The Feast of St. Nicholas

December sixth is the traditional Feast of St. Nicholas and we celebrated it in a quiet way. It probably would have been a bit more but I lost track of the dates and then some other things came up at the last moment. It ended up being sort of short but a good pause in a kind of suddenly hectic day.

St. Nicholas was a bishop in what is now Turkey but was at the time Greece. He was known for his generosity? and kindness especially to children and his Feast has come to be especially focused on children.

F. had art class in the afternoon so Su and W and I dropped him off at 3:30 then hurried home to clean up the house, make a St. Nicholas Cake and set the table. I had planned a simple (Germanic in origin) meal of sausage, potatoes and apples but ended up just making sausage and apples along with a juice punch for a special drink.

In the midst of Su and I scurrying around (and she is really starting to get into setting the table nicely and so on), the phone rang and T (one of the teachers at art) called to say that they were watching a movie as it was the last class and F was unsettled by it so she was walking him home.? They arrived after about ten minutes and I immediately drafted her to help with table setting and so on (red and white are the proper colors). This was almost accomplished when the phone rang again.

This time it was S calling to say that he’d been involved in a collision and would I please give him the name of a towing company and then come pick him up. So off to do that (which meant dinner was a bit simpler).

When we returned we lit the Advent Wreath, discussed the life of St. Nicholas a little and then had dinner and dessert. I had purchased some chocolate coins when the children weren’t looking so they each had three on their plates along with their cake with instructions that they could eat one and then give the other two away. They decided to send them to a cousin in Texas who is having a birthday, anyone have ideas on how to mail them?