Merry Christmas
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year. If you are traveling, please have a safe trip. Lee and I spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii with family and so will be staying home for Christmas and starting our pre inventory sales the day after Christmas.

PreInventory Discounts
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

We will continue our 50% discounts that we have had for ten years. The day after Christmas, December 26, all notions will be 50% off. That includes Gutermann thread, Clover knitting needles and Dill buttons. All sales will be for one day only.

On Friday, December 27, 2019, all Disc golf discs will be 50% off, that includes minis, collectors discs and some Innova shirts.

On Saturday, December 28 all wooden shoes, wooden shoe slippers and wooden shoe clogs will be 50% off. That does not include anything that I would have to send for, just items that I have on hand, but we have a pretty complete line on hand.

On Monday, December 30 all misc. items will be on sale at 50% off. That includes puzzles, Delft items, books, and other items not included in other days.

The last day of our pre inventory sale will be Tuesday, December 31 and on that day all Dutch food will be 50% off. That includes Dutch cookies, stroopwafels, Dutch letters, Dutch chocolate, white peppermints, etc. Again, it is only for items that we have on hand and does not include anything that needs to be ordered.

Hopefully, we won't have to count as many things in our inventory because of the sale.

Orange City Facts
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

From time to time we tell you about special books that we have for sale. We have a book entitled "Images of America, Orange City". This is a new book put out by Arcadia Publishing Company. It was published in 2014 and written by Doug Anderson, Tim Schlak, Greta Grond and Sarah Kaltenbach, all people connected to Northwestern College. Actually, it is really a picture book with some interesting facts included. The picture on the cover is of Helen Beyer in 1948 in Dutch costume. Helen Beyer was my kindergarten teacher so it has special meaning already. I'll just pick out a few fun facts for your information. This is a new book and sells for $21.99. I have several copies on hand and can order more.

The book starts out with a summary of the history of the Dutch in North America. The Dutch first came to North America in 1624 following the Dutch-sponsored expedition of Henry Hudson. Their interests were economic through the Dutch West India Company, concentrating mainly on the fur trade. Their hub was Nieuw (New) Amsterdam located on Manhattan Island. From there they spread east to Long Island and Brooklyn, north to Haarlem and up the Hudson River to Fort Oranje and west and south to Hoboken and Staten Island. The English forcibly took over the colony in 1664 and renamed it New York. It had 9000 residents at the time. Fort Oranje became Albany. It was named Fort Oranje to honor the Orange-Nassau family who was also the inspiration for the naming of Orange City (location of Jubon Juweelen). The Orange-Nassau family had been leaders of the Dutch War of Independence from Spain and after 1815 became monarchs of the Netherlands.

In the 1840s a second and much larger wave of Dutch immigration began. Some 200,000 Dutch citizens came to the US between 1846 and 1914 and that included many of my own family who came around 1882. Most came from the countryside and were attracted by cheap farmland, but many also came for religious freedom. The RCA (Reformed Church of America) grew out of this movement. The RCA traces its origins to the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. The RCA is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the United States having a congregation formed in Nieuw Amsterdam in 1628. By the time of the American Revolution the denomination was centered in New York and New Jersey and had 98 congregations and 45,000 baptized members. In the early 1800s they had formed a college (later named Rutgers) and a seminary, i.e., New Brunswick.

The new immigrants planted themselves in the Midwest - more about this in January's newsletter.

Receptenboek Van De Nederlandse Huisvrouw (Recipe Book of the Dutch Housewife)
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

We have sold quite a few copies of the recipe book that Renae Vander Schaaf and I wrote about a year or more ago. They make a nice Christmas present at $14.95 (plus tax) each. If anyone is interested in ordering one call 712-737-8920 or e-mail me at jubonjuweelen@gmail.com. They can be sent media rate for a little over $3.00 each.