Nice weekend

Throughout the Netherlands families celebrated Sinterklaas on Saturday. It's a uniquely Dutch holiday. Families gather together in the evening to exchange presents (or in some cases, get them from St. Nicholas, aka the neighborman). The most interesting tradition is writing poems for each other. Ideally, the poem should have something to do with the gift and how you present it. The presents don't have to be anything too expensive, but there is a significant investment of time involved in the presentation that makes it all quite special.

As wonderful as Sinterklaas must be, Liesbeth and I did not celebrate in any of the customary ways. We spent the evening very nicely together. By Saturday evening, I had spent two days studying for the Sunday morning service, so I was ready for a little diversion, which Liesbeth quite happily provided. We spent some time decorating the apartment. A week earlier, Lies put up some lights in the front windows and put a nice red table cloth on the table. But while I was studying, she went out and bought a table runner and some candles. Lots of them. As we sat on the couch that evening, I counted nearly 20 candles in the room. Of course, all of them weren't burning ... just 17 of them. Very nice atmosphere. (I've suggested installing a fire extinguisher beside the couch, but the idea went down in flames.) It's important to open a window when we blow out the candles to prevent the smoke alarm from arousing our neighbors!

This past Sunday afternoon, Liesbeth and I enjoyed the company of Chris and Susanne, along with their two children. (Chris is Liesbeth's brother, and Susanne is his wife, as well as one of Lies' good friends.) They came to view the wedding album, and have some tea with us. After church that morning, Chris told Lies they'd like to come over. It was rather ironic because just that morning, Liesbeth and I had plotted to pay them a surprise visit. But they made the first move, so we played host. It's a good thing someone said something, otherwise we both might have showed up to empty houses! I took a picture of us sitting around the couch ... or, rather, since I took the picture, it's best said that I took a picture of them sitting around the couch. I'll try to do a better job next time by somehow including myself in the photo. (Note the candles....)
Their two boys, Eelco and Jesse, were brave souls. Poor chaps ... when you're a five-and-under, it's rather difficult to visit someone's house when said someone has no toys for you to play with. Their cars occupied them for awhile, and then they went to the races themselves. They enjoy Auntie Lies, but I think the boys prefer if she and Uncle Rapp visit them!

All for now ... perhaps I can write more later this week. There is a lot of talk in the Dutch government about tossing out annual auto taxes and replacing them with user fees ... the more you drive the more you pay (especially at rush hour in areas of high population density). How's that for a cliffhanger?