Sinter Klaas

December 5
This is the only picture I have of Sinter Klaas and his cronies. He’s a sneaky fellow just like St Nikolaus in Germany and then Santa Claus in the English speaking world. He did manage to leave a pile of presents though for everyone which we opened while having Kaffee und Kuchen. Sinter Klaas’s fest in Holland is a very big deal. For children in fact, it is bigger than Christmas. They have their own set of special treats and wrapping paper to go along with it. There’s a special news program on TV tracking the whereabouts of Sinter Klaas and his zwarte Piet helpers. (Black Peters) Grown men run around in these jester outfits with their faces painted black and wearing curly-haired wigs encouraging all the little girls and boys to be good. (I’m surprised that that’s not politically incorrect.) They all arrive weeks earlier on a ship from Spain much to everyone’s excitement. If Sinter Klaas comes and visits your town he brings his big book with him where all children are listed with their good deeds. It’s interesting how the different stories and legends all have great similarities. I was going to get to meet him at band practice. Antje and I had wrapped 25 parcels for SK to hand out at band practice. But when only 8 members showed up SK got cancelled since he was so busy everywhere else. Too bad! Antje, Cassandra and Kimberly play in a community band. Antje and Cassandra play sax and Kimberly plays flute, as a matter of fact.


Dirk and Christine came the next day to stay for the weekend. So we had a Schemeit family reunion weekend. More visiting, more catching up, more eating of course. Onkel Kurt is a very excellent baker. Tante Bärbel is a great cook. I enjoyed getting to know Cassandra and Kimberly better. Cassandra and I bonded over procrastination techniques.
Antje and I did some shopping around in Valkenburg. We tried to go see the caves there Sat but there were soooo many people there that it was difficult even in some places to walk down the street. They were having their Christmas market in the caves. On Sunday I got a ride back to the south with Dirk and Christine. They live in Speyer, on the other side of Karlsuhe. The big drama there was the RAT in the car. It was hiding out under the hood, then in the motor area. The rat hunt took a couple of hours which involved Dirk armed with a hose and Onkel Kurt with a rake chasing after the rat, finding its hiding places, tearing half the yard apart. Kimberly and I stood at the kitchen window mourning Remy. We'd just seen the movie Ratatouille the night before. In the end the dog got a hold of it and it ran yelping across the street. We got back to the Karlsruhe area much later than originally planned, ordered in a pizza before Dirk drove me back to Rheinstetten. All in all an amusing end to an enjoyable week.