St. Nicholas Day

Last year St Nicholas' Day was sadly omitted in our house. I completely forgot about it till that morning. Fortunately, the girls were too young to have noticed. :) This year, despite Mommy having little to no energy for Advent celebrating this year, we did have a nice St. Nicholas Day!

St. Nicholas' Eve we read this book:
Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend, by Julie Stiegemeyer
It's a really nice book for children of Turtle's age and up, though Rosebud liked it too. It ties Christmas gift-giving and treats in shoes back to St. Nicholas and how he wanted to show the love that Jesus had for us and make others happy. (It calls Nicholas "Pastor Nicholas" so I switch it to "Father" or "Bishop.")


Turtle was SO excited about St. Nicholas coming in the night that she kept alternating between telling us to go to bed quick and complaining that she wanted to stay up and see him when he visited!

There was great excitement in the morning over the candy and books. Turtle kept saying "Thank you St. Nicholas!!" but upon not finding a yellow lollipop in her shoes, like Rosebud got, rather only red and purple, she informed me that I needed to call St. Nicholas and tell him to bring her one next time. Also, she wanted THREE candy canes, because she is three, not just two.

(I can't decide whether St. Nicholas is taking notes. . . . or maybe he thinks greedy little girls just need to deal with what they get . . . hmmm)

When Mommy was growing up, she always got a note from St. Nicholas in her shoe written in red ink. It was my favorite part. So of course, the tradition was continued this year.

Turtle was not much impressed, but Rosebud kept pointing to the note and saying gleefully, "Saint Nick-lass, Saint Nick-lass!"

We also colored a coloring page from the St. Nicholas Center.

(HT: Catholic Icing)

And much to everyone's happiness, we had snow to play in on the good saint's feast day!

followed by our first cosy fire of the winter.

Thank you St. Nicholas!