Sinter Klaas was here!

Sinter Klaas and Black Pete were here! And they left lots of treats!

Poor Fenna. She is living with us. She is halfway around the globe and far far away from the place where Sinter Klaas and Pete give presents and treats to good children. We're in California, the land of "just another boring day".  Gracie was feeling sad for Fenna knowing that her heart would break when she didn't get anything from Sinter Klaas this year. He doesn't come here!

We put our shoes by the fireplace just to humor Fenna. Gracie told me later she just knew Fenna would cry when nothing happens. 


On Sunday the 3rd, when there was no school and almost everyone was home, I took the little girls to the park for a couple of hours while Fenna stayed home. She was going to her room to pout because Sinter Klaas didn't come during the night. wink wink. She still had  high hopes since it was night-time in Holland while it was daytime here.

Surprise!  Sinter Klaas rode his white horse all the way around the world just to bring treats to our house! Pete was running along side him. He must have some amazing endurance, not to mention really good shoes.

Speaking of Black Pete... we're just calling  him Pete. He's just a weird out of date character and I don't want to go there! In Holland, white people dress like clowns and put on a black face and wig. Umm... we don't do that here! It freaks me out to look at pictures of Pete!  Fenna explained: Pete is black because he goes down the chimneys and the soot made him dirty. Ok.... but his clothes are clean! So the old white man on a white horse has the black kid dressed in a clown costume doing all the work? Yeah, um, no. No. NO!  She insists that everyone in Holland understands the story and it is not a racist jab. Ok, well, we're still just calling him Pete.

There was a heap of yummy treats from Holland in front of the fireplace. Luckily, nothing in our stinky shoes. We all need to deodorize our shoes; apparently, Sinter Klaas thought so too.  Glad no treats were subjected to the dark smelly insides of our shoes. Eww. Most of the treats were chocolate and ginger snaps.

We had lots of traditional goodies plus chocolate coin Euros. Very cool! Also, there were two adorable dolls: Sinter Klaas and Pete.  They are super cute soft dolls and they are babyproof! They have embroidered eyes and other embellishments so they should be perfectly baby safe. In this house, that's an important feature in toys.

Being the inquisitive five year old that she is, Gracie had a million questions for Fenna about the holiday, the characters, the treats and the traditions. She must have asked questions for a good solid hour. She was firing them off faster than Fenna could answer them. Fenna listened with patience and gave thoughtful answers to each and every question. I couldn't help but laugh! I would have laughed harder, but my mouth was stuffed full of Dutch cookies.

Sinter Klaas also brought something from his brother, Santa Claus. Our family got an elf. Her name is Noelle and she is magic. She's not a toy, but a messenger for Santa. She just sits in our house watching us and each night, she goes to the North Pole and reports to Santa if we have been naughty or nice that day. She returns each day and perches in a different spot. She's real, people, really! This little bit of holiday magic is a fairly new thing called "Elf on a Shelf", google it.  I'm pretty excited that we have an elf to help keep the kids in line. What a good reminder to behave!

We had a really fun and delicious day! Thank you, Sinter Klaas and Pete!