We've been on winter holidays for the last week or so, and I've been very lazy about uploading photos. Gert's boss hired a fair for the families of the people who work for him on the first day of holidays, so we caught the tram in the freezing cold and rain to the other side of the city. We had to walk past the marina and port to get to the building where it was being held. Di pointed out a strange looking castle near the waters edge while we were walking past the marina. A little closer and we realized it was actually a boat made to look like a castle. And then we realized there was a pony wandering around on the top deck... Sahara was quite delighted. The fair was pretty awesome. We spent about 3 exhausting hours there, with Sahara dashing from ride to ride. The carousel was definitely her favourite, and she spent most of the rides having big conversations with both the man and woman running it. The man in the end pulled up a chair next to her pony and sat and chatted for two or three rides. Later she convinced me to go on with her. I asked her what her pony was called and she told me "Lisa". All Sahara's dolls are called Lisa, so no surprise here. I asked her what mine was called me and she informed me she'd given it the inspired name "Ian". We had our first smoutebollen there, which are kind of like hot doughnuts and, to be honest, the first food since moving here I've been impressed by.

Christmas eve we each opened one present. Sahara choose to open Nana Knopps. She wore the dress until she was dragged out of it for bed, and the first thing she did on jumping out of bed on Christmas bed wasn't look for the presents at the end of her bed but run to the closet and put it on again. Gert's parents, his brother Raf and Nikki, Marco and Anita came over for lunch and stayed until late. I'll post photos next week when Nikki gets back from holiday and I can ask her for them, as i didn't end up taking any.

Her friends, Chiara and Guilia, from Brussles came over yesterday. Despite having four languages between them they're not so good with names. Last visit they called each other "her", "that girl" and "that other girl". This visit Sahara was calling Guilia, "Guilita" and Chiara, "Tiana".

Hope everyone's having a lovely holiday period. =) Will post new pics as soon as I can be bothered getting them off the card.

Last day of school before the Christmas holidays today, and seeing as it was only a half day and I still had Christmas shopping to do, I thought I'd take her into the city with me. We met her new school friend on the tram, and she sat with her going through her library book that we were returning, and explaining the plot of A Midsummer Nights Dream to her. The fairy queen, Titania, featured a lot more in her retelling than in any version I've ever heard.

The library visit was OK. We visited my section first for a change because she doesn't behave if we get hers first. Instead of running off and striking up conversations with whoever looked most involved in their book like she usually does, she stalked me from the opposite aisle, peering silently through gaps in the books quite convinced I couldn't see her. We had our usual fight about which childrens books were actually in English. We compromised and got out 2 English books I would be reading her, and one I won't be because it's in Dutch but let her feel like she was right and I was wrong and hence avoided disaster.

The bead shop went less smoothly. For the 20 minutes we spent there in the room of about 200 drawers she only wanted to inspect the contents of the drawer directly above the one I was looking through, while asking a stream of questions all based on bead colours.

"Do you like red beads?"
"I guess."
"Do you like blue beads?"
"Sometimes"
"Do you like pink beads?"
"Depends"
"What colour are these beads?"
"Turquoise."
"Do you like turquoise beads?"
"Yes"
"Do you like red beads?"

We went to a few more shops for presents, and lastly to a shop so I could get a couple of tops. The last time I took Sahara clothes shopping with me was when she was 2 and I needed something to wear that wasn't packed underneath all my worldly possessions in the back of the car. Mid-change she flung open the dressing room door and ran off. I covered myself quickly and went after in time to see her running out the door. I ran after her, setting off the store alarms and catching her just before she went round the corner. Dragged her back to the shop, setting off alarms again, and vowing never to take her out with me again. I guess the two years since the horror of this incident had faded from my mind somewhat, but since this afternoon vows have been remade. She walked around with me, gasping at anything with hearts printed on it and asking if I liked it.

"Not really" I'd reply.
"You don't like hearts?"
"Not on my clothes"
"Ohh! Why?!"
"I just don't"
"But I love hearts!"
"You don't have to wear my clothes"
"But I like you to wear hearts" she pouted
"Tough"
"Oh!! You're not my friend anymore!"

And this conversation was repeated about 20 times. When we went to the dressing rooms she took the number from the lady, and as soon as were were in room started asking questions very loudly.

"What's this for?"
"So the lady knows how many pieces of clothing I brought in to try on"
"Why would she want to know that?"
"Incase someone tries to steal them by putting them in their bag or underneath their clothes"
-gasp- "That's a bad thing to do!"
"It is"
-suspicious look- "Why are you putting that on?"
"So I can see if it fits..."
"You're not going to put your jacket on over top and try to steal it are you"
"No"
"OK...."
"Why'd you put that top on your bag?"
"Because I don't want to put it on the floor and I don't have a hanger for it. And anyway! It's my top"
-very suspicous look-

As I was giving the number back to the lady Sahara asked me with the same suspicious look still wrinkling her forehead

"Why are you still wearing that top Mum?"
"It's the top I came in here wearing!!"

