Dutch Christmas

Today, celebrated across much of Europe, is St. Nicholas Day (Szent Miklos, if you're in Hungary). Yesterday, on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, little Dutch children set out their wooden shoes to be filled with pfeffernusse (at least, according to my Dutch in-laws, although why the Dutch want to eat a German cookie, I'll never know) and other goodies.

Not so incidentally, yesterday was also Dutch Christmas for the Rogers' family descendents. Trisha's mom, Adriana (from whom Evelyn takes her middle name--along with, I discovered yesterday, at least two of her second cousins), immigrated from Holland as a young girl, and celebrating Dutch Christmas in her honor has become something of a family tradition for her children, grand children, and now for her great-grandchildren. (See here for David Sedaris's funny--if somewhat reprehensible--take on the Dutch Christmas tradition.)

We started the festivities by lining up on Main Street for the Storybook Cavalcade, a yearly parade held in December. As parades go, we were pleasantly surprised by this one. Instead of noisy cars tossing bags of candy, this parade featured almost no candy, and almost no loud cars. Instead, a series of storybook characters paraded down Main Street--everything from the Disney princesses, to Tarzan, to Looney Toons, to Star Wars and Where the Wild Things are. Needless to say, the kids all loved identifying the characters as they walked down the street. I think Andrew (and his other 3-4 year old cousins) got most excited about shaking the characters hands or giving them high fives when they ventured to the edge of the road.

After the parade, we gathered for some hot chocolate in a cooler in the back of Jodi's truck. We still had an hour or so to while away before Dutch Christmas officially began, so we went to an outdoor Tuba festival downtown. Andrew got bored fairly quickly, so he went with Bubby and Poppy to fetch the ham for dinner; Evelyn got cold, so we ventured inside a nearby building to look at the Christmas trees on display. We even went upstairs to see Santa, but the line was so long (and Evelyn pretty oblivious to the whole Santa thing anyway) that we skipped that and went back to look at Christmas trees.

Dutch Christmas was the usual rowdy mix of grandkids running around the room (Jodi had made reservations for their ward's cultural hall), adults talking and prepping food. The food was delicious--ham and potatoes, jello salad (of course!), salad and rolls. After dinner, we had a series of activities for adults and kids alike. Dan and I were in charge of a wiggly activity for the little kids, and were a little caught off guard when *all* the kids decided to play. We had planned on musical chairs, but we quickly realized we'd need a different set of chairs for the big and little kids. We also hadn't reckoned on how aggressive/competitive some of the big kids would be, or how upset the little kids would be when they got out (almost all of them cried). We did bring some prizes for all the kids; in the future, we think we'll hand out prizes to the little kids when they get out--this would lead to lots fewer tears, and maybe a shorter game!

After the activities, we had a song from some of the boys and a story from Uncle Jim, followed by the much anticipated white elephant gift exchange. I have to say that I think we came out best in the exchange, with a handmade wreath from Uncle Jim that looks lovely and smells even nicer. As soon as I can get something to hang it with, it will be decorating our door.

All the excitement meant that our kids missed their afternoon naps and were up past their bedtime, but we think the sacrifice was worth it.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures: we didn't realize until too late that we hadn't packed the camera).

In other news: Friday was the last day of classes for the semester. After this week (finals week), we will be home free until January! Hooray! (We're not excited or anything).