My kids are a pretty lucky lot really, since they get showered with presents twice in December...Firstly for the celebration of Sinterklaas, whose status as the patron saint of children is celebrated in the Netherlands and a few surrounding countries.
Children wholly believe in his existence up till about the age of 10 and this is mostly due to the fact that even dutch national television is very much implicated in keeping him alive. Towards mid November the excitement begins... shoes are placed in front of fireplaces and little trinkets are found the next morning, mostly 'pepernoten' ( similar to ginger bread cookies in flavour) and other sweets.
 For the most part of my childhood, the same actor appeared every year on his steam boat all the way from Spain with only recently a new Sinterklaas making his appearance, the former taking up his retirement on the Costa del Sol most probably ;) 

Now it's nearly Christmas and my lot are in for a second coming...where as in Holland children don't normally receive presents having been spoiled by St Nick,  living in Australia means a Christmas ham on the barbie and lots more presents for them to open. We try and be sensible, but can't account for crazy aunts and nanna's.

We will be spending time up in beautiful Brisbane this year, with a week of calm and tranquility in Byron Bay to top it off. What will you be doing?

Hope you have a great day!

Michelle

all images Pinterest.

Since my last post I've been thinking of Christmas ... a lot! Having come from the Northern hemisphere I am still struggling with the blazing hot Decembers. Even after 5 years in this new homeland I miss the cold December nights, the early nightfall ( as early as 4.30pm), the snow, and general cosiness that comes with rugging up and sitting by a fireplace... even if that means central heating... My parents old house had a roaring log burner, invariably stoked up too high by my ever obliging dad, forcing us to sit in singlets unwrapping presents on Christmas morning! Nothing much has changed really.

Except now, we sit in singlets on the veranda, overlooking the city of Brisbane, where we'll be this year.

One thing we have adopted from home is the Kris Kringle presents giving for the adults. Rather than spending a fortune on presents people don't really need, we now have a budget, we each spend $50 on 2 presents, which we wrap up and attach a poem to, filled with clues (often misleading and hilarious) about the present inside. All presents get put in the center of the table, and with a list of instructions to accompany the dice ( one means lose a present to the person on the right of you, two means swap presents wit ha person of your choice etc etc)  we roll the dice and over several rounds, people win AND lose presents, read the poems ( where some presents gain more favor than others) and eventually open the presents, and not until the very end do people get to keep them. I remember one particular year, nan's red crock pot was the hot ticket item, with several family members forming secret alliances in order to secure it. OH yes, it's all about strategy.

The great thing for me is that it isn't really about the presents at all, but more about the time spent with your family. Our game usually lasts several hours, at the end of which we are full of food and drink and merriment.

 Below see some items on my hot ticket list for this year:

HattieRex

vivasweetlove

jennimo

hardtofind

hardtofind

What will you get up to for Christmas? I'd love to hear.

Hope you have a great day!

Michelle