Mail under our Christmas tree.

[franceslievens]

On Friday Little Bit will go to her very first concert in a real concert hall, the Ancienne Belgique. We'll be going to one of the shows of Kapitein Winokio, self proclaimed Robin Hood of children's music. I have said it before: every country should have one.
The first time I heard of the Captain was years ago on Studio Brussel where a quirky man talked about his mission to get well respected Belgian artists to perform the children's songs they loved and cherished from their youth. The first album Kapitein Winokio zag 1 beer ("Captain Winokio saw one bear", named after the classic "I saw two bears making sandwiches")
It was quickly followed by 2 beren and that was when my sister picked it up – MK must have been around two and a half. We were all blown away by the grown up music for little kids, MK not in the least. A concert later I was hooked. This was fun easy-going music with good lyrics I could use in class. The pupils like to sing, but I dislike all the prefab music that gets marketed to them. Kapitein Winokio is refreshing, and it's so fun that kids who have the CDs don't even mind I use it in class.
My own Little Bit already had numerous CDs she could dig into the moment she was born: Mama made a collection. I've raised her well. She loves the Kapitein and Mevrouw de Poes (his female companion Madame Puss). We've gone to some smaller free gigs. On Friday we'll do our very first big one. It'll be something. Mama and Papa are looking forward too.

On the envelopes in the picture: they are handmade felt envelopes with names embroidered on the front. They were meant to contain the tickets and be used as toys afterwards. Inspiration for them I found in this Etsy-listing from missprettypretty.