… between hope and despair, with my mother still in hospital. Yesterday, on December 5th when the Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas, was a relatively OK day and even Sinterklaas himself came to visit…
And then today despair reigned supreme. These days it feels like I’m living in a rollercoaster and I am almost completely consumed by it all. What will tomorrow bring?
As soon as Sinterklaas leaves our country, everything bursts into Christmas here. We have not celebrated Sinterklaas at all this year. It’s usually a children’s festival and our children are now grown and have little interest in it. There are also grown up parties sometimes, but this year there was none to attend and I didn’t have interest in making Sinterklaas special either. I did buy the traditional chocolate letters for the family…
… and when I handed out the letters to Mr Esther and the kids, I sang a very short Sinterklaas song for them (same one as sung 48 seconds into this video)…
… and that was pretty much it.
Now it’s time for Christmas. Mr E. didn’t initially want to put up any decorations. “Didn’t we only just pack them away?” he asked and yes, it does feel that way. More than a year and a half working from home and everything seems to be blending together. Suddenly we seem to virtually be in winter again and I hate that it now gets dark early and those short winter days. The only things that can cheer me up when there’s so little daylight are twinkly lights and candles, so I did want to put something festive up. We now have a smallish Christmas tree, which I decorated on Sunday (blasphemy to be doing that on the day of Sinterklaas itself!), and I put out some little Christmas village houses we have that we can burn candles in. The twinkly lights at the window of our dining area have already been up for a little bit.
You’d think that would be enough to get me into the Christmas spirit but I am just not feeling it. I did put together and order the family photos calendar I make every year for my mother, aunt and siblings but I have absolutely no other Christmas shopping done yet. I don’t even have a clue what to get everyone. Mr E left the house earlier this afternoon, saying a package would arrive and I am not allowed to open it. Meanwhile, I have nothing, niets, nichts, nada, niente, le rien, zilch planned or bought. I so need to start getting on top of this. I also need to figure out what to get our daughter for her 18th birthday in 12 days time. She has no clue what she wants either! I just can’t seem to figure it all out. How did December creep up on me like this and find me wholly unprepared? I thought I was doing OK but now it really feels like the winter blues I feel every year may have arrived.
Something just needs to boost my mood. I watched (half watched, really) a few Hallmark movies but most of those seem to be getting me more annoyed than cheering me up. I did enjoy skipping through Parenthood episodes with Peter Krause and Lauren Graham but many episodes are such tearjerkers, I can’t go into depth with those either. I do love the marriage Peter Krause and Monica Potter portray as Adam and Kristina…
… and I also love the season 4 – 6 storyline with Lauren Graham and Ray Romano as Sarah and Hank …
Parenthood really is a great series and when I feel a little lighter, I’ll definitely go in again and also pay closer attention to other storylines, but now is not a good time.
I’ve also enjoyed the look of Richard in the Stay Close images I have seen…
… and I like the trailer…
… but even that has me apprehensive. I fear too many red herrings going nowhere, like in The Stranger, that other Harlan Coben series Richard did last year (or was it early this year that that came out?).
Maybe, to boost my mood and get more into the festive month spirit, it’s time to start taking those Vitamin D pills I bought a month or so ago or maybe I should finally invest in that light therapy lamp I’ve been meaning to get myself? I hope twinkly lights and candles can help.
Today is the feast of Saint Nicholas, as I was reminded of on my Twitter timeline…
But I didn’t need to be reminded because the Sinterklaas festival is a huge thing here in The Netherlands and is celebrated on the eve before December 6th, so on December 5th! It’s mainly a festival for children and now that my kids are 16 and almost 14, the celebration has become very low key. They don’t put out their shoes near the fireplace anymore for the 3 weeks leading up to Sinterklaas, there are no more huge gifts and they don’t sing any of the dozens of Sinterklaas songs anymore. They do, however, like to eat the traditional food that goes with the season, like gingerbread ‘nuts’ and chocolate initials, and heck, why pass up a good opportunity to receive at least a few small gifts, right?