The lady gave me a very annoyed look anyway and watched me the rest of the time I was in the shop. I have plans of revenge as soon as she hits her teens. I'm just going to note here that I've never stolen anything in my entire life to give Sahara's suspicions any warrant, except nana's savories from the kitchen at Christmas, and that's only because I'm under Amanda's influence. >.>

I was walking Sahara into the school gates today, having a conversation about something I don't recall, but let me assure you it had NOTHING to do with what came out of her mouth next.

"And then we could maybe catch a bat and then STOMP -stomping action here- on it" -big grin-
"What???"
"We'd stomp on it. The bat"
"Why??? Bats are really nice animals"
"But they fly..."
"So do butterflies"
"But they're bats"
"Yeah...." And I started to tell her a story about when my dad took me to spend the night in forest in Fiordland to see bats in the wild. "And they set up these big nets to catch them in, then tagged them so they'd know which bat was which when they found them again and let some of us hold them and-"
"And then did you STOMP on them?"

I ended the conversation about here before any of the other parents overheard and decided they didn't ever want to invite Sahara over to play.

We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday night. Sahara, Nikki and Marco decorated it. Sahara spent the day out Christmas shopping with me and Grandma. The city was insanely busy. People here are so pushy and have no concept of "personal space". We visited the Christmas market long enough for me to get really grouchy, and Sahara to have a ride on the beautiful carousel they have set up there.

After school today we went to the shop to get a couple of things for dinner, and more importantly, Red Bull. There were none in the drink section. Sahara very understandingly took my hand and patted it reassuring me there would be some in the drinks fridge near the counter, and led me there. There were none there either. Shaking a little, I said we'd go to the magazine shop next door afterwards. When we got there however, it was closed. Quite distraught now, I said we'd walk down the street a bit and try the bakeries. Luckily, the first one had some. Sahara told the woman at the counter "That's very good. My mummy was about to cry if you didn't have any". The woman laughed, and gave me a bit of a strange look. I think Sahara thinks my Red Bull addiction is quite serious. At night, when inquiring how much I love her(to the moon or back, or what? etc), the big question is usually "Do you love me more than Red Bull?".

If you sent Sahara a present for Christmas, could you please email a recent photo of you? I'm printing them and sticking them on the front so she doesn't forget who people are.

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth today when Sahara appeared in the doorway.

"You're not the rain, are you Mum?"
"Umm?"
"You're not the rain right??"
"No... Thanks for noticing?"
She smiled charmingly at me. "That's OK". And skipped off.

Today was the Sinterklaas feast day, which is the celebration of Saint Nicholas' birthday. There was a great youtube I saw last year explaining it far better than I'll manage, but Di is adamant she didn't post it and numerous searches have turned up nothing, so I'll give it a shot anyway. Nikki's bound to correct me later if she's reading. It's not my fault you guys can't just do holidays normally like real countries. -_-

Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) comes from Spain (although it was originally Turkey, but wtf all the same) by steam boat with his horse(no reindeer) and his helper(originally his slave who punished bad children or put them in a sack to take back to Spain, but now just helps Sinterklaas hand out gifts) Zwarte Piet(black pete) in November, where they hang around the city for a week or two before leaving gifts for children who leave a shoe by the fireplace with a snack for his horse inside it on the morning of the 6th of December. Or something like that...

Santa Clause will still be visiting on the 25th here however. Luckily Christmas shopping for Sahara is the only kind of shopping I can stand doing.

Sahara has a nasty cold at the moment, so it was a bit of a slow start today. She got into my bed about 5am with a nasty cough and didn't really get back to sleep, but was also sick enough to completely forget about presents until Grandma stuck her head in around 8.30 quite insistent it was present time already. Grandama and Bompi got her, amongst other things, these cute "Plop socks" (Plop is a TV show here) with bells on them. They nicknamed her TinklePlop this morning, which she wasn't all that happy about.

We had a quiet morning watching her new DvD and making her My Little Pony jewelery kit (which she's wearing it in the photos). We went to Bompi's parents this afternoon for a few hours before coming home early. She was falling asleep in the car at only 4pm. They gave her a Mega Mindy night shirt(she's also wearing this in the photos), which I don't expect to see her changing until I drag her out of it when she's well enough to go back to school. If you're not familiar with Mega Mindy, she's a super hero on a kids show here who is a mild mannered police woman who changes into Mega Mindy with the help of her uncles invention whenever a case gets tough, and also Sahara's idol.