Just call me Sinterklaas

I'm not a craftsmom. It would even be fair to say that I réálly dislike doing crafts. And I'm very bad at it. So when my son's teacher told me there had been complaints about Jans presents at school I felt bad, but not all that surprised.

Every year there's a sort of lottery at school, at which every child draws the name of another child, for whom he then has to buy a present.

All this is to celebrate the anniversary of Sinterklaas, named after St.Nicholas*. This wouldn't be so bad, but you have to do something creative and funny with the present. You can't just wrap it up and say: 'There you go! Have fun!'

Over the years Jan has usually resorted to decorating an old shoe box and putting his present in there. Obviously this wasn't cute enough.

So today I made paper mache with the children and plastered two balloons with the stuff.

So I'll toot my own horn because I did a craft project, even though I suck at doing crafts, and it wasn't even my own craft project.

Toot!

* In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Eve (December 5) is the primary occasion for gift-giving, when his reputed birthday is celebrated. In this case, roles are reversed, though, in that Sinterklaas is the one who gives the presents.