BACK!

I haven't been updating my blog in a loooooong while, but I will today! Yay!!! So what happened in the past 1,5 month?? Well loads of things. Sinterklaas on the 5th of december is always fun! For the ones who don't know what Sinterklaas is, I will explain shortly. Sinterklaas is translated into English as Santa Claus. So on the 5th of december all the Dutch kids get presents. They get either presents the regular way, or hidden in a surprise box with poem (so they have to dig up their presents) The adults get presents too! So why the 5th of december? Well the real Santa Claus (Saint Nicolas) died on the 6th of december, so I guess they started to celebrate his generosity on the 5th of december!?!! And when the Dutch founded New York (then New Amsterdam) they brought their customs with them, but seriously I'm not sure why the Americans celebrate Santa Claus at christmas....haha.

People ask me quite a lot if we also give each other presents at christmas. When I answer with a 'no', they immediately ask what we do at christmas. Well to be honest, we have two christmas days (december 25th and 26th) and we celebrate the birth of Christ with going to church both days and have a really nice meal with family (both days). It's not as boring as it sounds, trust me. It's nice to have a long and very nice dinner with your relatives. At least, for me! haha

New Year was great too, we celebrate it here with LOADS LOADS of fireworks and hang out with our friends or family. I spend it this year in Ermelo, where my boyfriend lives. It was great and we had a nice time.

Wishing you all the best for 2009!!!

1 comment:

Sarah said...

It's good to see you back, Jackie.

That's cool that the whole "Santa Claus" thing is separate from Christmas. John and I talked a lot this Christmas about whether or not we want to do Santa stuff with our future children. Our hang up is that too often, Christmas becomes about what gifts you got (or didn't get) rather than celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.