St. Nicholas

 Guess who visited our house last night?



Jolly old St. Nicholas

 We awoke to this on the feast of St. Nicholas!  I don't have any pictures of the kids, because they were to hopped up on sugar & excitement to sit still. 

Then Teresa & I went to celebrate at Moms' group, too.  Fun day!

St. Nicholas, patron of children, pray for us!

Jolly old St. Nicholas

I've always loved the feast of St. Nicholas. My mom has always made it an extra special day for us. So, we got out our stockings & Santa hats, St. Nicholas statues, books, & video, gifts to unwrap from my parents, & hit the hay. We awoke to a jubilant table full of celebrating. After school we celebrated with some neighborhood friends, too.

Teresa FINALLY let Alison hold her...a gift!

Pin the cross on the miter

Hmm... I'll take this one.Christmas cookie decoratingThen we celebrated Mass at our home that evening for Bible Study. My brother came over & let the kids help him set up.We were able to sing some old Newman Center tunes, Andrew rang the bells (huge thrill!), & appreciate the Mass even more after our study of it's Biblical origins. Rebecca helped me earlier in the day to make these chocolate peanut butter balls & Christmas veggie tree. What a fabulous day!

St. Nicholas

He came! (Good thing those candies are well-wrapped or I don't know if I'd eat those out of Andrew's shoes.)
My parents have been such a great inspiration for celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas. This year they even sent each of the kids a special ornament with him on it. We read a new book about him, watched the movie about him we got last year, & enjoyed the new statue (from Mom as well) of Santa holding the baby Jesus from his Nativity set.

They were so giddy with excitement, it was hilarious to watch how intensely they had to focus to open the ribbon on these gifts!

They also started to make decorations for their tree. Notice how even they have to have everything 2 1/2 feet off the floor! Doesn't leave much!

Here's the reason. ;) This is the first hat she has both willingly put on & left on for more than 10 seconds. Hope that you had a happy feast day!