire Egyptian exhibit before he finally tired out and opted to sit in the stroller; it was so much fun seeing him studying all the different displays and how enthusiastic he was. One of the really neat things about this museum is that they have taken the stones of an old temple they discovered and rebuilt the temple in the entrance of the museum - very cool! There are a few photos below.

Laura and Atticus in front of the temple.

Jason and Atticus in front of an Egyptian tomb

Atticus enjoying the kids section of the Greek exhibit.

Jason having some fun in the kids section as well.

Atticus trying to help push the stroller. He was getting tired of how slow we were going and wanted to speed things up so he could see more.

A quick family photo before hopping back on our bikes.

And now, back tracking to last weekend.....

On Friday, some friends were very generous and lent us their vehicle, so Jason took the afternoon off and we went apple picking at a nearby organic orchard. We had great weather and brought back plenty of apples and even a few pears and have been thoroughly enjoying them since. We even made an apple pie on the weekend that we could enjoy while watching conference!

We really need to remember to take photos AFTER the pie is baked as it was much more appetizing and picturesque after it had been baked. Oh well, we're sure you get the idea with the before picture.

Family photo in the apple orchard.

 On Saturday afternoon we headed to downtown Leiden to check out some of the '3 October' celebrations. Since the 3rd of October fell on a Sunday this year, many of the celebrations were on Saturday which meant that we could check them out. The 3 October celebrations are specific for Leiden and happen every year to celebrate Leiden's relief from the Spaniards. The celebration consists of plenty of herring, hutspot, rides, games, olie bollen, market stalls and an Italian opera rendition of the historical event. We started off by watching the Italian Opera, which was a little strange but we loved it, especially Atticus! If you want to read a little bit more about the history of this event, we have put a couple paragraphs about it at the bottom of this post.

Above and below are a couple of the characters from the opera. Their costumes were really interesting.

Atticus watching in awe.

 Then we went and indulged in some traditional hutspot, which contains potatoes, onions, carrots and bacon all mashed up together, ours was then topped with a sausage. It was surprisingly tasty, and Laura even managed to whip of a vegetarian version the following day.

hutspot

 Then it was on to the festive wares market where we shared an ollie bollen (a type of deep fried sugary dough) and checked out the interesting items that we for sale. Then it was off to the games and rides. We were surprised at how many there were. For those of you who are familiar with the Calgary Stampede, picture the Stampede midway games and rides all squeezed into the narrow pedestrian streets of historical Leiden - it was so much fun to check out. To finish off our very dutch experience we got to ride our bikes home in the pouring rain! We made it home in time to wash up and sit down for the Saturday morning session of general conference.

General Conference was incredible, as to be expected. We each had our favorite talks of course, and have loved being able to talk about the different things that stood out to us. We are so grateful to have internet connection so that we can access the sessions so easily. If you missed any of the talks you can go HERE and listen, watch, read or download any or all of the talks. We highly recommend President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk and you can watch that one by clicking HERE (for Quicktime) or HERE (for Real Player). President Uchtdorf gave us a nice, gentle reminder of how important it is to slow down, spend time together and build relationships and that trying to speed through hard times, is not the best solution. 

Well, we hope you all enjoyed our update on the highlights over the last couple of weeks. We are all doing well and staying out of trouble.

Love and miss you all.

-The Clog Crew

3 October History

(from this reliable source)

The city of Leiden was besieged from 1573 until 1574, when it was finally relieved. Leiden’s Relief (Leidens Ontzet) is celebrated annually in order to commemorate the siege during the Eighty Years’ War and the relief of the city on October 3, 1574.

The siege and the relief of the City of Leiden took place during the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648). Intially the City Council remained loyal to the Sovereign Lord King Filips II of Spain, but in June 1572, the city chose to be loyal to Prince William of Orange. In an attempt to regain power over the city, the Spanish starved the inhabitants of Leiden in order to force them to surrender. During the second siege, 6000 of the 18000 inhabitants of Leiden died of starvation and the plague. The City Council remained unmoved and would not even consider surrendering to the Spanish oppressor.

The “(water)geuzen” pierced the dikes at Rotterdam and Capelle aan den IJssel in September 1574, in order to flood the polder lands. The outcome of this action depended on the winds which would have to move the water towards Leiden. The City Council did not surrender to the Spanish King as they had been informed of the plan to relieve the city.

The water rose high and so the Spanish troops fled. According to tradition, it was the little orphaned boy named Cornelis Joppenszoon that found a hotpot (hutspot) in the deserted Spanish army camp Schans Lammen (near the current Lammebrug) and informed the citizens that Leiden had been freed. It was early morning when the Geuzen sailed over the Vliet into the city with a load of herring and white bread on board.

As a token of appreciation for the city’s brave resistance, William of Orange founded the University of Leiden on February 8, 1575.