St. Nicholas Day

I'm grateful for a long line of traditions to make St. Nicholas Day easy. I always know what I need: oranges, chocolate coins, and maaaybe a few other chocolates. We added a sweet Saint doll for each of them this year as well (Our Lady of Fatima for Colette and St. Anthony of Padua for our Antonia).

Anni was so sweet and patient when her sister slept in quite a bit longer than her. She actually waited for her to open her stocking! When Colette did get up, she was really excited, buuuut not entirely sure as to how to get what was in her stocking. Some quick upside dumping action help and she was set.

I love how excited they each got about each and every thing... including the clementines!

Our cloth Advent calendar is holding on strong (well, I think we might be missing one figure... but otherwise), especially with Anni being old enough to remember each day... and look ahead to see which days she wants to do.

Happy Advent!

365 Photos in 365 Days: Week 48

Getting to snuggle a sleeping Colette is a rare and sweet treat. She randomly spiked a fever, and it made her quite cuddly and sleepy. I felt bad about the fever, but my mama's heart was thrilled with the extra snuggles.

The next day, we decided to go whole hog decorating the Christmas tree in order to battle a super crankerific morning. Usually we take the Christmas decorating a little slower, but since we'll be gone for the end of Advent and much of the Christmas season, we're bucking tradition a little this year. Plus, we have a brand-new tree this year, so the extra two plus feet of tree to decorate is an exciting concept around here.

 

The weather finally turned warm, so, despite a lingering cough in the eldest, and sniffly noses on the rest of us, we shoved outside as often as we could over the next few days.

I love St. Nicholas Day! I have such fond memories of finding our stockings when we were little, hung from random places in our house, always filled with apples, oranges and chocolates. (My mom always made sure I got oranges, they were always my favorite.) Continuing that traditing makes me so happy!

Annnnd, the girls have matching "fancy" coats. It's the little things, my friends. The little things.

The little gal in the middle has been best buddies with Anni since she was born. Now that she has a little sister, we have quite the foursome! Anni in all of her little mama ways, was so sweetly thrilled to get to snuggle the little lady.

And this. Today there was more scrubbing, and dusting, and moving Mary and Joseph on their travels. Anni is such a helper, and such a snuggler. She took such delight in getting to pull more pieces of our nativity set out today, ask me who they were, and find them their own spot. And Miss Colette? She picks them and finds them new places, until someone catches her. It's a happy time.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I realized last night, that, though I had known St. Nicholas day was coming and had grabbed a bag of chocolate golden coins at Target on my last stop there (could someone please make chocolate golden coins that taste good, by the way?!), I hadn't planned much further than that and had no oranges and no stocking for Colette.  She ended up getting the new one I bought for myself last year, and, we'll just see what she ends up with in the end.  Our staples for St. Nick's day are always chocolate (gold coins) and oranges to represent the gold that St. Nicholas dropped down the chimney of three poor sisters.  This year, each girl also got a fun little gift.  Colette got a "C" ornament and some puffs (instead of chocolate) and Anni got a mini ring sling for her babies!  (Really, I just couldn't wait to give her her little ring sling!)  The most excited reaction Anni had; though, was when she realized there were two oranges in her stocking.  Oh, happy day!

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!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

The St. Nicholas Day tradition we now do with Nugget is one that both Daniel and I had when we were little.  We both always had oranges in our stockings, though I don't think I knew the symbolism until I was in college or later.  The symbols we put in Anni's stocking (as well as a few other fun things) are a candy cane to represent St. Nicholas' bishop staff and oranges and chocolate gold coins to represent the gold he left for the three sisters for their dowry.  Anni's favorite thus far?  Her foot book and the gold coins (definitely an easy chocolate for her to eat).  We also had some treats in our stockings, but it's not as fun to watch us open them :).

*I just realized I called the bishop's staff a mitre in the video (which is actually his "hat")... oops!  Just pretend I was still sleepy eyed from having just woken up.

St. Nicholas Day

Growing up, St. Nicholas day was a long-standing tradition in our household.  On the eve of my big brother's birthday, our stockings were hung on hooks throughout the house (I know many families use shoes, but we have always used stockings per Czech tradition).  We would always get chocolates and a piece of fruit (my siblings usually got apples and I always got an orange - personal preference, in those cases) and often a little book or trinket. 

This year, all three of us were sick the day before St. Nick's feast day, so I wasn't able to make my sneaky trip to the store (my insides wanted to be on my outside... seriously).  Luckily, the next day, St. Nick made sure we remembered him anyway (thank you, dearest husband!).
 
 Our stocking hang on the wall with care (no fireplace nor hearth in our little apartment, but this seemed to do just as well).

 

Daniel did good mixing both the symbolism of the day (gold coins as well as the orange to symbolize the money purse St. Nicholas left for the three daughters) and satisfying my sweet tooth (everything else).  He even found a simple little $1 book for Anni; she was mostly interested in chewing on it.  Maybe next year we'll find a good children's book on St. Nicholas to read to her.

 

 

Happy Advent!