It that time of year again, children around here are all very exited because of Sinterklaas. They have been putting their shoes next to the fireplaces in order to receive small giftsand candy in it. On december 5th we are going to celebrate the birthday of this very old and very generous man.

I'm sure there also are people discussing if it's allowed for the Pieten to be black because they think it's a form of racism. Well I'm not one of them...I think it's a wonderful Dutch tradition about giving and it's supposed to be a special time for small children, so let's leave it like that.

Yesterday we celebrated Sinterklaas at our home with our family and friends. We always draw lots and than you have to make a surprise package and a poem for the person you've got. We really had a wonderful time and there were a lot of beautiful and very creative packages.

Today the four of us went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Marjolein complained just a tiny little bit about missing some things out of the book, she herselve would have gave a bit more attention. Well she's allowed to think so but I enjoyed the movie and the special effects and I think they did a wonderful job again. The only thing I find terrible annoying is the fact they almost spent half an hour showing commercials before the film started.

Well I didn't take this picture myself, but this is what I was looking like today.

Once a year I crawl into the skin of "zwarte Piet" during the festivities of Sinterklaas at the primaryschool my kids used to go to. It means playing, singing and dancing along with the little ones. It's nice because most of them aren't afraid of me at all and I received a lot of smiles, hugs and kisses. But this year there also were some older ones that were very annoying. Some of them wouldn't stop trying to pull the bag with sweets out of my hands and there even were some kids trying to pull down my trousers, can you believe that. Apart from those few moments I simply had a wonderfull time!

I did like tomake animations with Macromedia Flash but lately I haven't had much time to play around. This evening I wanted to play a little and this is the result...

Yesterday Marjolein, Sander and me wanted to buy a christmastree. We didn't have the car because Albert had to go to work. So we took our bikes and went to the garden-centre, selected this beautiful tree with roots and delivered it to one of the guys to wrap it in a net.

And this is how it normally goes: you pay for your tree and drive your car around the back to the drive-in they made there, where one of the guys gets your tree and puts it in your trunk. So can you imagine their faces when I biked up there and told them to put the tree on the carrier? I think I made their day...

Several guys came to help and although they were convinced the tree was way to heavy to take by bike, they put it on my carrier and secured it to my back with my scarf. And there I went and although I made a lot of people laugh out loud, I did make it home without any problems! I think next year I will ask them not to wrap the tree but instead put some lights in it ;0)

Hi there...you know me don't you? Ofcourse you do.. I'm Santa. But I'm afraid I'm in a bit of awkward position, because due to a lack of free time she hasn't finished my official red suit yet. So here I am sitting in my boxers waiting to get my clothes and developing a cold or even worse if she doesn't finish them fast ;0)

Santa is 13" tall with movable arms and legs and needlefelted from homedyed wool. I have big plans with him but for now I just settle with finishing his suit ;0)

A little update for my knitting pals, I finished my Noro scarf. To make it more flat I need to block it and instead of fringe I'm going to attach needlefelted pompons.

Also my Mother in Law asked me to buy her some sock yarn and ofcourse I couln't resist buying some more, since they had some beautiful new shades in stock. One is with several brown and blue shades and that's going to be for Albert. The other one has pink/purple shades an is probably going end on my feet when finished, if not on Marjoleins because she has the habit to steal some of my most favorite clothes ;0) .

I already gave Marjolein the Cascading Leaves Socks I finished a week ago and started knitting for Sander. One already is finished and the other one is going fine too, I'm definately not suffering the second-sock-syndrome...

My woolstash ♥♥♥ ;0)

Friday I went to the Antroposofic centre to look for some matching red wool, because I didn't have enought to finish Santa's clothes. I bought the wool I was using in France during our holiday in August, so that made it a bit difficult to find the exact right match. But they did have a red that was darker and one that was a bit lighter and when I carded both together, it resulted in a shade that almost matched the one I was using. Lucky me...

I also started needlfelting a face and I wasn't satisfied with the looks at first, but today I sat down for a while to work on it some more and I actually couldn't stop. I started seeing a face in my head and in my hands, that for me belonged to a cook. I bet it's got something to do with me being in designer-mode for the restaurant business, since I'm busy designing a menu and website for a tea-room. And when Albert came home he told me he thought it looked like Manuel, the Spanish waiter from one of our all time favourite British comedies: Fawlty Towers. When he said it I could only think he was right. so I'm going to name this one Manuel and he's got a promotion ;0)

"He's got a hat, a kerchief around his neck and a big belly but the poor fellow doesn't have arms and legs yet...

I received a present from my Secret Pal and I loved it!!! It was send in a special christmaspackage and contained a ball of my absolute favorite Rowan yarn in a beautiful blue shade, an Interweave Knits (always wanted to see one since they don't sell it here..), a pair of knitting needles from the northpole ;0), a set of notecards, some candy and last but not least a christmas ornament wich amazingly arrived in one piece concidering it's made of glass. My secret pal was Lauren Etling and you can read more about her here and here

I finished "Manuel" , he's 40cm (16") tall with a big belly and small feet.
the picture was taken outside in my garden when it was snowing. We normally don't have much snow and when we do it doesn't last long ;0( So now we do have a bit of snow outside just enough to give us a bit of holiday spirit...