12月5日 Sinterklaas!!!

This morning Liam was crying around 5:30. I got up, looked and... Yep... Turned over again... So this time I quickly grabbed my camera to shoot some pictures, before releaving him from his awckward position...

Next time I should record a video... ;-)

Today is 5 December. On that day, we celebrate "Sint-Nicolaas", or more colloquial: "Sinterklaas". It's a bit similar to Saint Nicholas, in that way that also presents are given to the smallest (who believe in him)... But it has a totally different background. To find out more about this festivity for the children, read about it here.

Sinterklaas and his helpers, the "Zwarte Pieten" (Black Peters):

Sinterklaas on his white horse (in Amsterdam):(Pictures borrowed from the internet)

My mom wanted to celebrate Sinterklaas with us, although Liam won't understand it yet at all, but hey, that's what grandmas are like... However, Yoshie is still in Japan, so we are postponing it. Tomorrow she is coming back, so if she feels okay tomorrow evening, we can celebrate Sinterklaas together!

Another tradition around this date is eating "pepernoten". Literally it means "pepper nuts" but it has NOTHING to do with nuts. The basic ingredients are flower, brown sugar, butter, milk, sirop and special Speculaas spices (a.o. cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, clove). Usually it can be bought in the supermarket, but it's not difficult to make it yourself... I want to surprise Yoshie a little bit tomorrow, so I got started. Here are the ingredients:

With a ready mix for speculaas, it's even easier:

This is what it looks like after it's all mixed together:

Before:

After:

Tadaaaaaa!

Now hopefully we don't get tempted to eat them all, before Yoshie is even back!!!

A popular show on tv at this moment is "Popstars". Similar to "Idols", new talent can be discovered via this show. Liam seems to like it too:

Hey, that chick in the middle is quite hot!

Ooooh, that one on the left is even better!!!
Wish I was 20 years OLDER...

Here's a video of my mom (so Liams Grandmom) playing with Liam. In my opinion it's more like Liam is getting hungry and is just biting in everything that is held in front of his mouth...
Or maybe he used to be a lion in his previous life...

Another video of Liam trying to crawl. Still not moving much (except for turning in circles) but every day he is learning a bit more... Baby steps...

Tomorrow afternoon Yoshie is coming back again. I hope everybody enjoyed the continuation of the blog by me. Sorry I had to write in English. I can't write in Japanese, unfortunately... Yoshie will take over from me again and continu with the blog in Japanese... Thanks for your patience!　
どうもありがとうございます。

Cheers!

さようなら。。。

Mario (「バニー」)


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