Sinterklaas................

As one of the very important members of our family was raised in the Netherlands, one of our Christmas Traditions is to celebrate Sinterklaas. This is usually celebrated on Dec. 5th, but with everything going on at our house this weekend, we postponed it until tonight (Dec. 7th). (I'm sure Sinterklaas, himself, didn't mind - he probably need the rest, what with the jet lag and everything, coming over from Europe). We draw names to exchange gifts. The favorite and challenging part, is to disguise the gifts. The kids do a great job with this, and we look forward every year to see what they come up with. I was taught that the gifts should be disguised along the same idea as what the gift is, but that doesn't necessarily happen. This is what we came up with this year............

This was Ryan's gift for me. This is a man in a bathtub! (Notice the hairy chest - something the kids still have a hard time getting used to). Inside was deodorant and body wash - I hope he's not trying to subtly tell me something. It was a HUGE surprise, as I was with him when he bought it the other evening.

Tommy drew Tyler's name, and instead of disguising the gift, he had Tyler do a treasure hunt! He played Hot/Cold for a couple of minutes, and then informed Tyler, "Oh, wait! It's not in this room!" He then brought the gift out from his room (new white t-shirts).

Wendy's gift for Ryan was hidden inside the pillow! Ryan was very excited to be able to rip into the pillow to see what was hidden inside.............

A very happy Snuggie recipient!

Tyler drew Monique this year. The box was wrapped (excessively) in toilet paper, with an innumerable amount rubber bands securing the paper to the package. Once the unveiling was done, there was a very nice crystal candy dish inside. (Quite the change from the usual body lotion that she usually receives)!

Monique had Tommy's name this year (and she does have a slight advantage over the rest of us). She created a bunny out of new t-shirts (this was part of the gift) and inside was a mini SD memory card for him to use with his cell phone. (I had to point out that the shirts were new when he commented that he got laundry! Silly, silly boy!). The bunny is the white one, not the gray creature with the disgusted look on his face.

That leaves me with having Wendy's name! Yes - this is a purse made out of a brown paper bag. The gift was a new wallet (an item that was needed to hold the newly acquired drivers license (an event that is still too traumatic to talk about)). But to help hide the gift inside of the purse, I borrowed some things from Wendy's room that would typically be found in a real purse, i.e. a brush, gum, makeup, a half eaten pop tart, lip gloss, etc.. Inside the wallet was a mini SD memory card for her cell phone.

I must inform you that this year things were pretty mild. We didn't have gift cards stuffed inside squid. There were no earrings hiding in the litter box. We didn't have any balloons filled with shaving cream that needed to popped in order to find a gift card inside one of the balloons. Nor did we have cold mushy oatmeal to dig around in, or gift cards frozen in blue kool-aid with red swedish fish! I guess there is always next year....