Pepernoten, Pepernoten, Pepernoten, Pepernoten!

The holiday season has started.... Today, 5 December, is the traditional 'pakjesavond' :) Let me explain. Well, let wikipedia explain... HERE.

In all non-Dutch countries, as far as I know anyway, Sinterklaas is celebrated on the 6th. In Holland, we celebrate on the eve of the 5th. Sinterklaas walks his white horse across our roofs together with his helper Zwarte Piet whom he sends down the chimney to leave presents. If you're good you get a present, if you're bad you will be put into his sack and taken to Spain as punishment. LOL these days I dont think anyone would mind a free holiday to Spain, but it is a really scary thought for a five-year old!

So.... Pakjesavond has arrived. I made sure that we had plenty of Dutch food around (with some huuuuge help from my best friend Nancy who kindly went shopping on my behalf with a massive list), and I scored some presents as well. It was fun!

Me pretending to be 'zwarte piet' (minus the make-up) with my large sack of pressies

Check out the official sack! My friend really came through for me :)

The bf in search of presents :)

Yay! Dr. Horrible comic book (it's really good!)

My turn!

A new planner for me for 2011, with cupcakes!! Granted, it's pink but I love it :)

All remaining presents were food, including this yummy speculaas! There were also stroopwafels, chocolate crayons, stroopwafels, pepernoten, chocolate pepernoten for the bf, sinterklaas shaped chocolates... too much to tell you, let's have a picture :)

See? And this is only part of it... My mother sent me napkins in the mail and gave me these handpuppets years ago... They get used every year :)

Some more decorations, also a gift from my mother from way back when. :)

A gift from my friend Nancy that she sent along with everything on my shopping list :) It's a special jar for all those pepernoten! I so love it!

The result :) The tablecloth was also a gift from my mother, LOL... I keep all this stuff for this one evening hihi... The chocolate letters are traditional also, very yummy :) I got a white one and the bf in milk chocolate with hazelnuts. Mmmm, so good!

For dinner we had stamppot with rookworst (well, what passes for rookworst in the UK), and lemon cake for dessert (sadly no picture).

All in all, it was a good evening :)
So until next year: dag Sinterklaasje daaag, daaag, daaaag, Zwarte Piet...

Comments

  1. Theresa MacNaughton5 December 2010 at 23:53

    It was SO fun to learn about your celebration. I love learning about the customs of other countries. Looks like you and the BF had a great time. :) Theresa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Life in Rehab6 December 2010 at 18:27

    What a neat custom, and it looks like you had a wonderful time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. lisbonlioness14 December 2010 at 14:19

    That's well wicked. Lovely!
    Being German, I grew up with the Nikolaus side of things, and mine were Pfeffernuesse rather than Pepernoten, but it is still pretty similar.
    I made little Nikolaus gifts for my colleagues, and I suppose they studied up on that little tradition.
    English people are so ignorant! LOL

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Leave a comment, make my day!

Popular posts from this blog

Scissor Sock Tutorial

Image
Hi all! I've had so many request from friends for these scissor socks that I wanted to share the tutorial with you. I've been sick for a while so this tutorial is well over due. This will be my first sewing tutorial so I hope it's clear enough :) Feel free to make you own or for friends or family, but please don't use it for commercial purposes or make them to sell. It is after all not my pattern. So let's get started :) You need: 2 pieces of fabric with different print Interfacing (with ironing option on one side only) Cord Ribbon 1 button  Beads Cutting mat and ruler Rotary cutter and scissors Some sort of circular template (I use a small plate) Needle and thread Cut the fabric and the interfacing to a rectangle of 9x12.5 inches (23x32 cm). Decide which fabric you want where, this will influence the next step. Use your circular template to round one corner. The fabric you want on the top and bottom of your sock will have t
Read more

Easter Prep Stage 3 - Happy Easter!

Image
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're having a great day and no matter where you are you've had your fair share of Easter eggs whether real or chocolate. :) I was a bit late as usual so had a few last minute projects to complete last night... Lots of cool Easter projects though, let me show you:  I started this at last week's Craft Meet. Everyone around me was knitting and I felt a bit like a 5-year old with my paint chips cutting out eggs, but there was a need for it. I found a great idea on Pinterest and just had to try it. So I rushed to the DIY store and got a pile of paint chips... Taadaa, the Easter bunting! Isn't it the coolest! The original idea was found here (please link to the ORIGINAL POST when adding this to Pinterest if you want to pin this) , and I just love it! The paint chips I used were a little different from what the original post shows, and I thought it would be nice to have some diagonal eggs as well. THAT was not such a good id
Read more

Fabulising February - Men's Shirt Dress

Image
Hi everyone! Fabulising February is nearly over and this is the last project I have managed to complete.Tomorrow I'll post a short recap showing all the finished projects. Wanting to go out with a bang, I tackled a men's shirt that the bf bought online many years ago and forgot to return it so I wanted to make something nice out of it. Seems a waste to be throwing away a brand new shirt! Granted, it was white and while probably cotton it was very thick and stiff material. So I dyed it purple. Of course. Once it was purple, I then had to try and do something with it. Easier said than done! I finally found a cute idea for a dress in blogland (didn't save the link though) and I really wanted to try that. But the instructions were super tricky so in the mending pile it went. This is the shirt. Much too large even for the bf but purple at least ;) And a bit wrinkled for being in the bag for a very long time. But with only a little time left in my Fabulising February
Read more