St. Nicholas Day, redux
We celebrated St. Nicholas Day here at crazyacres from dawn til dark. Of course, the kidlets were up at the break of day to check out their shoes that they had left on the hearth the night before. Here is what they found:
It is a challenge for St. Nicholas to please such a diverse age group, but he succeeded heartily. He left each child a Beanie Baby, a Christmas mug with hot cocoa and poptarts, a HUGE chocolate bar, various Dove Chocolate candies and a clemetine orange. He also left a large bowl of clementines and more Dove chocolates for the mom and dad. Good St. Nicholas!
The family attended vespers the evening before, and was anointed with St. Nicholas oil. After vespers we read some children's books about St. Nicholas and had some fast-friendly nuts as a treat. We also set up our mantle in honor of St. Nicholas, and it now looks like this:
One of the highlights of the mantle is the icon I wrote of St. Nicholas in 2002, when I was expecting my son Nicholas. It remains one of my favorites, as does St. Nicholas.
After a breakfast of pop tarts and hot cocoa (I got my favorite English muffins and orange marmalade for the feast), the kids played with their beanie babies for a while while I exercised, then despite the feast day, completed their school work.
My 6 year old's choir sang a concert for a retirement home, which really added a festvie quality to our feast! After that I stopped by Trader Joe's for some feast food, and we enjoyed Pizza and Russian Tea cakes (made by my oldest 2 girls) for dinner, with even more hot cocoa.
St. Nicholas is a dear friend to our family, has been a prayer warrior for us, and all in all, one of God's finest gifts to us. Pray for us St. Nicholas!
It is a challenge for St. Nicholas to please such a diverse age group, but he succeeded heartily. He left each child a Beanie Baby, a Christmas mug with hot cocoa and poptarts, a HUGE chocolate bar, various Dove Chocolate candies and a clemetine orange. He also left a large bowl of clementines and more Dove chocolates for the mom and dad. Good St. Nicholas!
The family attended vespers the evening before, and was anointed with St. Nicholas oil. After vespers we read some children's books about St. Nicholas and had some fast-friendly nuts as a treat. We also set up our mantle in honor of St. Nicholas, and it now looks like this:
One of the highlights of the mantle is the icon I wrote of St. Nicholas in 2002, when I was expecting my son Nicholas. It remains one of my favorites, as does St. Nicholas.
After a breakfast of pop tarts and hot cocoa (I got my favorite English muffins and orange marmalade for the feast), the kids played with their beanie babies for a while while I exercised, then despite the feast day, completed their school work.
My 6 year old's choir sang a concert for a retirement home, which really added a festvie quality to our feast! After that I stopped by Trader Joe's for some feast food, and we enjoyed Pizza and Russian Tea cakes (made by my oldest 2 girls) for dinner, with even more hot cocoa.
St. Nicholas is a dear friend to our family, has been a prayer warrior for us, and all in all, one of God's finest gifts to us. Pray for us St. Nicholas!
posted by Renee at Thursday, December 07, 2006
8 Comments:
That's the most original St Nicholas post i've seen - thank you!!
God bless
Maria in the UK
www.inhishands.co.uk
Wonderful! I'm so glad you had a good feast day.
I particuarly love the photo of the shoes, and the icon is beautiful.
That is so cool, Renee! So cool.
Liked your meme post too, by the way!
Oh, what a beautiful way to celebrate this feastday. These are the traditions your children will wish to pass on to their own, because of the wonderful memories you have given them.
Hmm... Those Hershey bars look mighty tasty... *Snorfle*
What is St. Nicholas oil? I have never heard this. What are its origins, and what purpose does it serve? *Smile*
Wait a minute... Did someone say PopTarts? *LOL*
What a fantastic idea, Renee! I've never done this with my children, but then I never even knew about this tradition until a couple of years ago and then I think it was too late for us as converts, to start this practice, considering the childrens ages.
I posted your Christmas card a couple of days ago, hope it gets to you in time for Christmas :-)
Hey, I thought the oranges-and-shoes thing with St. Nicholas was a Dutch tradition. Maybe you described it in your blog in some other place, but I'm curious: do you have a connection to this tradition in Europe through your family?
My birthday is St. Nicholas day, so I've always been a bit interested in him. :)
Sounds like a wonderful celebration!
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