So, yesterday evening at dinner, I organized a little family Sinterklaas celebration. A few Sinterklaas songs were mandatory (they have to earn their gifts, after all), we had a nice little fire going in the fireplace…
… a few small gifts were exchanged, including a few items of clothing…
… we had the mandatory chocolate initials (they didn’t have the letter E available for me or S for my daughter, so I just got replacement letters M – for mama- and Z instead)…
… and yeah, if you look closely you can spot the bottle of vodka (mama and papa need something too!) and the empty cups still on the table were for the hot chocolate with whipped cream we had for dessert…
There was also a special little gift for me: a pillow case! And not just any pillow case… it’s a pillow case with Mr Darcy (as portrayed by my lovely Colin Firth) on it…
So yeah, I get to sleep on top of (and drool on) Mr Darcy now, if I like! It was a lovely, cosy family dinner and I got some fangirling in there as well. Not bad… not bad at all. 🙂
There is a new “Mach’ was” (“Do something”) challenge and again I am answering the call! The topic this time is ‘Mach was…mit dem Nikolaus’
In the US Santa Claus is the one who gives you gifts at Christmas, in Germany you have Nikolaus. Here in The Netherlands we have Sinterklaas and he is a big deal! He gives us gifts on the evening of December 5th and not on Christmas. 8 years ago a US friend of mine asked me to explain the concept of Sinterklaas to her and her children in writing. This “mach’ was” challenge is easy for me, as all I have to do is copy the text I wrote then and paste it here (with a few minor adjustments). 🙂 Here goes…
Sinterklaas is a big celebration in the Netherlands. It is celebrated on Saint Nicholas Eve on December 5th each year. Sint Nicholaas (shortened to Sinterklaas) is the patron saint of children. He comes to the Netherlands to celebrate his birthday (which is on December 6th) by giving all the Dutch children gifts on the eve before his birthday.
Sinterklaas has a white horse called Amerigo. Amerigo can even walk on the roofs of Dutch houses while Sinterklaas makes his rounds! Sinterklaas also has a lot of helpers called “Zwarte Pieten” (“Black Petes”). Zwarte Pieten are always funny and a little bit naughty, sort of like Santa’s elves in the US.
(There has been a discussion here the past few years on the Pieten being racist, but it’s not a discussion I want to enter into here… I’ll be happy to discuss in the comments should there be any questions).
Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands in mid-November every year by steamboat from Spain.
The arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands is broadcast live on TV and every year he arrives in a different Dutch city or town. He is even officially welcomed by the mayor of that town! The Zwarte Pieten throw candy and little gingerbread ‘nuts’ and cookies into the cheering and singing crowds who have come to welcome Sinterklaas. In the weeks following his arrival you can often see Sinterklaas visiting town centers and malls and other places.
Between Sinterklaas’s arrival to the Netherlands in November and the evening of December 5th, Dutch children are allowed to put their shoes out next to the chimney once or twice a week (just one shoe for each child). They put a drawing in their shoe for Sinterklaas or a tangerine or a carrot for Amerigo and they sing a Sinterklaas song just before bedtime. The next morning they will find a little gift or candy (for example a chocolate initial) in their shoe!
The Zwarte Pieten are the ones who have come down the chimney in the night to fill the children’s shoes! Sometimes the Pieten will also have left their mark in the house and messed things up, like throwing over chairs, or littering tangerine peels. Naughy Pieten!
Sinterklaas has a big book with all the children’s names in it. In the book it says whether the children have been good or bad and whether they deserve to have gifts.
Then on December 5th “packages evening” arrives. Everyone in the house waits for Sinterklaas to bring gifts. They sing Sinterklaas songs to welcome Sinterklaas. Then there is very loud knocking on the door and when you go outside to look you will find a big bag of presents on your doorstep! Sometimes Sinterklaas even comes inside himself but often he is gone by the time you get to the door.
Some gifts are accompanied by little poems. After all the presents are unwrapped, you yell out “Thank you, Sinterklaas!” and sing a goodbye song for him. After “packages evening” Sinterklaas disappears again, going back to Spain to rest and prepare for next year…
The Book of Esther 