The 2012 Sinterklaas party this past Sunday was an absolute blast! Approximately 60 people attended this sold-out event at the beautiful residence of Jacques and Yolanda van der Lelij in Willcox.

Seated mainly outside on the shaded patio, the guests enjoyed some of the typical Sinterklaas goodies such as pepernoten, banketstaaf, gevulde speculaas, etc. Plus everyone brought truly delicious foods, drinks and deserts, enough to feed half the State of Arizona! Typical Sinterklaas music made for an all the more festive atmosphere.  

Around 2 pm we received a disturbing call that Sinterklaas, who had traveled from Madrid to Houston, had just found out that his flight to Tucson was canceled! So he decided to take the Greyhound bus directly to Willcox and requested to be picked up at the bus stop! 

So Kees and Janneke Rodenburg, Jessica van der Lede and Ingo van der Heiden got in the car to fetch him. About an half our later Sinterklaas, flanked by two colorfully-dressed Zwarte Pieten, arrived seated in the back of a pickup truck! It was a sight never to be forgotten!

After descending from the truck, Sinterklaas was escorted to the patio and seated in a big decorated chair, from which he addressed the enthusiastic crowd.

He shared with us his travel ordeals and how he had to leave his horse named "White Fungus" (named after the "Witte Schimmel") behind and had to come by boat and Greyhound bus to Willcox!

Every individual was asked to come forward to meet Sinterklaas personally and it was amazing (and sometimes even a bit scary) to see how much Sint knew about everyone from his Big Book...!

But luckily everyone had behaved really well this past year (except for Niels de Kok, who ended up going into the sack!).  Several people got a chance to sit on Sint's lap, which Sint truly enjoyed!

Some of the smaller children were visibly impressed by Sinterklaas and his helpers and were pretty much speechless when Sinterklaas addressed them.  

One or two thought the old man was a little 'too much for comfort' and decided to hide in their parents arms - or just cry so loud that Sinterklaas had to let them go (making for the cutest photo-op ever!) 

With a few good wishes and some solid advice, everyone was sent back to their seats with a present, a chocoladeletter and a handful of pepernoten, handed to them by the two Zwarte Pieten.

When Sinterklaas had met everyone it was high time to leave and travel to the Netherlands, where he is expected to make his appearance on December 5, his official birthday.

Sint and his Pietermannen were escorted out by everyone, took a seat in the back of the pickup truck and drove off in a cloud of Arizona dust!

Safe travels Sinterklaas & Pieten and hopefully until next year!

With warmest regards - and signing off: 

The 2012 Sinterklaas Committee.

A BIG THANK YOU!!!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who made this Sinterklaas party such a big success: our hosts Jacques and Yolanda van der Lelij, and  Kees and Janneke Rodenburg, Jessica van der Lede and Ingo van der Heiden (sorry you guys were gone right around the time when Sinterklaas and his Pieten were visiting us - better luck next year... :-)  

And the 2012 Sinterklaas Committee: Els de Kok, Arno and Colleen Zandbergen, Michelle Deraedt, Yolande Adriaanse and Jessica van der Lede.  You all did a phenomenal job! 

And last but not least: Thanks to everyone for being such great and fun group and for all that delicious food and goodies you brought! 

PICTURES

Close to 200 pictures are now on line on the NLBorrels Facebook page:  

CLICK HERE FOR ACCESS   

If you would like to receive the original (high-resolution) photo file(s), please email us at nlborrelstucson@gmail.com