SurPRISe!

First of all, yesterday was Sinkerklaasdag (= Santa Claus Day), 5 December. It happened to be MY ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY SINCE ARRIVING HERE IN THE NETHERLANDS! Can you believe it? I will always love this special date and always, always will say "Yes, Virginia, there is a [Sinterklaas]!"

Speaking of which, remember a few posts back when Sinterklaas came to town? He did, indeed, and two weeks later was yesterday. No matter what day of the week 5 December is, it is not a holiday. People still go to work and maybe get off an hour or two early. But the actual celebration is the evening of the 5th...not Sinterklaas Eve, the night before (like our Christmas Eve) or Sinterklaas morning. For kids who still believe, it's always Sinterklaas night. There may be a few exceptions to the rule, when schedules need to be worked around the adults, but this is the tradition.

Synonymous with Sinterklaasdag, once a child crosses the line from believing to not believing in Sinterklaas anymore, is the concept of making a SurPRISe (pronounced like the French sur-PREEZ-a). At that point, a surprise gift is made by one person for another person in the family...one person, one gift...and part of the SurPRISe is that no one else knows who will be surprising whom. Along with the gift a humorous but very specific poem is written for that person, who has to read it aloud before opening his gift.

This year, Astrid and I were not part of Sinterklaas festivities because her son was with his girlfriend Eva at her family's celebration. Lucky for you because here's a rendering of his SurPRISe for the name he picked: Alex, the father of Eva. Because not even Eva could know whom Jeroen picked, he had to come over here to our house to make the SurPRISe.

FIRST, gifts from a wish-list with a €25 maximum total value were wrapped.

You'll understand something about Astrid when I tell you she was in heaven doing this with Jeroen. She has so many memories of making and doing things with her son over the years. It was like old times for her and she reveled in it. I was the lucky one watching and taking the pictures.


Because Alex and his wife enjoy traveling, Jeroen decided to make a paper-mache globe, inside which he put his gifts. This particular family has rules about not using tools to open their surPRISes, so Jeroen made sure it would not be easy to open this one. Alex would have to work hard for what he got.


The finishing touches were done inside our storage closet where the globe could dry. You should have seen the two of them looking up maps on the internet to figure out the shapes and positioning of continents. They did it all free-hand. So fun to watch.


That was two weeks ago. And because it was a surPRISe, it stayed with us till Jeroen came back to pick it up before the family Sinterklaas party. He's one happy camper. But of course! He should be. And on a very snowy day here at our senior-living complex.

He left with very strict instructions from me to take pictures of Alex opening the globe and taking the presents out (since I had neglected to take pictures of putting them in).

KIJK eens! (Look!) This is what he came up with....


First, Alex had to break claw through the paper mache...


...then through the wire mesh that held everything together...


...to the presents inside. Mission accomplished!
Look at the mess afterwards...from only 6 people.
This is what Sinterklaas is all about, Folks.

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Now...speaking of my first-year anniversary here in Holland, I was looking at my first post from a year ago, 8 December, where I talked about the Small Pleasures of this country. The grote speculaas cookies, the dates, the brussels sprouts...still the small pleasures I so much enjoy. Nothing has changed in that department, except to add mandarin oranges, which we eat all year 'round but which are much cheaper and more plentiful during these winter months.

And MY SurPRISe of this Christmas season, received and opened on Saturday, in time for Sinterklaasdag yesterday (drum roll please):

MY STAYING PERMIT IN HOLLAND HAS BEEN LENGTHENED FOR ANOTHER 5 YEARS!
All I have to do now is go to pick up my card within the next two months.

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus! Yes, Virginia, there's a God in Heaven above....a reason for the season and myriad angels singing Hallelujah!

I bawled like a baby when I saw this YouTube (racing around the world).

This, I told Astrid, is what Sinterklaas and Christmas and this season is all about for me.
Talk about a SurPRISe.

HALLELUJAH!

Christmas Past

You knew I would eventually get back to OUR Christmas at home, right?! I've now completed 4 of the 5 Christmas albums from here there and everywhere. THIS is from home, way back on Sunday the 23rd. So, yes, I've been going backwards in time.

I think I told you that Donica's job is always the hors d'oeuvres. She's the Queen of them. So everyone came early, around noon, to start enjoying the day.

After hors d'oeuvres was the Christmas stockings. Actually, Donica does those and she's Queen of them as well. In fact , the kids say they enjoy them as much as the "real" presents. And besides, this is the one time when everyone can "open" their stockings at the same time. No one has to wait.
And then Nicholas gets to open all his gifts because he always has the most. And we all watch him. Kids!

BUT when the rest of us start opening our gifts, we have a tradition: one gift at a time, one person at a time, going around the room till they're all opened. I can't stand free-for-all gift opening! After all the time and energy and thought put into the gifts, each for the other, there needs to be some careful respect. That's my motto!

Besides, some gifts are so touching, everyone has to look and see...

...and laugh, together!

There's even time to discover and explore and pay attention.

Then we all went outside. This year, the weather was NICELY permitting!

Mark and Dennis threw the football...

...while Donica and Amy held down the fort, Nicholas tried out his new Nintendo DS game, and G'ma took the pictures.

Speaking of G'ma, lucky her, she gets to show you HER special gift of the day: another photo book from Amy (remember last year's on our Castles of Scotland?!). This one is a compilation of photos I took of her and Mark from when she was age 0-13. Can you imagine THAT! OMG! How can she top that, two years in a row!

And speaking of Amy, here she is after all that outside fresh air, fixing the spinach salad for the Christmas dinner. That's always her dinner contribution. It's to die for!

