Au Pair: Gwennaelle Mulliez from Germany
Host Family: Anderegg/Evans Family in Washington
Gwennaelle has integrated with our family from day 1. We let her know via email prior to her arrival that we had a family reunion to go to within her first week of being in our home and she jumped on board immediately. A few days after she showed up and we all piled in the car for a fourteen hour drive to Boise. It was a great opportunity to talk and get to know each other and we all bonded very quickly. We both knew that we truly wanted Gwen to be part of our family and we are in every way. We eat breakfast and dinner together most days; we spend time on the weekends together; Gwen comes along to our favorite sporting events with us (she is now a big University of Washington fan also!!) and we’re planning a big ski winter ahead. Gwen also shows she’s part of the family by inviting her friends over regularly to spend time by having meals with us, doing girls’ movie nights together or just talking and getting to know each other better.
Gwen has taken the opportunity to share traditions from her home country with us. She spearheaded a St. Martins’ Day celebration with some of her au pair friends for us all to enjoy. The au pairs and kids all made St. Martins’ Day lanterns, then we gathered at another host family’s house and hit the streets with the lanterns singing songs. Gwen had taken the time to translate into English the story of St. Martin for us all to learn and enjoy.
We’ve also been able to share some of our family traditions with Gwen. We all went to Palm Springs to celebrate Thanksgiving; we had a family pumpkin carving party and recently we extended it even farther. Gwen’s family flew over for the Christmas holidays and we were able to have a Christmas Eve dinner with my family, my husband’s family and Gwen’s family for one huge, extended celebration! We all had a wonderful time getting to know each other and loved the opportunity to get to know Gwen through her family that much better.
Our daughter and Gwennaelle have bonded from day one. Gwendolyn, our daughter, was very excited in advance; partly because their names were so similar. We now are able to keep them apart by calling them Big and Little Gwen. A parent at little Gwen’s preschool commented recently how she wished that her son had bonded with his au pair the way that our daughter has. It’s truly special to watch them playing together and creating their own traditions together. Big Gwen put together a special advent basket (a tradition from her family) with small presents daily for little Gwen throughout the month of December. There was much excitement every day finding the right present and finding out what was inside…
I think our little Gwen expressed it best when she said, “I want to keep Gwennaelle with us until I’m ten…” She’s only four, so age ten probably seems like a million years away. We just know that we want to keep Gwen as part of our family for as long as we can.
Gwen has taken the opportunity to share traditions from her home country with us. She spearheaded a St. Martins’ Day celebration with some of her au pair friends for us all to enjoy. The au pairs and kids all made St. Martins’ Day lanterns, then we gathered at another host family’s house and hit the streets with the lanterns singing songs. Gwen had taken the time to translate into English the story of St. Martin for us all to learn and enjoy.
We’ve also been able to share some of our family traditions with Gwen. We all went to Palm Springs to celebrate Thanksgiving; we had a family pumpkin carving party and recently we extended it even farther. Gwen’s family flew over for the Christmas holidays and we were able to have a Christmas Eve dinner with my family, my husband’s family and Gwen’s family for one huge, extended celebration! We all had a wonderful time getting to know each other and loved the opportunity to get to know Gwen through her family that much better.
Our daughter and Gwennaelle have bonded from day one. Gwendolyn, our daughter, was very excited in advance; partly because their names were so similar. We now are able to keep them apart by calling them Big and Little Gwen. A parent at little Gwen’s preschool commented recently how she wished that her son had bonded with his au pair the way that our daughter has. It’s truly special to watch them playing together and creating their own traditions together. Big Gwen put together a special advent basket (a tradition from her family) with small presents daily for little Gwen throughout the month of December. There was much excitement every day finding the right present and finding out what was inside…
I think our little Gwen expressed it best when she said, “I want to keep Gwennaelle with us until I’m ten…” She’s only four, so age ten probably seems like a million years away. We just know that we want to keep Gwen as part of our family for as long as we can.