Weekend of Sinterklaas and Craig's birthday

Although we had big dreams of going to Germany to see some Christmas Markets, we ended up staying in Antwerp because of the weather. The past week has been very snowy (for Belgium) and bitterly cold. We didn't think it was right to bring the kids out when the high tempurature was only going to be in the teens.

We ended up going out to a casual dinner on Friday with a group of friends then went over to a bar that had been advertising that Sinterklaas was going to make an appearance at 11pm. Sinterklaas turned out to be a she and did a striptease. She really liked Craig and I will just leave it at that. It was really funny!!

Saturday, we spotted Sinterklaas and 2 of his Piet's across the street at the bike shop. The kids were so excited!Chloe loves the Zwarte Piets. Or as she calls them, Cart Piet. Most kids are afraid of the Piets, not just because they are scary to look at, but because they used to beat kids with a stick and put them in their sack if you were bad. I guess she is too young to have heard that version of the story yet. 

We went out again to dinner that night and guess who showed up again at the bar later. Sinterklaas and 4 Piets. Everyone starting singing Dutch Sinterklaas songs and they were greeting everyone while drinking beers. It is a lot of fun. I was surprised that he was out drinking considering I knew he had a busy couple of days ahead of him. And just as we had suspected, he paid a visit to our house late that night and dropped of several presents for Colin and Chloe. It was nice of him to come a day early so the kids were able to spend the day playing with their toys instead of having to run off the school.

Monday, we celebrated Craig's birthday. It is expected that you bring in your own cake to celebrate your birthday with your coworkers, so I broke out the Betty Crocker mix and made him a batch of cupcakes to bring in. After work, Chloe went to visit her friends while we brought Colin out to a nice restaurant. Happy Birthday Craig!