Well, I have to say this feels a bit ridiculous (and is a tiny bit frustrating) posting this a week later. It seems the celebrations lately fall on the day of, or the day after my Rhythm In Our Home posts, and I wasn't really sure how to get around that so here we are.
Kind old man Saint Nicholas dear,
Come to my house this year,
Here's some straw and here's some hay,
To help your horse along his way.
Kind old man Saint Nicholas dear,
Come to my house this year.
Kind old man Saint Nicholas dear,
Come to my house this year,
Pray put something in my shoe,
For I've been good the whole year through.
Kind old man Saint Nicholas dear,
Come to my house this year.
- Traditional German
Pictures taken late at night and early in the morning, so I apologize for them.
St. Nicholas is known as the patron Saint of children. December 6th is his celebration day. On the eve of St. Nicholas day our little ones place a shoe (usually a boot just because it fits the clementines better) on the inside of the front door and fill it with carrots, and sometimes hay if we can get some, for the good Saint's horse. Then they (try to) go to bed and dream of his visit.
When they wake up in the morning they run to their shoes and find a few small gifts.
I should mention here that we have simplified St. Nicholas day more and more each year. When we first began celebrating it we didn't celebrate Christmas so St. Nicholas day was the day to get gifts. I am quite happy with where we are at with it this year.
Every year they receive honey sticks, a clementine and a golden walnut from him and then the other small gifts vary. This year he brought the girls the Nativity Sticker Books
I mentioned before, and Santa Lucia paper dolls. (freebies found here, I printed them at Fed-Ex Office on thick cardstock) He brought Baby L a clementine (that the girls shared), a golden walnut and a beautiful handmade wooden spoon to celebrate his new eating adventures (thanks to Nadja!). He also brought this book
that we love,love, LOVE, for the three of them to share - I think that may become an every year thing, too.St. Nicholas also visits K's class in school. Well, when they come to school that day they find a golden walnut and clementine in their slippers.
You can see some of our past St. Nicholas celebrations here, which include the celebrations at my dear friend Tiffeni's.
While we are at it I'll add the third week of Advent info. It seems like all of my posts are about Advent and Christmas things right now but our lives are pretty centered around that. I can tell some of you may be getting sick of those topics, though, so I am trying to put them all together in one post so I don't drive you all crazy!
The third week of Advent is the light of beasts,
Light of hope that shines in the greatest and the least
We added the animals to our nativities and out up our couple of Santa Lucia decorations around the house. Speaking of Santa Lucia, I need to run off and iron the girls' dresses for tomorrow.
Please remember - this is just our family rhythm and what works for us at the moment. This isn't meant to be hard and fast rules on how rhythm should go in every one or any one's homes. I just thought to share it because I receive quite a few e-mails asking about our home rhythm, and I also just wanted it documented for myself so that I may remember these times when they are older and/or on to another rhythm.
Thank you, again, for joining me in the rhythm fun! Here is the linky list. If you have a (new or old) link you would like to share about your family rhythm, please enter it below so that we all may see. Please don't forget to link back here in your post. How else will we all be able to share and be inspired? I look forward to seeing your inspiration!
Thanks friends!
