It's hard to admit it, but I think we may have outgrown The Great Little Trading Company as a hunting ground for Christmas gifts for the Boys. Sniff...
Acquaintances will blank you if they see you're selling charity Christmas cards they don't want.
Hell really is other people's over-excited, over-hyped, over-excited children...
...and nothing you say will stop those angelic two year old twins turning into devils as they attack the balloon arch over the entrance to the Sinterklaas celebration...
...especially whilst their mother watches indulgently from the sidelines...
...so just chill. And get over it.
The Dutch Sinterklaas Zwarte Piet tradition is just. Plain. Wrong. There - I've said it. And to all those apologists out there, I ask this question; Would you think it a charming Dutch tradition if you were black?
Adding a sledge to the school run mix in the morning makes what was previously a bitterly cold trek in minus 12degC darkness less of a trial, for you and the kids. (It's still bitterly cold, mind you. Just a bit more fun.)
Likewise the way home.
Long socks work. End of.
You can't skimp on price for decent gloves. Not if you live in Russia in the winter and have Raynaud's Disease, anyway...
Check where your glove warmers are the night before you go cross country skiing for the first time, instead of rushing through the house frantically searching boxes of winter kit whilst simultaneously chivvying the Boys to get ready for school and trying to put on a dark wash.
Acquaintances will blank you if they see you're selling charity Christmas cards they don't want.
Hell really is other people's over-excited, over-hyped, over-excited children...
...and nothing you say will stop those angelic two year old twins turning into devils as they attack the balloon arch over the entrance to the Sinterklaas celebration...
...especially whilst their mother watches indulgently from the sidelines...
...so just chill. And get over it.
The Dutch Sinterklaas Zwarte Piet tradition is just. Plain. Wrong. There - I've said it. And to all those apologists out there, I ask this question; Would you think it a charming Dutch tradition if you were black?
Adding a sledge to the school run mix in the morning makes what was previously a bitterly cold trek in minus 12degC darkness less of a trial, for you and the kids. (It's still bitterly cold, mind you. Just a bit more fun.)
Likewise the way home.
Long socks work. End of.
You can't skimp on price for decent gloves. Not if you live in Russia in the winter and have Raynaud's Disease, anyway...
Check where your glove warmers are the night before you go cross country skiing for the first time, instead of rushing through the house frantically searching boxes of winter kit whilst simultaneously chivvying the Boys to get ready for school and trying to put on a dark wash.
