Santa Clause is Coming to Town

Today St. Nicholas road in to Brussels on a BOAT! And Autumn and I went downtown to watch! It was a pretty easy tram and metro ride...here is Autumn all decked out in her Christmas red waiting for the train.


She looks quite excited doesn't she :o)

I wasn't sure what to expect after reading about this in the Out & About newsletter published by the American Club of Brussels...it is a great resource for events happening in and around Brussels that we just discovered. And it was a cloudy day and Autumn and I are both fighting off being sick...AGAIN...but we headed down anyway. There wasn't much to do...a booth to color...a booth to have your face painted...some of St. Nicholas' helpers putting on a show on the main stage...





I'm glad we didn't get there any earlier because I think we would have been quite bored. Luckily we got there only 15 minutes before St. Nick arrived on the boat. We peaked through the crowds and saw the boat approaching...it was quite an event...with drums playing...St. Nick waving...his helpers 'Zwarte Pieten' ("Black Petes") dancing away!! Which...as you see in the pictures are actually quite disturbing...faces painted black...and the legend says, any kids that have been naughty throughout the year will be snatched up by Black Pete and put in a sack and taken to Spain! Seems like a pretty good reason to be good all year!






After St. Nick arrived we stuck around a bit, but then headed home as Autumn was at the end of her rope. Doesn't St. Nick know we take our naps in the afternoon :o) We had fun...and will probably watch him come back again next year...I mean how often do you get to watch St. Nick come in to town on a boat!

And just to fill you in on last weekend...I didn't do a separate post because I didn't have one single picture from it, but we had a lot of fun with some new friends! On Saturday we headed to the American Women's club Annual Holiday Bazaar...basically like a Christmas craft show. We bought a cute little Santa Clause nesting doll...like the Russian nesting dolls you have probably seen. After the Bazaar we went with some new friends Liz & Matt and their two little girls Grace and Audrey to ChiChi's...that's right...Mexican...yum!! I met Liz at the hints class and we just reconnected over e-mail and even spent last Thursday hanging out at their house. It was a nice meal out and we had a great time with new friends! And then on Sunday Lauren invited the girls over for a Baby Shower for Maren. It was a lovely afternoon hanging out with just the ladies...it seemed so quite and calm when we all aren't chasing our little ones around! It was a great time and I really enjoyed the chance to spend time with many of the Mom's from our playgroup...without the kids in tow (thanks Jacob!)

Stay tuned for our Thanksgiving celebration...