6 December 2007

Today is St Nicholas Day

[by Lana]

Today is St Nicholas' feast day. We try to do something special for the man so much linked to Christmas, but somehow we often forget until it is too late. This time David and I kept reminding each other.
But early this morning I remembered that I had forgotten to make up the little bag of goodies for the children. Quickly scrambling out of bed I made the goodie bags, filling them with Dutch Licorice and small biscuits (pepernotens) - we didn't have any chocolate coins left.
As I placed them on the ends of the beds I was caught by Eric who was soon due to be up.
"Shh, don't worry about it," I whispered conspiratorially.
James kicked his bag off the end of the bed even before I had walked out the door. Clare opened one eye as I took this picture of her. She then promptly returned to sleep. Rose had commandeered Ariel's bed sometime during the night, and we wanted to make sure she didn't take Ariel's treat as well so we kept Ariel's separate. (By the way, it is amazing that someone so small can take up so much room).
Upon waking up the children were surprised and wondered what the treat was for and especially wanted to know, "Are they all for me?" I reminded them that today was St Nicholas Feast Day. Now they remembered and immediately began to trade for their favourites.
We also printed out some colouring pictures and they sat around the table eating their treats and colouring pictures. This was such a nice way to start the day.

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