In other news…..it’s December 5th today and that means it is Sinterklaas. Here is a picture, I took some days ago, of the guy. He is not looking too pleased, but I bet he will be pleased today because this is his day. In this little country called Holland, we celebrate the name day of Saint Nicholas (don’t ask me why ;), it’s just a fun tradition). Anyway, the evening of December 5 is called pakjesavond ("evening of packages"). Traditionally, presents are ingeniously wrapped, and are therefore called surprises. Also, each present is accompanied by a poem from Saint Nicholas. 
I haven’t seen any surprises yet but, I was quite surprised when I found a chocolate letter and kruidnoten in a pair of shoes this morning. Rumour has it, Sinterklaas came by last night and left all that lovely stuff in my shoes. Hooray, at least someone thinks I am not naughty….I am nice :) One thing though, he left all the goodies in my running shoes, maybe he is trying to tell me something! Enjoy pakjesavond or, if you are not Dutch, have a nice evening :)
5 comments:
He calls here too of course - but expats have been complaining about the political incorrectness of people dressing up in "black face" as Zwarte Piet, and I noticed recently that he had disappeared from the window of a local costume shop. Or perhaps he was just busy...
good to see you back up and running! (no pun intended)
its not good to eat & run. and definitely not good to eat out of your shoes :)
That sounds cool and I love the way you found your running shoes filled with goodies!
So what happened, who did it and how?
Oh, I always forget Sinterklaas visits Belgium too, Qaminante :). We had the whole discussion about Zwarte Piet over here too over the last couple of years, but he still is Sinterklaas his sidekick. Although…… he is not as black as he used to be. And they introduced something new this year, coloured Piet’s. I was watching the Sinterklaas news the other day and I saw green, blue, orange, red and yellow pieten. Very odd and confusing!
LOL! Snowqueen :)
LOL! Boo, I am not going to eat and run! Maybe eat and run, the day after ;)
And you need to eat out of your shoe; it’s a Sinterklaas tradition :)
Now that is a silly question, DoGGa. Sinterklaas (or one of his helpers called Zwarte Piet/Black Pete) did it, of course!! ;) Not quite sure how though. Maybe Sinterklaas has very tiny Black Pete’s who are able to crawl through the letter box :)
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