This email came today from the class parent:
Dear
Parents,
In line
with the Dutch tradition at this time of year, we are hoping that Sinterklaas
will visit our school over the weekend. If the children leave a
shoe/slipper in their classroom on Thursday, maybe they will find some sweets
inside their shoes when they return to school on Sunday morning…
So, if you would like, your child can bring one shoe/slipper
to school on Thursday to be left here over the weekend.
This is always a fun event.
Regards,
ClassParentPerson
And it generated some good, healthy excitement from Hannah who is currently not feeling too great (fever and bronchitis). We have good medicine and thanks to our friend Courtney, a nebulizer (breathing treatments calm the coughing), and she's doing better, but it was fun to see something light up her face. She has some very glamorous pink glittery ballet flats from Target, and I asked her if she would like to leave one of those for Sinterklass.
"No," she answered, "I'm leaving one of my [pink] cowboy boots, so there's more room for the loot."
Yay! I'm so glad you were able to get some use out of it, though I'm also sad that you got some use out of it, because that means someone's sick :(
ReplyDeleteCherish that school! Hubby and I miss it so much. We knew before we left that the schools had been one of the biggest advantages of moving overseas, and that's clearly been demonstrated since returning to the States.
The sick is inevitable, right? So it's all in the dealing with it...and I was singing your praises at 2 AM... :)
ReplyDeleteWe found out this week that part of the Sinterklaas tradition is the "Black Peters," small people of African-type coloring and facial features that come up-end everything (thereby hiding the candy, thereby turning Christmas into an Easter-egg hunt). "Those naughty, bad black people." And yes, there is black-face involved. And nappy hair. In 2011. For realz. And it is defended as a "harmless tradition," cause you know, what's the HARM in a little fun even if the naughty villain happens to look like some of the kids in your class?
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
This was the first I had heard about the "Black Peter" part, and we are floored. offended. and most disgusted by the "it's just a harmless tradition" response. So there's the other half of the Dutch shoe tradition. O_o
I have friends who are Dutch in Calgary, and I've never heard about the Black Peters from them. Hopefully it's a fading piece of the tradition.
ReplyDelete