Eager anticipation

I have an amazing daughter, Ella. She’s three and on November 30, she will turn four. Quite a monumental age, and although she will agree on that with you, it doesn’t make it in comparison to Sinterklaas‘ birthday, who’ll turn 1732 only five days later. For most kids, 5 december is the most exciting day of the year, and Ella is no exception. Like Santa, Sinterklaas is the bringer of gifts. When he arrives by boat from Spain, where he lives most of the year, in the evenings leading up to his birthday, children (and grown-ups) can put their shoes in front of the chimney, or behind the front door, as is our habit for lack of a chimney, to receive small gifts and pepernoten, if they’re lucky. The culmination of Sinterklaas takes place at December 5, when Sinterklaas will visit all the schools in the country and in the evening leave a bag of gifts in front on your door. Now, you may wonder why we are already talking December while September hasn’t even begun? Well, although Sinterklaas is still in Spain and won’t be arriving for another 79 nights, in our home, it seems as if he’s has never left. To Ella, he is very alive. A day won’t go by, without her talking about or inquiring after him. She adores Sinterklaas. She litterally lights up when she talks about him.



This week, while having another conversation about Sinterklaas, wondering how to go about it in a way that does justice to her, to me and to the spirit of Sinterklaas. I suddenly realized that what I really wanted was for her to preserve that eager anticipation when she’s growing up. To always find proof for that which she wants to see. To savor the process of creation while she’s making her dreams come true. To feel excited about her life and, maybe most of all, to know without a doubt that good things will always keep on flowing to her.  May Sinterklaas inspire us all to believe in an abundant Universe, no matter how old we are.