Another Sinterklaas season in the books! Each year seemingly more involved than the last. Lots of holiday cheer starting on November 16th, when he rolled into Amstelveen. We made it to the parade with the Nazlawys just in time after soccer. Amstelveen is still phasing out black face, which is disconcerting to see now that other places have progressed. So much has changed in the 5 years we have been here!
The very next day, he arrived in Amsterdam, which is a celebration not to be missed. We joined a number of families from Maeve's baby group for dim sum at Oriental City before getting front row seats for the parade into Dam square. It was such a cheerful event. All of the Piets were so into it, looking like they were having the time of their lives all while making the children incredibly happy with the pepernoten, candy and attention.
We're in the pre-school phase of 5:30am wake-ups. The added excitement of the Piets potentially leaving treats in their shoes every morning does not help! So we followed the lead of a friend and printed a calendar covering the 2.5 weeks of Sinterklaas and let the kids pick and color in 5 nights when the Piets would come. They would sing for the Piets and leave them artwork and were rewarded those 5 mornings with pepernoten and small gifts in their shoes.
We had dinner with Marc and Petra's family in Oudekerk and then watched Sinterklaas arrive by boat into their village.
We rode the Piet train at the mall.
We attended the long-anticipated Nieuw Sint party at Paradiso this year (Jude asked to go every month since last year's party), which was the same day as Friendsgiving. So Jude was joined by some of his kindergarten friends and dads for the dance party.
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| Maeve went this year as well, but was mostly interested in the face painting. |
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| 3 silly Piets/Petes |
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| I watched with Maeve, who was excited to participate this year. |
See you next year, Sinterklaas!
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