Last night, as Dutch families celebrated Sinterklaasavond by gathering together and watching children open the presents from Sinterklaas, we were making our own preparations for the arrival of St. Nick. Borrowing a page from Dutch tradition, the twins filled their shoes with carrots to feed the horse upon which Sinterklaas rides and, before going to bed last night, left them near the door for Sinterklaas to find.
When we came downstairs this morning, we found that the carrots in their shoes had been replaced with oranges and cookies and that their stockings had been filled with Christmas pajamas, books, DVDs, chocolate letters, and small wooden "name trains"!
Unlike last year, the twins actually reacted to the items inside of their stockings this morning. Will was most excited to pull Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas out of his stocking. He seemed to think that it was a book, but once I began playing it for him, he was glued to the computer. Maddie appeared to like her wooden "name train" best of all.
After opening their stockings, I dressed the twins in their new Christmas pajamas and declared today a "Pajama Day". Aside from a quick walk to the mailboxes, we spent the morning inside our little Dutch house, just hangin' around!
Though I was able to take some cute pictures of the twins this morning, I was not able to get the posed portraits of them holding their stockings that I had wanted to. They're just too quick these days! With some daylight left, I may try some more today, but I'm not holding my breath. The pictures below are just as adorable and better tell the story of our morning anyway.
Happy St. Nick!
 |
| The
twins were serious about putting carrots in their shoes. They arranged
and then rearranged them again and again, though I'm not quite sure that they
understood why they were doing it! |
 |
|
Maddie
seemed to be determined to present the perfect arrangement of the carrots in her
clogs.
|
|
 |
| Carrots for Amerigo, the horse upon which Sinterklaas rides, as arranged by Maddie and Will |
 |
| Using
cardstock sent to us by Mimi and Papa, we created a paper chain to welcome
Sinterklaas to our Little Dutch House. |
 |
| Will
doesn't sit still for much, but he sat for the full length of the Curious
George Christmas DVD. |
 |
| After
breakfast, Maddie treated herself to the Kruidnoten that were left in her
clogs. |
 |
| Maddie,
in her new pajamas, played with her "name train" at the table. |
 |
|
Then,
the REAL fun began! In a rare occurrence, Maddie and Will wrestled
without the match ending in tears.
|
|
 |
| Look
at that smile! |
 |
| Maddie
was not only tolerating Will's hijinx this morning, but appeared to be enjoying
them! |
 |
| She
was certainly in a silly mood! |
 |
| What
a Silly Goose! |
 |
| Will took a moment to look out the window. |
 |
| Headed
back from the mailboxes |
 |
|
The
twins started watching Elmo's Christmas Countdown over lunch
|
|
 |
| Could
that little pigtail be any cuter? |
 |
| We
were surprised with a musical card from Mimi and Papa! The twins LOVED
it! |
 |
| They
loved it so much that they had a hard time sharing it! |
 |
There
was definitely some elbow jabbing happening here.
Update: I tried
taking posed portraits of the twins with their stockings this afternoon.
I had to bribe them with fruit snacks, so they were digging for those for
many of the photos. Below are the best I could get:
|
1 comments:
So adorable! They are getting so big!
Post a Comment