St. Nicholas day, complete with iphone pictures

First off,
St. Anthony, help me find my memory card so I can take less grainy photos of my family, especially since adorable Miss A. is growing so quickly! Amen.
Moving on...

Yesterday was the feast of St. Nicholas, one of my favourite days of the year. I love the tradition of children receiving treats in their shoes. Besides simply being childlike and delightful, it's so much more appealing to me than feast days where we have to start from scratch to think of a way to observe them.

"Oh look, it's the feast of St. Sebastian, let's um... go play laser-tag!"

Yes, that phenomenon -- being creative and original -- makes it so unlikely I'll actually follow through!

But an age-old tradition of sweets in children's shoes? That I can do.


They were so delighted by it all.


Despite the extreme blurry iphone-ish-ness of this picture, it makes my heart so happy.


Baby's First St. Nicholas Day. 
"Isn't she looooovely?" Noah likes to sing this to her, and how can I object?


Just to make sure she gets what a Big Ol' Deal this feast day is, 
the boys decorated her swing with candy canes. And she smiled at them.


And we decorated gingerbread cookies with their beloved auntie.
(I made the dough the night before, because amazingly, simply rolling it out, cutting it into mitre shapes and icing it was a day-long process {with the addition of, y'know, feeding people, especially Little Miss Anna}.)


My littlest darling.


This is a classic Noah face, and it makes me want to cry,
because it's exactly what he looked like at only 18 months old 
-- delighted and enthused by the simple things in life --
just older.


Advent-related sugar high.



It was a great feast day.
They loved getting gold coins, candy canes and a whole Caramilk bar each (gasp!) in their shoes. And as I said, I planned to do only one thing for the day, Make Cookies with the Boys, and they thought that was super. 
It was a little confirmation to me that my plan for doing things simply 
(very, VERY simply) 
this year is going just fine.


A simple Advent and Christmas is certainly perfect for me this year,
because there's nothing material I want or need.


Just these three beautiful faces are gift enough for me.

Comments

  1. ElenaDecember 8, 2013 at 9:22 AM

    Oh my! I think that the grainy iPhone photos are really artsy. I especially love those photos of Noah gazing at Anna. I have so many memories of all of my children lying exactly like Noah next to the new baby. It is very freeing to keep things simple. Dave and I were out at his Christmas party on Friday night and our babysitter came over with dough, icing and decorations. When we arrived home there was still gingerbread in the oven. Until your post I hadn't made the connection with the feast day! We did the treats in the boots but the gingerbread was literally heaven-sent!

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