Christmas Activities

Last weekend was the official start to our holiday season. It began Saturday morning with the Christmas Parade downtown. It was cold and cloudy when we got there, but minutes after the parade began the sun came out and it was beautiful.

We love the bands,

the bagpipes (I love bagpipes and was glad there were a few of them),

the 10 Commandment Train - a parade tradition,

the VWs - we had rented The Love Bug just the week before, so seeing "Herbie" was great,

the horses - Natalie's favorite,

and the tractors - the boys favorite,

Later that afternoon, Alyssa went to sing with her "Decatens" group (a small a cappella group from school) at a local shopping center's tree lighting.
While we were there waiting, we participated in some of the shops free activities.
There was cookie decorating, and a hair salon was doing free "Who" hair -
with all the trimming.
Alyssa's chorus group sang a few selections in the chilly weather.
Before heading home we stopped in at Barberitos to warm up with a large queso and chips (aka - cheese dip).Later that night we took down Natalie's hair -

frontback. Pretty cool, I should "Who" her hair more often!That night was also the night to put out our wooden shoes for Sinterklaas - I love keeping this tradition from Robert's side of the family.After laying out shoes, the kids left water and carrots for Sinterklaas' horse. We had to put up the water and carrots until Logan was asleep - he kept eating the carrots!That night, Sinterklaas filled the shoes with goodies, games & toys, and a few practical items.
Robert and I even found a shoe of ours place out and filled.The kids loved waking up in the morning and looking through their gifts (Sinterklaas doesn't wrap).Logan is old enough this year that he is starting to understand and get excited about things. In Utah we would visit Sinterklaas, so it's been a bit more challenging to help Logan understand although we told him the story and looked up pictures on-line.Jake was excited to show Logan the Combos that Sinterklaas had left. Logan hugged Jake and said "fank you, Jake!"Logan also loved the bubbles.And everyone got the traditional chocolate letter of their initial.

Logan was later playing with the Hot Wheel cars Sinterklaas had brought and showed them to me and said "Wal-Mart?"
I told him, "no, Sinterklaas brought them."
"Wal-Mart?"
"No, Sinterklaas. Remember putting out carrots for his horse?"
"Oh."

Alyssa had told some friends at school about celebrating Dutch Christmas and they asked if that meant she didn't celebrate Christmas on the 25th. She said we still did that too.
Traditionally in Holland Sinterklaas comes with the gifts, toys and treats the night of Dec. 5th and then the 25th is spent in religious celebration.
I like that we have added in Dutch Christmas along with our other holiday traditions.