Sinterklaas

Half of Six in a Row is half Dutch. The surname is a bit of a giveaway.

Sinterklaas is a traditional winter holiday figure in the Netherlands, celebrated annually on the eve of the name day of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Amsterdam, children and sailors (5 December).

The Dutch tradition, as my family know it at least (i.e. might have been lost in translation on the other side of the world), is for children to put their shoes at the fireplace or outside the door when they go to bed. In their shoes they place carrots, apples, straw or sugar for Sinterklaas' grey horse Amerigo.  And while the children sleep Sintaklaas comes by and the carrots are replace with a chocolate letter.

We are a little light on fireplaces at our house and where we live possums are more than likely to eat the carrots, apples and chocolate if left outside. We leant that the hard way one Easter when the Easter bunny hid our eggs in the garden but the possums found them first.

So yesterday our Weetabix were replaced with chocolate...and I would like to have got a few other photos of the beautiful chocolate letters but they didn't last long enough.