Feast of St. Nicholas 2012

Awaiting the children when they awoke on this feast of St. Nicholas were their shoes stuffed with the traditional symbols of the great bishop: gold coins (well, one massive gold chocolate coin bought by Daddy!), oranges, and candy canes. They received more Christmas books and holy cards.

Margaret at 20 months did not understand unwrapping gifts and began crying and grabbing back her gifts when I unwrapped them for her. But then she was happy when I handed her the books which were inside.

I had visions of a very fancy breakfast, but the most this pregnant mama managed was setting out Great Grandma's cut glass dishes and fancy St. Nicholas napkins I'd ordered ahead of time, and decorating the table with candles and our St. Nicholas ornaments. Thankfully, children are easily impressed, so Mary walked in the room and shrieked, "Oh mama, it's so pretty! Thank you, thank you!"

Did mama manage to cook a breakfast casserole, bacon, pancakes, waffles, or anything like that? Nope, not this year.

I promise, I had patiently baked gingerbread cookies with the children at my side helping, even using special St. Nicholas cookie cutters I had ordered away for ahead of time. But then I accidentally set the oven timer for eight hours instead of eight minutes--and, while I did not bake the cookies all day, I baked them long enough to be burned to a crisp. Daddy to the rescue zipped to the grocery store and bought store-bought and surely much better-tasting gingerbread cookies.

The first week of Advent is going well, if always a bit smaller than I envision. I suspect we'll be lighting the Advent wreath, saying the prayers, and singing Advent hymns only on Sundays instead of nightly. That night time after dinner is already such a rush with washing dishes, praying the family rosary, and doing the bedtime routine.

The children do very much enjoy having access to the nativity scene, and I remain grateful year after year to Auntie 'E' who handed down her indestructible Fontanini set when her son was grown and gone. I truly let go of having a prissy perfect scene set up all the time and instead let the children play with it (gently and in that one room) to their heart's content, which they do much during the Advent season. Margaret is in love with the Baby Jesus doll so, as many times as I've hidden it (trying to have him make an appearance on Christmas morning), she finds the doll, puts him in his manager, and walks around the house rocking and putting blankets on "her baby." Well, who can resist that?

The biggest success so far this Advent has been the good deeds manger. I have an old peanut butter jar decorated with stickers of baby Jesus on our kitchen counter. When the children do good deeds or make sacrifices, they get to put a piece of hay in the jar. On Christmas morning, they will wake up to find the hay in the manager of the nativity scene, keeping baby Jesus warm. At four and six, these children are so excited to do good deeds "for Jesus" (for hay?). They are literally racing around the house, seeking things to do all day. Yesterday John ran around and made all the family beds so I wouldn't have to bend over! (Normally he makes only his own.) They are both often obeying immediately instead of complaining because obeying sweetly gets them hay too. It's such a joy to watch and I always wonder why I can't come up with some kind of novelty like this that would actually last all year.

The weather remains exquisite, with mild days reaching 65-70 degrees and no rain in weeks, so the pile of leaves is dry, crispy, and free of slugs. The children play in the leaves daily, doing wild feats like riding their bicycles pell mell into the tall pile and purposefully crashing.

We are so blessed.