Sinterklass 2010

[icvanstra]

All,

Just reminder that if you all hurry...you can still run out and get your gifts for Sinterklaas.

A chocolate E from Droste and some Kruidnoten would be very welcomed around here!

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... went looking for a Sinterklaas emoticon and didn't find one, so I used Marjolein's combo from earlier.

[icvanstra]

Found one!

[Marjolein]

pretty gooed on!
I have eaten so much kruidnoten that I'm about to burst! I got the Toy Story 3 game from Sinterklaas I like kids-games, whaha! And a chocolate Sint and Piet, yum-yum. The dogs had to unwrap their own present, went pretty smoothly, and they ate their chewy-sint-gift Surprised he came at all, we have about 15cm (inches???) of snow! weehaaa!

[icvanstra]

Marjolein,

what time did you open your Sinterklaas presents? I see your post was t 6:04 p.m. my time... which is 11:04 in NL. You were a day early!

[Marjolein]

Marjolein,

what time did you open your Sinterklaas presents? I see your post was t 6:04 p.m. my time... which is 11:04 in NL. You were a day early!

Yes we were, we had a family dinner on the 5th, and we cannot skip Sinterklaas, wait a day longer is not an option obviously So we were a day early

[vneerland]

I got kruidnoten, pepernoten, a chocolate letter (s for sint) and ate gevulde speculaas, boterletter, fondant and suikerhart.
And now I know what I need for Christmas: a weightwatchers membership

[icvanstra]

I got kruidnoten, pepernoten, a chocolate letter (s for sint) and ate gevulde speculaas, boterletter, fondant and suikerhart.
And now I know what I need for Christmas: a weightwatchers membership

My tastebuds just went nuts!

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For my NL friends - you all know what that Chocolate Letter looks like when it's wrapped.... My father would often take the tags off the package and switch them! There were so many years where we would open "our" letter and it was wrong.

[Christie M]

I got kruidnoten, pepernoten, a chocolate letter (s for sint) and ate gevulde speculaas, boterletter, fondant and suikerhart.
And now I know what I need for Christmas: a weightwatchers membership

I have NO idea what you just said - but if it was yummy maybe next time you want to share?????

[vneerland]

I got kruidnoten, pepernoten, a chocolate letter (s for sint) and ate gevulde speculaas, boterletter, fondant and suikerhart.
And now I know what I need for Christmas: a weightwatchers membership

I have NO idea what you just said - but if it was yummy maybe next time you want to share?????

Kruidnoten are tiny cookies that taste like speculaas, but I assume you don't know what that tastes like either.
Pepernoten are anis cookies
Chocolate letter is what is sounds like. (using dutch cocolate, of course)
Gevulde speculaas are cookies with a soft almond paste filling
boterletter same kind of filling, but with crescent roll dough.
fondant is sugar and cream, shaped into flat coins and suikerhart is similar, but bigger and heart shaped.
My dogs are totally crazy about pepernoten, BTW. (and so is the husband)

[bayca]

you forgot a present

[GSDNanny]

Oh my gosh, Judith, from those descriptions, I just gained 10 lbs ready about it all! Sounds delicious! Thanks for the education, always nice to learn. So, are Happy Sinterklass wishes to you all from NL appropriate? Hope so!!

[vneerland]

you forgot a present

Drop/licorice? But that's not sinterklaas related, is it?

@Denise. and I forgot to mention the filled chocolate animals (mostly mice) and 'taai taai' (very tough cookies) that kids get in their shoe. Instead of leaving milk and cookies on christmas eve, for Santa and his Reindeer (just pray Sarah Palin is not around, right?) kids put out their shoe, filled with some bread and a carrot for Sinterklaas' white horse (named Amerigo) that he rides the rooftops with. His moorish help "zwarte piet' (black pete) will slide down the chimney and leave treats for kids that left food for the horse. You can summon them to your house by singing Sinterklaas songs. The presents do not arrive until the night of december 5th/6th though, but the treats start as soon as Sinterklaas arrives in Holland by steam boat, from Spain where he lives. Also, while singing songs, you may just get a knock on the door, and black pete may toss a handfull of treats into the room. Very exciting yet scary, because if you are a bad kid, you may end up being tossed in Sints jute sack and hauled off to Spain. I remember I asked my mom if they would come looking for bad kids and mom asked "why"? Good point. Dutch kids are pretty darn good for a large part of November in to early december. Though I never figured out the criteria of being bad enough to be taken away. Some pretty nasty classmates always remained, so I soon figured that the rules were pretty loose, no matter how hard my parents tried to tell us it was serious business. Homes with Dutch shepherds may never be visited by Sinterklaas, come to think about it. But then again, they would scare off our American cousin Santa Claus as well and I have heard few reports of missed christmasses because of the dogs.

[GSDNanny]

Now that was great! I knew a little bit about the story but now I have the details. Always great to know. Black Pete, the jute sack and all.....yeh, I could see where that would be scarey. Shame our kids in the US dont have that same correlation. All they have are the threats of coal in their stockings. How did the date Dec 5 come about? Is actually my daughter's birthday, as a matter of fact, and she turned 21 this past Sunday (sorry to digress).

It is all very interesting to me. I wish I had that specific link to a heritage, mine is such a mixture - American Indian, German, Irish, dash of Spanish. Dont hold the German part against me ok?