St. Nicholas Day

We celebrated St. Nicholas day quite happily again this year.  Anni got the traditional oranges and gold coins in her stocking (representing the gold that St. Nicholas brought to the three sisters for their dowry) as well as the non-traditional Annie's fruit snacks and a few little Beatrix Potter books (dollar aisle at Target... score!  Anni loves new books).

Last year I bought a whole box of candy canes (to represent St. Nicholas' staff as he was a bishop)... but we only used a few, they were a sticky mess, and Anni found them for the year to come.  Instead, I did a little pinteresting research and made her a staff shaped breakfast out of strawberries and bananas.  Despite her seriously concerned face below, she thought it was pretty great. 

And then?  We were off to our mom's group!  As you can see behind her, our little Christmas tree is just barely decked out. We are slowly decorating it as we move through Advent, and while we don't have all of our Jesse Tree ornaments, we do have a few and are just hanging them on our regular tree after reading their coordinating Bible verses.  Anni's loves to pick out the ornaments and where they'll hang.  Her favorites thus far are the teddy bar ornament she picked out for herself and a little bell ornament that she takes off several times a day to ring and dance.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!