Sinterklaas was the bishop of Myra and was very good to the local children. Dutch children celebrate the eve of his birthday by getting presents, delivered by Sinterklaas who rides his white horse over the roofs of Dutch houses. And he even manages to deliver a few presents to Dutch children in the US. Quite impressive.
Everyone got a huge chocolate initial letter. Last year the place I ordered messed it all up and they got delivered after Sinterklaas but this year I used another mailorder company ( http://www.kaasnco.com/ ) and they actually not only delivered in time but also got the right letters! It's nice when things work out like that.
I am happy that I have been able to hold on to this particular Dutch custom, since so many others have not survived the move to the US. One thing I am trying to get better at is speaking Dutch to the kids, since it is so amazingly easy to slip into English when they speak English to me. My older kids are much better at understanding Dutch than my younger ones are, so that is one area where I still can improve and will have to improve. As opposed to all the other areas in my life which are perfect already, yes... Cough.
1 comment:
Since it's already January, I first want to wish you a marvellous New Year!
I'm catching up with the blog reading and came by this post. Even though the bishop has long gone now, I wanted to point out the David Sedaris story about Sinterklaas. In case you don't know it already: it's one of the funniest stories I've ever heard.
I put the read aloud version on my blog in December:
http://vanallemarktenthuis.wordpress.com
Best wishes!
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