Monday, December 08, 2008

Present day: aka SinterKlaas!!!!

So in our family we celebrate SinterKlaas day (dec5), the day when Santa comes to the Netherlands to deliver gifts. (i mean... really, he can't be EVERYWHERE on dec24th!) haha. We have told Julia that Santa is the fantasy figure that people have created to represent a lovely human being that once decided to give gifts to children that were poor, and has now left a legacy of sorts. ( i really need to get a good book about the 'real' santa, so that i actually know the right story of how it all got started - anyone know of one?) Anyway, this year, although she knows that Santa isn't 'real' she has decided to believe that he is . yep. she is growing up and making her own decisions. :) hahaha. i remember TOTALLY knowing in my head that Santa was NOT real, yet i still imagined hearing his sleighbells ringing outside of my window on Christmas eve many a year... isn't it wonderful to have an imagination? i love how it teaches us to savor and enjoy life for every moment that we have of it!
these photos are totally out of order, but i am being lazy and NOT reordering them. Above: we walked to our santa claus parade with our bsmt tenant Kyle. IT WAS WAY TOO COLD!!!
PRESENT DAY!!! sammy displays he beautiful squishy nose. :) the lid from his toy... yes... he did play with the lid more than the toy for the first few hours. but he now loves the toy. thank you nana and grandpa!! :)
our peaceful (mostly) sinterklaas day.............
the gingerbread house Oma made with the kids and my lovely nativity scene... it has a verse on each figure, about their role in the story of Christmas!! :)
Sinterklaas day came with a new sprinkling of snow!! special order i guess, since you neeeeed snow to make opening gifts feel more like Christmastime!! :)
Sam and the nutcrackers on our windowsill. a favorite place for the kids to play.
our beautiful baby girl is now 2 months old and still smiling and laughing all the time!!!!!!!! aaaaarg she is sooo cute!!! i just can't get enough of her smiles and laughs!! i also can't believe she is fitting very comfortably into her 6 month sleepers!!! aaaaaah.
we bought miss J a nutcracker of her very own (she sooo wants to be like 'Clara' from the story the 'Nutcracker').... she played with him most of the day.
The 'deer in the headlights' face.

caught her setting up her gifts to look at them... :)

WE had a fabulous day!!! i didn't get photos of Dave with his gifts... but i got him a RC helicopter... and i'm telling you ladies out there... your hubby would LOVE IT TOO!! he is so happy to play with his toy. :) it is really cool. REALLY.
hahah. anyway. happy Sinterklaas everyone!

now.. time to make preparations for the celebration of Jesus' Birthday... i'm thinking a bday cake and singing happy bday... PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR IDEAS OF HOW TO MAKE DEC25 ALL ABOUT JESUS???

6 Comments:

At 12:46 PM, Blogger Dave said...

Mercy's smile is so beautiful!
Do you celebrate advent? As you probably already know advent is about preparing for Christ's arrival/birth. It is about walking through the story of his birth and being cognizant of what was happening in the world, and what is happening in the world. This, for us, helps to make the month of december about Christ. On sunday nights we light our advent candle, read through the story (either the verses for the week, or a children's book with the entire story), and pray together. Probably lots of information online about advent (and I don't mean chocolate and presents... but I'm sure you've gathered that).
I enjoyed seeing your sinterclaus day pictures. We too need to find about about the real story so we can explain it to our House guest from indonesia.
The way you explained santa to Julia is actualy exactly the way we want to explain the 'santa situation' to Corrina as well. And I think that in itself helps the holiday become more christ focused because Saint Nicholas (whatever his name was, in whatever culture/country he was from) was a believer who acted on his faith to give generously.
best of luck bringing Christ into the center of your celebrations.

 
At 3:52 PM, Blogger Sue said...

heya!
thanks colvinson! a friend just sent me a book title about the legend of santa claus. i may check it out and see how it is.... in case there are variations on the legend.. you know how history is, the stories seem to change to suit whoever is listening unfortunately!!! :)

i will have to develop an Advent tradition for our fam... i think that is a fab way to welcome Jesus' bday celebration every year!

thx.
su

 
At 7:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Su!

This is him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

We learned about him in elementary school...and we have a rather developed advent tradition in Germany, let me know if you want to know more.

Mel

 
At 7:57 AM, Blogger Sue said...

thx mel!!!
:)

 
At 4:59 PM, Blogger The dB family said...

I think you're on the right track. We don't open our presents on Christmas Day either. We usually do it before. We do a little Sinterklaas celebration as part of our Advent.

This year(FINALLY)we actually have some advent books and spend time together each evening reading and/or doing something special in this time of waiting.

christianbook.com has lots of books and things for the Advent season.

 
At 5:05 PM, Blogger The dB family said...

Oops! I missed a part. We usually do gifts at least a few days before Christmas.

 

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