Sinterklaas and Home Visit Being Dutch, we get an extra holiday in December, Sinterklaas. It is celebrated on December 5, on the eve of his birthday. A few weeks before his birthday, he arrives in the Netherlands on his steamer from Spain, where he lives the rest of the year. He brings bags full of presents and spends his time by riding over the roofs of houses and putting little treats in the shoes kids have put out at night, next to the fire place. Since we live in the States, we get away with having the nightly shoe ritual starting at December 1, so it is only a few days for our kids. On December 5, at night, he knocks on the door and leaves lots of presents, to the utter delight of the kids of course. What we do, is divide the December gifts over Sinterklaas and Christmas. I was extremely organized this year and had all the presents selected and wrapped up about 5 days before Sinterklaas, apart from a few for which I didn't have enough wrapping paper at that point. So, the holiday was less stressful for us as parents than usual :-) The kids had a great time. Their reactions ranged from 'What is the next present?' from the oldest to 'Sorry mom, no time to unwrap presents now, still playing with this toy' from the youngest :-) We got them mostly things like Lego, K'nex, Brio and books, basically trying to concentrate on expanding existing high quality toy collections instead of having a lot of unconnected, lower quality ones. They were very happy with their gifts and spent a lot of time that night and the next few days playing with their new goodies. One of the grandparents had sent some Sinterklaas treats, so after the gift unwrapping, we had a 'midnight snack' with traditional Sinterklaas food, that was nice. The morning of December 5, we had the home visit of the midwife. This is what they always do around 37 weeks of pregnancy, so that they will know where the house is and have an idea of the inside layout of the house. They also talk about what to do what the baby arrives before the midwife, which they didn't really spend much time on with us, since we have delivered two babies without midwives already :-) This visit was also an opportunity to meet with the other midwife, who doesn't do prenatals, but will be there at the birth, since they like to have two midwives present, one to concentrate on the mom, one to concentrate on the baby. I also invited my friend who will be at the birth to attend to my kids. She has three kids herself and homeschools them, just like I do. Her first one was a hospital birth, her second one an unplanned home birth, her third one a planned home birth :-) I thought it would be nice for her and the midwives to meet each other before the birth. The home visit went well. I had some sugar in my urine, but not a worrisome amount, most likely related to the breakfast I just had. The baby is still nicely head down, head firmly into the pelvis, but still posterior. You only feel limbs, kind of a funny feeling, the back can't be felt at all, since the baby's back is turned towards my back. That seems to be a favorite position of this baby, I hope he turns before the birth. After the midwives left, my friend stayed and the kids played, and later we did candle making. She had brought some beeswax sheets, which they could roll with a wick inside, that was a big success. We burnt the candles at night, at dinner, to celebrate the Sinterklaas holiday. The kids were proud to have made their own candles :-) And I liked the project since it didn't involve having to melt wax, just rolling the beeswax sheets, very simple, even the little ones could do it. Only 29 days till my due date, but since I went overdue with the other ones, I expect to go overdue again. Will give me more time to get my house in order! Still nesting strongly here, I have no idea why this pregnancy is so different in that regard than my others, but I am enjoying it while it lasts! Now if I just would find the opportunity to go through my birth supplies and my baby clothes, somehow that hasn't happened yet, even with all my nesting. I am more concentrating on decluttering and keeping the decluttered parts maintained. Page design by mabear | Send email to Karen | Page last updated: Dec 29, 2001