This post is late in coming. As with so many times in life the days haven’t gone as smoothly as I’d hoped. St. Nicholas was celebrated–both at a parish playdate celebration and at home, thought not as expected or hoped for. Still, it was a joyful celebration.

I was not as present as I’d hoped. I had a meeting the evening of the 5th and missed our night prayer. Then the excitement and effort of planning and putting on the playdate caught up with me on the 6th, so it was a very low-key day.

When I got home from my meeting I settled in, with the Hubsters to write the letters from St. Nicholas. Of course the printer was out of ink, so I hand wrote the letters on white cardstock with a golden sharpie. In the morning I woke up before everyone and wrote one to Hubsters, too!

Little Miss is not fooled anymore. That’s a first in this house. “Mom, I think you and Tata leave the gifts.” “Hey, this looks a lot like your handwriting…” We had to have a talk about not spoiling it for the little ones. She’s in on the ‘surprise’ now, so she’s feeling pretty grown up. But I love how seamlessly she’s woven together the idea of St. Nicholas as the original Santa, and how we celebrate his good works by trying to emulate them.

They came down one at a time in the morning and found their gifts and letters and…candy. Note to self: next year put in less candy. It was a day of “Can I have another chocolate?” And T-Bird tried to convince me several times that candy was a fruit, and therefore was an acceptable snack option. Oh to be almost three again, and have such a firm grasp on reality. Oh, and there were the cookies. Which slowly disappeared, limb by limb, from the cooling rack before I could even plate them and gather everyone for a little tea or snack time!

We sporadically broke out into St. Nicholas songs. T-Bird asked to make a mitre for our Pope Francis stuffed doll. (I forgot to get a picture!) It was merriment all around. The day ended again at night prayer, which in December begins by reading the daily story from 24 Christmas Stories for Little Ones. The story for the 6th is a sweet one about a little boy who is inspired to put his stocking on a friend’s door so that she’ll will be cheered by St. Nicholas’ gifts.

That was our celebration. Very simple. I was so inspired by some of my friends’ celebrations, too. I love to see how everyone else celebrates! St. Nicholas sent a bag of treats and a note to our house from a little  5 year old friend who made it his goal to secretively show charity by surprising his friends and neighbors with chocolates and hand-written notes. He’s got it down!

 

How did your celebration go? Please share in the comments!