My part was the traditional pot of Chicken Paprikash that we all grew up on from their dad's mom years ago. Though a Hungarian poor-man's dish, it suddenly became what we all decided was our favorite dish after the divorce. Once a year at Christmas!

It's one of the few times we actually eat in the dining room! If you squint, you can see that Nicholas really IS there, on the other side of Donica.

Later, after the dishes are done and there's room in our stomachs, Mark's from-scratch pumpkin pie comes out! He's the King of our desserts in the same way Donica is the Queen of our hors d'oeuvres. We ALWAYS save room for his pumpkin pie. It's a no-brainer.

By the last bite, we've just finished 8 hours together! A beautiful memory of family time, now with Dennis included! He fits right in, of course. He doesn't need to be married to Amy YET to be part of the family. But that'll come quickly. June 1 is not that far away, as we all know.

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In the here and now, Donica and I are both safe-n-sound in Amsterdam. On Wednesday evening, Tracy/Lurch from the UK, part of my Shutterchance photoblog (SC), arrives by plane for a couple days here at the apartment. On Friday, Astrid and Scarlet, the Dutch Girls, will join us for fun and games. A mini-SC meet-up!

Life is always exciting, isn't it! How could I ask for more?!

Mission Accomplished

Several of you said you wanted to see the Christmas trees when they were done, so I will oblige.

BUT FIRST, Donica decided to give me her main Christmas present tonight at suppertime: we're flying to Michigan for my family's holiday reunion at the cottage the weekend of the 29th! I'm still in shock because Donica has been making a big deal about having this holiday totally free with nowhere to go. Just lots of sleep and R&R here at home before the New Year.

Wow! Color me surprised...and delighted. And maybe I'll see snow after all! We'll be gone December 27th - 31st.

Okay then. Having gotten that off my chest! :) Here's what's been accomplished since I last wrote about the holiday rush. Once the Christmas cards were put in the mail on Monday (yes!), I started in on the living room Disney tree.

I told you that this tree is for the woods to see...and any mail carrier who might come to the front door with a large package. WE see it, of course, when we go up and down the stairs to bed.

My favorite Disney ornaments year after year are Buzz Lightyear...

...and his buddy, Woody, who always get hung side by side. I LOVE those fellas. Their friendship endures through thick and thin, no matter what!

Before I could finish the slim tree in the family room, next on the agenda, I had a delightful visit at Nicholas' school for his class party yesterday, during which time the kids got to read stories they had written, in front of everyone. He is so serious about his stories and his teacher says he writes good ones. G'ma agrees and popped her buttons, of course.

Then back home to restring new sets of lights on the slim tree. Today I finished all the ornaments...the ones we have collected these past 10 years, everywhere we go.

Every single one means something and holds a memory dear.

I LOVE Christmas trees. Every year I say the same thing: "They're so quiet!" Midst all the hustle and bustle, I love to turn out all the other lights and sit still in their presence. They calm me down!

And, yes, the presents were then able to go under the trees. The living room tree is where Donica's and my gifts to each other go. The gifts to the kids go here under the slim tree.

Donica did her thing and stuffed the stockings, as you see. (Yes, Mark, there's the one for Dennis in the middle!)

The good news about the UNMOWED lawn is that it's been gently raining off-n-on for the last few days and will continue to do so, they say, until after we celebrate Christmas with the kids on Sunday! WE ARE NOT COMPLAINING! We need the rain much more than a mowed lawn. So thank God for that mission UNaccomplished.

That leaves Friday and Saturday to clean the house! HA! Wanna come help me?? :)

Rush Hour

Midst the loud cacophony of tootin' my own horn (last post), I totally neglected to tell you that WE'RE BACK in Atlanta! I flew back on Friday and Donica flew back yesterday. No amount of convincing or haggling at this holiday time of the year could get us back on the same flight or the same day. But we're back safe-n-sound, and that's all that matters.

Now, the holiday rush is on! We celebrate Christmas with the kids here at our house a week from today, the 23rd: Amy, Dennis (yes, flying in from LA), Mark and Nicholas.

This afternoon we'll bring up the two trees from the basement dungeon. The slim tree that you can see goes between the family room and breakfast nook/kitchen; the covered, bigger tree goes in the living room in front of the window, for the woods to see.
I love trimming the trees, year after year. The slim tree holds all our ornaments collected from everywhere. Memories. The big tree is the Walt Disney tree.

In the meantime, I'm working on our Holiday cards! God willing and the creek don't rise, they'll be done for the mail tomorrow. I enjoy that as well, thinking about all the people, one by one, whose names go on the envelopes. Christmas for me is a time of remembering!

Donica's job will be to stuff the stockings! Our kids know Donica as the Queen of hors-d'oeuvres AND the Queen of Christmas Stockings. And that's the truth, because she is! I didn't grow up with them so I didn't have a clue until she came into my life 10 years ago. But it's still her job. No one does it better!

Thankfully, I wrapped almost all the presents a month ago, so they're 95% done. Some still need their bows, but once the trees are up, they can go underneath and out of the upstairs hallways! They, too, are a reminder of the memories we have and why we give gifts in the first place. God was the one who thought up the idea of gifts, so I have no problem giving them. Neither does Donica...and in that regard again, she's the Queen!


Oh, yeah. Don't forget to mow the lawn and mulch in the leaves, Ginnie! I'll probably do that on Wednesday. Donica says that'll make everything look so nice for just before the kids come.

When I pace it like this, suddenly it doesn't feel so rushed any more! Good job, Ginnie and Donica. It'll be easier than you think. Donica will work only Monday and Tuesday this week before being OFF OFF OFF till she flies to Europe on January 6th (I'll be joining her on the 10th). That's a HOLIDAY, Folks! Almost 3 weeks of R&R for her. YAAAAAY!