Welcoming Ourselves to the Neighborhood...

The Dutch believe in giving a new neighbor privacy. Rather than welcoming the newcomer, they wait for the newcomer to invite them over for a coffee or cocktail. We didn’t know about this when we moved into our first house and didn’t have any immediate neighbors around our last house, so here was our chance to finally follow proper etiquette.

When I asked the fellow at the card store for help to find appropriate invitations, he said that I only needed to invite the neighbors on either side of our house. He thought I was crazy that I wanted 20 cards so we could invite our entire street. We delivered the invites in the evening so we’d have a chance to meet everyone. We were a bit nervous of everyone showing up, but survived just fine when most of them did. Apparently no one had ever had the entire street over before so many of the neighbors enjoyed meeting each other for the first time.

The Kinect was a big hit with the kids. Ashlynn also enjoyed playing hockey on the street with some of the girls.