(Loads of) Christmas Gifts

Tobias must have done something right last year, because judging from the amount of gifts he got…. well, there were just a whole lot of gifts under our tree. This picture kind of gives you an idea because you can see the amount of debris after unwrapping all of them…

Tobias got lots of Playmobil, some Legos, games, clothes, boots, Mr. Squiggles (a toy hamster…). We started playing with most of it on that day. The hit of the day must have been the Playmobil stuff… we played with that for hours! And then there is Mr. Squiggles who gets to sleep in Tobias’ bed these days… Oh, and his Lightning McQueen slippers that he loves to wear.

It was nice, and although I think Tobias got spoiled by Santa (), I also think that he had a great day and some lovely toys! Thanks Santa!!!

Note: Notice Tobias’ Christmas shirt that Aunt Shelli gave him: “To Christmas… And Beyond!” .

School Christmas Dinner

At Tobias’ school they have a Christmas Dinner. He had that last year, but I was not there, because I had my work Christmas Dinner that night. This year I was there to enjoy (and document ). What they do is, they walk into town with “candles” (lights in a decorated coke bottle) and go to the market square. There they stand by the super-tall Christmas tree and sing songs. Then they walk back to school and have dinner in their nicely decorated classroom. Dinner buffet with all sorts of yummy kid stuff made by the parents (and kids, in our case anyway…).

The whole event takes about two hours, which gave Lisa, Lorelei and me just enough time to enjoy a nice dinner in town…

Letter From Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas is so much fun (and leverage) for parents . Sinterklaas writes everyone a letter in the form of a poem telling everyone how nice (or naughty) they have been and how he expects them to be better next year and such. Ans, if you are really naughty he takes you to Spain in a bag. Only imagine the amount of leverage that provides a parent with . Anyway I (oops, excuse me, Sinterklaas) wrote Tobias a letter too, and guess what, he is a great big brother, but he should eat his food and listen to papa and mama .

Baking

 

I know this does not look much like Sinterklaas, but to me it was a wonderful part of this years Sinterklaas celebration: baking with Tobias. He has not been much of a sous chef lately and we haven’t been watching Ratatouille for a while now, but he still loves baking! Here we are making “Krepernoten”, something that was in between “Pepernoten” and “Kruidnoten”. Tobias was helping with the ingredients, with the kneading of the dough. So much fun! I made pea soup too, and he helped me with that as well. Lovely!

Super Mario Bros. Wii

Tobias made his own Sinterklaas wish list this year. Actually he made three: One written list and two cut and paste lists from toy catalogues. This gift was the first on his first list, the written one. He was thrilled when he found this in his shoe!

“YES! This was on my list! YEAH!!!” .

Note: Notice how well his game matches his pajamas...

Tinker Toys

Tobias is not much of a builder. Sometimes I wish he was somewhat more of a builder, because I have fond memories of playing with my legos building all sorts of stuff. There is one type of construction toy that he loves though, and plays with pretty much every day! Tinker Toys!

He makes all sorts of stuff. Unfortunately (for pacifist-me) he mostly builds weaponry of sorts, but lately there have been houses, bridges, space ships and such. I love watching him play like that!

Let It Snow!

Wow, what a nice weekend we had! It snowed! Enough to have a good decent snowball fight and enough to go sledding, and sledding we did. I was pulling Tobias around the block and he was having soooo much fun! Every so often I would kick back some snow “by accident” and Tobias would just crack up…

Also, Tobias was wearing his new snowboots, which he loved (and needed…). We were out there for over two hours! Not only was it a very nice afternoon, it was also a nice prelude to the Sinterklaas evening that very evening…