{"id":1649,"date":"2012-12-19T14:04:28","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T19:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/?p=1649"},"modified":"2012-12-19T14:04:28","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T19:04:28","slug":"au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1651\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1-300x223.jpg\" alt=\"Patty Holiday 2012 photo\" width=\"300\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1-300x223.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1652\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/DSC_0393-800x531-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"DSC_0393 (800x531)\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/DSC_0393-800x531-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/DSC_0393-800x531-624x414.jpg 624w, https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/DSC_0393-800x531.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The Annapolis, Baltimore and Columbia clusters all hosted holiday parties this month.  The Annapolis cluster enjoyed a gift exchange and an international cookie swap where all the girls brought a baked good typical to their home country to share.  Everyone went home with a bag of cookies from around the world.  The Annapolis and Columbia clusters invited a Federal Marshal to attend to speak to the girls about personal safety when going out alone, with friends or when out with the children that have been entrusted to their care.   Topics discussed included awareness of their surroundings, how to handle going shopping with children and what to do in case they find themselves to be a victim of a crime.  Internet safety tips were discussed as well.   The counselors presented the au pairs with a wonderful bright red umbrella with the Au Pair in America logo as our holiday gift to them.  The Baltimore cluster had fun displaying their cheerful red umbrellas for the camera. It was a perfect day to hand out umbrellas as the weather was overcast and drizzly on Sunday. The cluster also did a Secret Santa gift exchange. Everyone left with a little gift, and feeling very much in the spirit of the season.\u00a0 We wish all the au pairs, the host families and their beautiful children a blessed and wonderful holiday, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Annapolis, Baltimore and Columbia clusters all hosted holiday parties this month. The Annapolis cluster enjoyed a gift exchange and an international cookie swap where all the girls brought a baked good typical to their home country to share. Everyone went home with a bag of cookies from around the world. The Annapolis and Columbia  <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,66,104,106,128,144,238,253,269,300,346,356,524],"class_list":["post-1649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annapolis","tag-baltimore","tag-childcare","tag-children","tag-columbia","tag-cookies","tag-gifts","tag-happy-new-year","tag-holiday","tag-international","tag-maryland","tag-merry-christmas","tag-umbrella"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Annapolis, Baltimore and Columbia clusters all hosted holiday parties this month. The Annapolis cluster enjoyed a gift exchange and an international cookie swap where all the girls brought a baked good typical to their home country to share. Everyone went home with a bag of cookies from around the world. The Annapolis and Columbia Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"358\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Natasha Wrobel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natasha Wrobel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/\",\"name\":\"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1-300x223.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/1f6a49cbbaccbdd9a5ca7b8cbe591972\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":358},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/\",\"name\":\"ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)\",\"description\":\"The place to find out about Au Pair in America in Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, Maryland and the nearby areas.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/1f6a49cbbaccbdd9a5ca7b8cbe591972\",\"name\":\"Natasha Wrobel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c5e115dfc32f9775982c1c006cc04803b1e965f411deacd19a99c9e7c876dba?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c5e115dfc32f9775982c1c006cc04803b1e965f411deacd19a99c9e7c876dba?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Natasha Wrobel\"},\"description\":\"Welcome! My name is Natasha Wrobel and I am the senior community counselor for the greater Annapolis, Maryland area. I have been a community counselor with Au Pair in America since 2000. In college I had the opportunity to study the German language in Austria at the University of Graz. Prior to becoming a counselor I was an attorney with the United States Air Force and was on active duty for nine years. I will retire from the Air Force in July 2015 after 20 years of service. Having lived abroad and studied a foreign language has served me well in connecting with au pairs from around the world in my role as a community counselor. Having hosted an au pair in my home has given me an understanding of the program from a host family perspective. It has been a joy to help facilitate a cultural exchange with these young women and American families as they introduce their children to other cultures and traditions. It is a delight to witness our children gain a better appreciation of our world. So often host families stay in touch with their former au pairs for years, long after the au pair has returned to her home country, leaving our children with a greater understanding of community and family! This has been the most rewarding aspect for me to witness.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.aupairinamerica.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/author\/mde00\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)","og_description":"The Annapolis, Baltimore and Columbia clusters all hosted holiday parties this month. The Annapolis cluster enjoyed a gift exchange and an international cookie swap where all the girls brought a baked good typical to their home country to share. Everyone went home with a bag of cookies from around the world. The Annapolis and Columbia Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/","og_site_name":"ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)","article_published_time":"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":358,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Natasha Wrobel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Natasha Wrobel","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/","name":"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship - ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1-300x223.jpg","datePublished":"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-19T19:04:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/1f6a49cbbaccbdd9a5ca7b8cbe591972"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/12\/Patty-Holiday-2012-photo1.jpg","width":480,"height":358},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/2012\/12\/19\/au-pairs-gather-for-holiday-festivities-and-fellowship\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Au Pairs Gather for Holiday Festivities and Fellowship"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/","name":"ABC Blog (Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, MD)","description":"The place to find out about Au Pair in America in Annapolis, Baltimore &amp; Columbia, Maryland and the nearby areas.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/1f6a49cbbaccbdd9a5ca7b8cbe591972","name":"Natasha Wrobel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c5e115dfc32f9775982c1c006cc04803b1e965f411deacd19a99c9e7c876dba?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c5e115dfc32f9775982c1c006cc04803b1e965f411deacd19a99c9e7c876dba?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Natasha Wrobel"},"description":"Welcome! My name is Natasha Wrobel and I am the senior community counselor for the greater Annapolis, Maryland area. I have been a community counselor with Au Pair in America since 2000. In college I had the opportunity to study the German language in Austria at the University of Graz. Prior to becoming a counselor I was an attorney with the United States Air Force and was on active duty for nine years. I will retire from the Air Force in July 2015 after 20 years of service. Having lived abroad and studied a foreign language has served me well in connecting with au pairs from around the world in my role as a community counselor. Having hosted an au pair in my home has given me an understanding of the program from a host family perspective. It has been a joy to help facilitate a cultural exchange with these young women and American families as they introduce their children to other cultures and traditions. It is a delight to witness our children gain a better appreciation of our world. So often host families stay in touch with their former au pairs for years, long after the au pair has returned to her home country, leaving our children with a greater understanding of community and family! This has been the most rewarding aspect for me to witness.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.aupairinamerica.com"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/author\/mde00\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.aupairinamerica.com\/abc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}