December

November has been a slow month for blogging so I thought I'd add just one last post for the month.

Tomorrow it's December. I can hardly believe the last month of the year has already arrived. Although I look forward to the festive month December is for most of the year, it always seems to sneak up on me. Wham, bam,... December 1st is here.

On December 6 we celebrate Sinterklaas in Belgium and in The Netherlands . On that day Saint Nicholas and his helper Black Peter (Zwarte Piet in Dutch) bring toys for the children. The legend of Sinterklaas is based on the story of Nicolaas van Myra, a very generous bishop who died on December 6 in the year 343.

Santa Claus is actually derived from Saint Nicholas: apparently the Dutch immigrants took this custom with them when they crossed the big blue. There are a few differences though. One of them being that Sinterklaas rides a white horse instead of using a sleigh, and there are no reindeer to be seen anywhere, neither on land nor in the sky. Now of course December has become an expensive month, since we celebrate both Sinterklaas and Christmas...

The kids have made their lists already and placed them in their shoe by the fireplace (well, here at our house it's placed next to the TV cabinet since we don't actually have a fireplace, haha) a few days ago. Of course Black Peter came by during the night to collect the wish lists and he left some chocolate and cookies behind in return. On December 5 Sinterklaas is visiting the kids at school and then the next day he will come to the house bearing gifts.

And as soon as he leaves I'll be putting up my Christmas tree!

Here one moment

gone the next.

We had snow over the weekend! Not just some tiny flakes that melted once they hit the ground, no, no. We had the real thing: a waterfall of snowflakes covering each and every inch as far as you could see. Such a magical sight. A true Winter Wonderland.

The kids had fun playing in the snow but since we were at a friend's house at the time, I have no pictures to show you. So I thought I'd include some of last year (from the only day we had the real thing).

Watch out!!!

Robin's trousers were soaking wet from the snow and I just couldn't let him get into the car like that because he'd be half frozen by the time the heating in the car got to a decent temperature. Creative minds however usually come up with a solution (or worried mama's) so I replaced the wet trousers by.... my husband's sweater! It kinda looked like he was wearing baggy pants (with his legs and feet inside the sleeves) and it was only for the ride home. Well, at least he was warm!

Now of course all that's left are slippery roads and here and there you can still see the remains of a few snowmen. For all we know it may very well be the only snow we'll have this winter (which is officially still about a month away), but I do hope we'll get some more. Preferably during the Christmas holidays. It'd be nice to have a white Christmas...

Prime Minister

My son was elected Prime Minister this week in his class. The Prime Ministers represent the class in school meetings and he had his first meeting yesterday. He seemed sad that they will only be having 2 more meetings during the schoolyear. He was very excited about the election and of course both K. and I were very proud of him. Who knows where this may lead ;)

I guess you could say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'm quite active in the parent council myself (which is actually one of the reasons why I haven't posted much this month), especially when it comes to "being creative". I do tend to run out of energy towards the end of the schoolyear but I love looking back at the things I helped to accomplish.

Having absolutely nothing to do with this post I did want to add that I also managed to finish my Chocolate Lovers' Diet book. There were a few twists in the plot that I didn't expect and I had a few laughs, and absolutely no chocolate while reading it!

Guess

who got a digital camera? (You had to save points with the newspaper and then you could get it for free. She got it from my MIL.)

OK, so the quality of the pictures isn't any good and they all came out blurry, but she had so much fun!!!

My Favourite Spot in Winter

That's the title of this beautiful illustration by Mandy from Belle and Boo and the best thing about it is that she is giving it away for free on her blog!! Go and leave her a festive comment and if you are lucky, this awesome print may end up underneath your Christmas tree!

Oh, she will also be having some Special Offers in her shops, so if you still have to do some Christmas shopping Belle & Boo is the right place!

Starry starry night

My son was looking at the stars through his telescope.

Then my daughter said: "And now I want to look through the bazooka!"

Starry night by van Gogh

There were no stars to be seen tonight. Only the blinking light of an airplane passing by.

Good friends are like stars

You don't always see them

But you know they're always there.

The Chocolate Lovers' Diet

A friend of mine lent me this book. I still have to start it, but it looks promising (come on, I mean, it says Chocolate!): on the back it reads



Survival tips for times of stress

1. Take deep breaths


2. Count to ten


3. Eat chocolate

Do I really have to count to ten first?

And I just have to add this: my friend speaks English and my son overheard us taking about this book. We were saying that it's "chicklit", but then my son said:"Mom, it's not 'chicklit', it's 'chocolate'!!!