St. Nicholas Day

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day. The Germans celebrate the day by leaving beautifully decorated paper plates full of chocolates and nuts on their neighbor's door step and parents leave goodies stuffed in a pair of children's shoes also left on the porch. I have wonderful memories of the day, so it's something I decided to stress in our family. We don't negate Santa Claus, but we certainly don't focus much on him. Instead, being the history buff that I am and lover of biographies, we learn about the true inspiration for the man in the red hat and cloak.
However, what with all the candy leftover from Halloween and cookie-galore this Christmas season and the lack of funds to buy yet more pieces of plastic to adorn the playroom we've morphed the tradition to fit our "needs" and funds.
This is the day the children receive their specially-chosen Christmas ornament.
This is Alynna's first year of "school", so she got a box of crayons.

I know, big surprise, right? :) Simon's original ornament was a tall and ominous Darth Vader. However, the thin glass ornaments, while beautiful on a lit tree, are often too precarious for a normal lifestyle, so poor Darth broke before he even came in the house. He was traded in for a short and stumpy clone trooper we all love.

Buying an ornament that sums up the child's year... year after year... can stretch a parent's creativity when you're staring at an aisle of silly, serious, and random Christmas ornaments. Brad and I stared at the provided options for quite a while and wondered which on Earth to choose as that special "one". Nathan didn't need another Star Wars ornament so that didn't leave us many choices. That is, until I laid eyes on the pickle! If you know Nathan this all makes sense. The boy could eat an entire jar of pickles in one sitting. See a sparkly pickle hang from our Christmas tree always makes me smile. :)

If you've seen our children out in public since their trip to Texas you have no doubt seen at least one of them proudly sporting their new cowboy boots. Well, if you saw Nathan today you would have seen him wearing two different sandals. So the boot represents the super fancy boots Kaeley loves wearing nearly everyday and their trip to Texas.

So here they are decorating our beautiful little tree now dripping with years of memories - of birth years and first years of school... of hobbies and favorite Disney characters... and it continues.