Well now something happier :o)
Yes people, this year Santa Claus was also in Holland again around December 5th. As always he brought an evening of fun, joy and family time. He also brought pretty nice presents, but I also like the family time. But before I continue this story I will explain this Santa Claus, because it is not the same Santa Claus as the well known Santa Claus. In Holland we have two "Santa Clauses". This one is called "Sinterklaas or St. Nicolaas" in Dutch and the one that comes from the North Pole is called "Kerstman", which means "Christmas Man". If I remember it correctly, Sinterklaas used to be a Spanish Bishop who lived in Turkey. The persons who help him are called "Zwarte Pieten", which means something like "Black Peter".
But when I was making this page about "Santa Claus" I went on the internet to find some more information about this good man. So I searched on the internet and there was a surprise for me, because it seems that thanks to the Dutch people who moved around 1611 to "Nieuw Amsterdam or New Amsterdam" and brought Sinterklaas to America. With a little help from all kind of things, this Sinterklaas became Santa Claus. At least that is one story, but I kind of like this one :o). Well for more inforemation between the difference/common things of "Sinterklaas" and Santa Claus use the following links:
http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/santa.htm
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=35
But while I figured this out, I really don't know what I wanted to tell about Sinterklaas. Anyway that was a pretty nice evening. I also got a white board, so I wont forget important things anymore. Because I only have my agenda to show that I have one :o). Ok, I also put quotes and jokes in that thing, but hey I have to write them down somewhere. And of course there was also a chocolate letter. Every year Sinterklaas gives me a chocolate "P". That one was pretty tasteful.
More pictures will follow soon (I hope)
