Oh what fun it was to spend an evening with the great young women in my cluster from all over the world having laughs with each other and sharing the holidays!
This is the 16th Au Pair Christmas Party for Victoria Paton, the Senior Community Counselor for the Potomac Shoreline Cluster of Au Pair in America (Potomac, Bethesda, Cabin John and Glen Echo, Maryland who says “It is very important for me to make Christmas special for my Au Pairs as it may be their first time ever to be away from family at the holidays”.
Kerstin from Germany and Julia from Brazil share the holiday spirit
We all gathered on a Friday night for lots and lots of donuts at Krispy Kreme in Rockville, Maryalnd who were great hosts and very interested in the fun the Au Pairs were having.
Each Au Pair signed in, selected a holiday hat, dropped a pre-wrapped gift into a Santa’s sack, and settled in for laughs and activities.
The Grab Bag game with Mr and Mrs. Wright (Right/left game) was a giggle. Some Au Pairs were surprised that the gift they pulled from Santa’s sack would go right and left several times before they received the package she could open.
Nadine from Germany loved her stocking
Maddie from S. Africa will enjoy her Starbucks card
Nam from Thailand opened a fabulous JCrew broach.
Melisha from S. Africa said she really needed those fluffy mittens
Marlies from Austria and Anna from Poland critique their over-head drawings.
We even had an ugly Christmas outfit competition won by “Miss Thailand” who was dressed as a Christmas Tree complete with pine cone, dangling earrings!
Daria from Poland is dreaming of a wonderful Christmas in America!
Seshnie and Shantal are sisters in our cluster from S. Africa and they did a fantastic job with tree decoration. Both are in their 2nd Year.
Jenny and Nicki (who also has a sister in our cluster) from Germany and Shantal from S. Africa decorated trees for the 2nd year! Judit just arrived Thursday night from Austria and Seshnie is about to start her Year2.
Lastly, Au Pairs decorated several small trees to be raffled off and taken home to decorate an Au Pair’s room at the holidays.
e for new Au Pairs to be welcomed into the Cluster, and this week a fantastic newly-arrived Au Pair from Croatia decided to organize a “Club” for Au Pairs caring for children under the age of three (3) to organize play dates, give each other support and to organize fun activities in the evenings after providing excellent childcare for very small children during the day.
If you are willing to drive a little further West and North you will discover a great and very inexpensive place to have family fun: 
The children’s splash pool, designed for children of a height 54 inches or less, includes a custom in-water play structure with open and closed flume slides that pays homage to the state of Maryland with Black-Eyed Susan and Blue Heron play features.
p music. A DVD of the “yearbook” was in a goody bag at each place setting. The highlight of the evening was the Award Ceremony in which Victoria presented each Au Pair with a certificate congratulating her for an exceptional skill indicated by her Host Parents. This was a surprise to all the Au Pairs who were touched and amused by the nominations: Most Conscientious Au Pair, Best Crepe Maker, The Best Teacher, The Best Lego Builder, The Best Mind Reader of Her Host Mom’s Needs, The Most Responsible and Organized Au Pair etc. 
The final award was given to Jasmin from Austria who had earned the title of top three Au Pairs nationwide for 2013 by Au Pair in America Headquarters and went on to compete in the International Au Pair Association’s Au Pair of the Year competition. The nomination was unusual in that it was for both Jasmin and her sister Verena (who had been the Host Family’s Au Pair last year). The unusual combined nomination submission was about these two amazing young women who over 2+ years supported, loved and assisted the Host Family during the illness and subsequent passing of
their wonderful Host Dad.
any Au Pairs spoke to Silga afterward about finding local classes to continue in their practice both for relaxation and health.
Most Americans remember where they were the moment the planes hit the twin towers, the pentagon and went down in the field in Pennsylvania. I remember the au pairs who were in my cluster at that time – September 2001.