Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas comes on a steamboat to Holland 4 weeks prior to December 5. Or did he come first to Spain and spend the 4 weeks to travel to Holland? Hey, I am not the real Dutch here, give me a break. Somehow Sinterklaas managed to stop in USA, at our house on December 7. It's a very good track record if you think about the four weeks from Spain to the Netherlands.

Sinterklaas is the Dutch Santa and in Holland the presents are giving on December 5th, so no presents for Christmas.

Our Dutch friends came to our place for the celebration with their 3 kids, 8, 5(she came a little late, she had a b-day party first) and 2 year old. The kids got to play right away, running around in the living room and the basement, making noise - no, not complaining at all, they were so cute. Then we sat to eat early. Sint was supposed to come 10 to 7. Our neighbor, Gordon, who accepted to be our Sint was supposed to leave for a black tie party at 7. I left the presents in the bags and the little Dutch cookies our friends got from Holland - he works between USA and Holland, so he is back quite often - in the garage. Of course I forgot to leave the garage door open and Sint had to give us a call first, uups! Finally, he arrived. He knocked on the door very hard, threw the cookies inside the house - Dutch tradition, yes we ate the cookies that were laying on the floor at the end! He left he bags full of presents. All 5 kids believe in Sint. When our Sint was gone, we all went to the foyer to see what happened. The kids started speculating how the presents and the cookies came inside - through the chimney of course. Well, we don't have a fireplace, but we sure have a chimney! They started yelling to ceiling 'thank you Sint'.

After that part of the excitement, the presents' excitement started. It was the classic 'rip the paper' act. I have to say that the kids got nice presents, and not too many. Proud of the parents here!! F got finally her trumpet. It's plastic but looks real and makes nice sounds. A got a chair for her dolls, she loves playing with dolls these days. The kids of the friends got nice stuff too. After a bit playing, the kids were tired so the party ended not too late. Jorgen had a taxi coming to pick him up at 4 am, so I think he was happy to leave.

Thanks Gordon, thanks Sint. It was very nice!