Make Me Smile Monday

Whenever we went to visit my grandpa and grandma Hooysma  growing up (who we called Pake and Beppa) I could always count on some Dutch treats. It's incredible how strongly our memories can be tied to food. Jason and I moved to the Durham Region in May 2005. So we've lived here for almost 6 years. Sadly I hadn't set foot in a Dutch store in almost as many years. Both the grocery stores I use here in town have a selection of dutch food (mostly desserts) and I've indulged a few times but I do find there is something special about an entire store devoted to Dutch things. After we'd live here for a while I discovered that there's is in fact a Dutch store close by I'd been missing out on.

The winter just before Jakob was born my Beppe passed away. (Pake had already passed away several years before.)  We drove down to the funeral, had a really hard time finding the church and almost didn't make it. I'm so glad we did.

The week before Christmas I was out running errands and decided to take a few extra minutes to stop by this store. I walked in and was immediately overwhelmed by the familiarity of it all. I suppose because Beppe always had something Dutch on the table and this was my one real connection with these things I just walked in and felt like I was back with Pake and Beppe again.

I took my time and just soaked it all in, narrowing down my choices. Here's what I left with:

After picking out these three items I made my way around the rest of the room and came across a plate. It was one my Beppe used to have in her house. The funny thing is that if you'd asked me about her house I would have mentioned the Delfts Blue decorations she had everywhere and the beautiful wooden clock she had on her mantel. But this plate when I saw it it almost made me gasp!  I saw it and I could immediately imagine putting it up on the wall in my kitchen. Not because it's perfectly my style or anything, because in all honestly it isn't. But simply for the memory and the connection. I still can't believe how special the sight of this plate was to me. It made me me feel very strongly connected to my grandmother's memory. I was so tempted to buy it, they were selling it for a reasonable price but it was Christmas and we'd already spent enough. I went home and told Jason all about it and showed the kids what I'd found sharing with them the history behind it all.   

Fast forward to Christmas morning and Jason is handing me a rather conspicuous looking/feeling present. When I opened it, sure enough, this is what was inside: