Monday - Netherlands

This morning, Ab walked out the front door of their apartment to get the newspaper downstairs and had the number "60" dancing on his head! He enjoyed the full effect of the flags and balloons in front of his house and in the elevator, and came back in the house with a very happy smile, convinced that Reinie and I had pulled off this massive trick. Well, no, we had not! It took a little bit of time and confessing that I take sleeping aids every night, and it would be rather impossible for me to get up, get my act together and put up decorations without falling all over myself and off the stairs...

After debating the possibility that the neighbors were behind it, we came to the conclusion that that was not very likely either since most of them were on Ab's side of 60 and not on our side of 60, if you get my drift. That left only one candidate: Ab and Reinie's youngest son Marijn and his wife of 1 year Corinne. They have a key to the apartment, and they would be the only lean and limber people to climb up things and get it done. And sure enough, they admitted their crime!

During the morning Reinie and I prepared all kinds of food items for the birthday party that would start that afternoon. After good tradition, we made "bowl", which is basically a salad made from fresh fruit and from canned fruit, depending on the season. Our mother Lena used to make this for each adult birthday and solely from canned fruit. I applaud the fresh fruit addition; it tastes much better! The other tradition is something you can compare with potato salad, but with a lot more ingredients... Reinie and Ab made an enormous amount of this together on Sunday (it was almost 8 kilos which comes to about 17 pounds) and on Monday morning we put it on a platter and decorated it with eggs, little sausages, lettuce, pearl onions and tomatoes.

The first visitor was my sister Klasien who lives in Utrecht (I will be with her from Thursday until Saturday), the next visitors were my sister Hannie and brother-in-law Hijmen and next their oldest son Machiel who will be leaving for the States this Thursday to go on a 3-week trip visiting Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and he will also go river rafting on the Colorado river for 5 days! I really appreciated it that he would come to visit his aunt!

By the end of the afternoon, three of four sons (Sander, Christian and Marijn - Lennart came already on Sunday) were in the house with their respective wives (Carola, Marieke and Corinne) and the four grand children (Hannah and Ruben are Sander's, Daniel and Joel are Christian's) and the mayhem was going in full force! It was delightful and eerie to see my nephews operate in their status as fathers and my sister and brother-in-law as grandma and grandpa. I guess we have moved up a generation and the grandkids love their opa and oma, and opa and oma love their grandkids!

But after drinking coffee, tea and other things, and eating birthday cake, chocolates, peanuts, chips, sausage, cheese, and then moving on to dinner with tomato vegetable soup, the potato salad, and dessert, the kids got tired and all the packing began. Klasien and I sat and watched it all happening: the crying, the bags, the car seats, the lost children, the lost parents, the high chairs, the sleeping tent. It was like a beehive of activity! And lo and behold, after a while all was quiet for 15 minutes at which time the adult party began with the arrival of two of Ab's sisters with their husbands, and Ab's brother and his wife. They all welcomed their little brother to their side of 60! And then we did it again: coffee with cake, coffee with chocolates or cookies, something to drink ("bowl" was a winner here) and lots of snacks to eat...

Well, finally all was quiet in the house again around midnight! We went to bed quite exhausted, but very satisfied: it had been a great and fabulous 60th birthday!