It's time to start. The past year I did nothing and this year I am back again. No, I do not feel like it but if I don't start I'll never do it again and it's the last celebration left. Most presents are already bought or ordered or found and the only thing left is the surprise.
In this case, a surprise is a homemade gift, something you hide the real present in. Lazy people, uncreative people give something like a pot of syrup and push the present inside. A bit more creative people make out of "breakfast cake" a fake heap of poop where, somewhere inside, something hides. It should be something from your wishlist (presents with a total amount of... (whatever is decided) but in most cases you better not count on it if the "surprise" already sucks.
Out of a class of 30-40 pupils, you most likely see 2-3 great surprises. With great, I mean really great. You can tell who the artistic children (or mothers!) are at once. The only sad thing is these children rarely receive something nice. Indeed greed plays a bigger role than creativity if it comes to the December 5th celebration in the Netherlands. It is a national celebration day. The holy man appeared at school, cookies, hot chocolate and the famous "kruidnoten and candies" were thrown in the air. Celebrating in the morning and free off in the afternoon. Time to relax or make the last preparations for the celebration of this evening with the family.
We celebrated it last year but skipped the surprise-part. In the past years, we always did our handcraft during the first weeks of the Summer holidays. The youngest children needed help and it was the only way. Since they are older now they can do the job themselves. At least I hope they can. I gave them some suggestions (a surprise should be part of the interest of the one who it is meant for) and the poems belonging to it are the finest for the biggest part.
I cleaned out the crate with paint and started with what I made yesterday. Lucky me there's black after all I am just nearly out of white. Unfortunately, I cannot invest that much time in it which means I need to hurry. The person I make a surprise for lives underneath my roof.
The first plan that popped up in my mind I skipped this weekend. It would be too much work for me (at least I think it would but I doubt this one goes faster) and since I changed my mind about the surprise I need to change my poem as well and find some trash. I thought about visiting the market place again, alone but I think the child's room is an option too (no waste).
The next step (hopefully tomorrow) is making a painting on a wall and repaint what I did today. I think I can do it unless I have a bad day again.
Hope you get the inspiration to see what a surprise you get from all of that. Happy celebration!