hoe oud is de Sint?

... and HOW can he manage to do SO MUCH on his birthday?!!!!! First, he travels by steamboat all the way from Spain with a boatful of zwarte Pieten. Then he travels by horse around the lowlands (Holland + Belgium), visiting primary schools (we estimated ~ 10,000 in both countries). And finally, he visits each home and makes deliveries if the children have behaved "well enough". But what happens to the kids who don't behave?

... spy the critical element in this equation? leffe + radieuze = een blije Sint


whew - the kids passed again .... and were rewarded with an XL speculoos cookie, plus choco letters - lekker:)


later that night, as we listened to Sinterklas liedjes (songs), played games, and sang loudly (of course, so the Sint can hear us), there came a loud knock on the door .... bang, bang, bang. But when we opened the door, only a sack of cadeaus was to be found ---- and in it, a marble game for Thijs ..... a stuffed horse and horse-drawing book for Phoebe .... and a knitting set for Alex.

But again, mommy's desire to be stuffed in the sack and shipped back to Spain (w scope, binoculars, bird books) went unfulfilled. Guess I'll have to behave really, REALLY badly in 2009:)