Sinterklaas/Birthday celebration Last Sunday we celebrated Benson's 3rd birthday, even though he won't turn three until the end of the month. But since we are leaving for Holland this week (yeah!), we went ahead and celebrated it with all the family here so i don't have to take his presents back and forth :) It just so happened that it was also a national holiday on Sunday: Sinterklaas (the Dutch form of Christmas). It has some of the ideas of Christmas, only the presenst are left on your doorstep in the evening, and announced by someone throwing open your front door and throwing in candy (supposedly done by one of Sinterklaas' helpers 'black pete'), but in this case, done by my dad. The little kids loved it. Each present is accompanied by a poem describing the present in a humorous & clever way. We all had a blast and we all agreed this was to become a tradition from now on.
After church the kids went down for a nap. They looked too cute asleep so i couldn't resist taking these sweet pictures:

 

When they woke up from their naps I started prepping the food (with help from my mom and Andrew) and Lindsy and my mom made a gingerbread house (a first for me). Benson loved helping:

 

 

After all the family arrived we ate dinner and then we celebrated Benson's birthday first. He got so excited to blow out his candles on his cake that he poked me in the eye, which is why I look like I am in pain :) His cousin Kylee helped blow out the candles.

And then... on to the Sinterklaas portion of our evening.  It was a blast. Again, I am so thankful for all our loving family. i will miss all of them for Christmas! I am glad we had this chance to all get together this month.