Party Pictures! Sinterklaas 2006

[beelikej]

Sinterklaas-celebrations were once again brilliant. Officialy Sint's party is on December 5th but we usually pick the closest weekend available to get together. Traditionally you would have to pick a name out of hat - so to speak - and that's the person you buy a gift for. You write a poem about something that happened in the past year and you wrap the present in a 'surprise-gift', a symbol of that certain event for instance. Since it's kind of hard to arrange the drawing of names (and because we're greedy) we decided years ago to just go mad and buy everyone a gift:) No need for a surprise-wrapping (you can make them if you want), but you do have to write a poem to accompany every present. Because that's what makes it typical Sinterklaas: you can use Sint as a cover to comment on the receiver. It's friendly teasing and mostly just a lot of fun:)

We had such a great time together, pictures don't really capture all the fun we had. (If only because the best moments were so overwhelmingly amusing I just forgot to get my camera;)
Only two minor fuck-ups: 'someone' switched poems with presents, but that turned out to be funny anyway. A little worse was the eau de toilette Sint had bought me, after asking advise in the shop, that accidently was the male-version of CoolWater (and I really wanted the girly kind). Some poor shopgirl in The Hague is gonna have to face the 'stare of doom' when my brother pays her a visit next week;)
But no double presents, nothing broken, no painful poems, just a lot of teasing and dirty jokes. Yeah, best family-get-together ever!

Here is an impression of our afternoon reading poems and unwrapping presents. [link to my picture-corner]

A list of what I got
CD Razorlight, Pride And Prejudice, book 9 in the series Unfortunate Events, a collection of 'so hideous they're adorable' picture frames, a little vacuum pig, two cuddly pigs, a sleeveless shirt, a book from biologist Midas Dekkers about how sports and exercise are evil (I love that guy:) a very complicated clothes hanger and of course candy.

If you're interested, you can find more cultural and historical information about Sinterklaas and his clone Santa here

Comments

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Whoa, girlie, those are some damn fancy presents! I love the amount of time and work you put into making them, thinking up poems, creating the gift wrapping... It sounds like so much fun! We never do that over here, but now I want to, lol!

Also, your baby brother is a stone fox, especially with those glasses on. You can tell him that :P.

And eeeeh I love all the presents you got. Razorlight is teh awesome. Also please tell me you got the P&P novel, or at least the DVD of the Beeb miniseries, and not the version with Keira 'look how many teeth I have' Knightley. Shudder.

Anyway, yay! It sounds like you had an awesome time!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I think it's so much better than Christmas, where you just 'throw' presents under the tree (from what I understand;) By creating the wrapping and writing the poems you really get involved with the family and friends you're celebrating with. And it's perfect for remembering and sharing the good (and the bad) that happened in the past year.

Eeep, that's my kidbrother you're talking about. But he could do with a compliment after the year he had (can you believe someone would break up with him? Tsss). I'll pass it on *g*

P&P the book, not the movie or series. And although I think Keira is adorable (in Bend it like Beckham, the first Pirates, Love Actually) I avoided the remake like the plague. There is only one screenversion -and one Mr. Darcey- worth watching: the BBC miniseries you mentioned. Le sigh. (I gave that DVD to my mom last year, how clever am I:)

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everyone buys a present for every person at the dinner party so we all got a bunch to unwrap late at night. It's fun, but not as fun as this was, apparently! Next year, I'm making everyone write poems, bwahaha!

Um, okay then. I'll keep my drooling over your brother to a bare minimum so you can maintain your sanity. *whistles innocently*

And yay! Damn you, Colin Firth, for making me compare every man I meet to you. Ack. And well... I do like Keira in Love Actually (and I love Pirates by definition, hehehe!). But yes, do not watch the remake. It's made of suck.

(Oh and look who's not sleeping, even though it's 1.30am :p...)

(Also, LJ is being an asshole, grrr.)

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Oh my G.
1.30!

I'm turning off the computer now, seriously. Now. I can do it. I have to get up at 7... I better do it....

After I hunt for some pictures of Mr. Firth and his sideburns *g*

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Loool, a woman must know her priorities!

I'm sure I'll go to sleep too. At some point. After I'm done watching this Tim Minear clip and have proof-read my fic so far. Le Sigh.

Niiiight!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Sweet dreams! :-)

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Oh.

*wibbles*

[sillie]

Awesome pictures, and you've been very creative indeed. :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Now you know why my room was such a mess:) And talk about creative: I expected my mom to be, but was really surprised Gayleen joined our arts and crafts tradition as well. Her chocolate creation was marvelous!

[lizphairrulz.livejournal.com]

=D Glad everything went well, love the pictures! And I second Tanni's comment on your "kid brother" being a fox. ; ) You can also tell him that. *hugs*

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Wahey, thank you. And I'll pass the message to brotherdearest;) I feel strangely proud, even though I had nothing to do with him being pretty cool. Oh well, maybe I had a little influence, I am his big sister after all, so I'm sure I set an example *grins*