Tuesday, December 6, 2011

St. Nicholas Feast Day

One of the traditions I didn’t mention in this post was St. Nicholas Feast Day.  Probably because it wasn’t a true tradition for us… until now.  I figure it can’t be called ‘tradition’ until it’s been done at least twice. 

My cousins moved a lot when we were kids.  Army brats.  At one point, they lived in Germany for a span of 3 years.  When they came back, I hardly recognized any of them.  The one my age was a boy.  I remember being there at the airport when they landed and I watched for each one of them to get off the plan.  Aunt and uncle I recognized, no problem.  The kids, not at all.  Then this boy got off the plane, ran up to me and gave me a GIANT bear hug.

Um, excuse me, do I know you? 

Yes, it was the boy cousin but it sure didn’t look like him.  He was just so big… and different!

Well, years later, the cousin just younger than me (part of that same family) served a mission in Germany.  Surprised?  Me neither. 

When she came home, I asked her to come and teach us a little bit about German Christmas traditions and customs.  She taught us a few and I fell in love with the idea of S. Nicholas coming the night of December 5th so the kids wake up to shoes filled with candy on December 6th… if they’ve been good.  If they’ve been naughty, they get a switch. 

December 5th would come and go every year without me ever thinking about it.  I’d always say ‘Well, I guess we’ll wait until next year.’  Then last year my brain was actually functioning for half a second and I remembered!  Go me!!

shoes2

We don’t do the feast part on December 6th but I’m thinking we should have.  Maybe next year.

To be honest, I didn’t even remember this year about the whole shoe thing until K mentioned it after noticing the date on the calendar.  So, guess who went to Wal-mart after midnight for some candy. 

Me?  Psshhh!  That’s funny.

I sent Anthony.  I know, I’m the best wife pretty much EVER!  Hey Anthony, it’s midnight.  Go buy some candy! 

The kids loved waking up to this!  C ate his whole tube of Runts… the girls each split theirs evenly amongst themselves to get more variety.  C found H’s ‘hidden’ tube o’ variety and ate all but one piece. 

Sigh.  That kid has no self control.  Takes after his mother Anthony.

Don’t those sixlets just take you back in time?  I’m not the only one that ate those things, I hope.

 

2 comments:

Julia Armstrong said...

Awesome! One day I will do the traditional things that I want to do...I thought about this one the other day and then thought it was already past. Oh well.

Cari said...

That's a fun tradition! And that's a good husband to run to the store in the middle of the night for candy ;)