One more day....

One more day till it is 'Pakjesavond' gift night. Sinterklaas is coming to our house... at least that is what JJ and Jezz are hoping. They are getting nervous and are such a good girls, trying not to be naughty otherwise Sinterklaas is taking them in a big hemp bag on his steamboat to Spain.

So tomorrow night we are eating speculaas, taai taai, marsepein, pepernoten and drinking hot chocolate (normal tradition in Holland) but there it seems normal since it is cold during this time of the year. Here it is 75F/25C, so drinking hot chocolate is not common. But hey.. we have to keep the Dutch tradition up in our household. The girls are carrying a Dutch pasport, but never lived in Holland so we try to keep a few Dutch traditions alive! And this is one of the most fun traditions for the kids ;-)

So the girls will be putting their shoes in front of the chimney (we don't do the wooden shoes anymore), leaving inside a carrot and some water for the horse and maybe a drawing and wishlist for Sinterklaas. Then we enjoy our evening and at a sudden moment...., when nobody expects it...., we will hear a rumble on the door. The kids get all excited and we open the door to find a hemp bag filled with presents that Sinterklaas and Black Pete left at the door for us. We try to run outside to maybe see a glimpse of him... but of course he is gone! Too bad, we missed him again this year ;-)

However, the girls are lucky. Since on Saturday morning we are heading out to the Dutch school and all the Dutch and Belgium children will meet Sinterklaas and Black Pete for sure and each child who wasn't naughty.... Sinterklaas has also a big book with all the names, get's a gift from him personally.

So lots of anxiety, excitement and crazyness going on these days in the Dijkstra household! And of course a lot of singing, singing in front of the chimney so Sinterklaas Kapoentje hears us!!

Sinterklaas Kapoentje (dear sweet Sinterklaas)
Gooi wat in mijn schoentje (throw something in my shoe)
Gooi wat in mijn laarsje (throw something in my boot)
Dank u Sinterklaasje!! (thank you sweet sinterklaas)

And we have many more songs to sing tomorrow evening in front of the chimney, so if you are living near by us, maybe you can hear the sweet voices singing as loud as they can floating out of our chimney ;-)

Have a good day!
Mireille