Sinterklaas and Christmas 2011

The first post was about our winter in February - then, we skipped ahead to just last week with the School Photo Day, the next post will most likely be about Kev's 7th birthday....so in between I thought "let's copver Sinterklaas and Christmas" - ok,  my reverse timing is random, I know, but I'm trying to catch up with all the photos I've taken and grouped together in anticipation of blog posts - bear with me!

For Sinterklaas this year, Kevin gave a try to writing his own list with words, rather than just cutting out pictures from toy catalogs. I fell in love with this list. Number 1 (though not in that order on the page) was an RC helicopter. That was *the* present for 2011. Also, Lego was high on the wish list, as was anything to do with Cars2...including Lego.

He made his list and I was suprised by what was (and what was not) on it. He explained to me that he wanted to stop where he did becuase he didn't want Sinterklaas (who has to buy presents for all children) to spend too much money on him.

When I realted this story at work (I mean, of course I had to share this one!) one of my colleagues answered a prayer I hadn't yet uttered - she has a helicopter that was still in it's packing and I could have it to give to Kev! Really! When he opened the present on 5 December, it was truly a moment where a picture was worth a 1000 words....

So, as you know from the revois post, we didn't have a White Christmas in 2011 -  we had a house filled with Santas, a real tree and lots of presents -even after Oma said in 2010 she wasn't going to ship over presents again:-) Christmas morning, the living room looked like this:

Also, right around this time, Kevin personified "All I want for Christmas Is my two front teeth" (I had to explain to him there really was this song in English, I wasn't just making it up!)

Anyway, back to Christmas Morning......Kevin woke up and came downstairs (of course wearing his new Christmas PJ's from Oma and Opa)

He opened all his presents, built some lego, showed his mom how to properly ''chill'' in the afternoon,

And then we went to Joe and Nicole to have the most wonderful Christmas Dinner - first time we ever ate a slow cooked, crunchy skinned pork shoulder, chickpeas and yams.....and Little Man cleaned his plate and ate everything!

Merry Merry!

Recent Pictures

Some photo catch up, since Mom has been a little quiet on the posting lately......

On the 11th of November, we celebrated St. Maarten for the third year with Winnie and Lars. This year, we stayed closer to home by making the rounds with our homemade lanterns in Amstelveen, where Winnie lives. While it comes close to Halloween, we don't dress up here. However, mom couldn't resist to add his gold mickey mouse ears (Dineyland Paris 15 year anniversary edition with led lights) to compliment his gold pumpkin lantern. He got compliments and wows by almost every doorbell we rang!

These last weeks, Kevin has made real progess with his name. He can write 'Kevin' from memory now, but the Fels still needs some work. This is an early example :-). Together with his name are a butterfly and a person, which hangs on my wall behind my desk at work in a place of honor.

The weekend after St. Maarten, Sinterklaas arrived by boat from Spain, and the next week it was time to dress up for school as one of the helper elves, called 'Zwarte Piet'.

Also for the third year, we carried on our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving with the same couples. Here you can see the house, ready for guests. The renovations are pretty much done, only a light fixture here and there, and some pictures on the walls to go to make this a finished home!

The new and improved 'Zwarte Piet' Suit, and Kevin singing traditional Dutch songs :-)

Enjoy, and hope this catches everyone up who needed a "Little Man" fix.....it might be after the Holidays before I have a chance to post again!