Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I am writing this blog post with my "Mom" hat on, so that I remember all of the details of our lovely day. :-)

Last night Zac (age 2 1/2) set a pair of shoes outside his bedroom door with carrots in them for St. Nicholas's horses. This morning he woke up to find that the carrots were gone and St. Nick had left some chocolates in their place!

We opened stockings which were hanging along the banister, filled with chocolates, clementines, new Christmas ornaments, and other small gifts. My girls enjoyed some books from the fairy series by Andrew Lang.

Each stocking always has a Christmas dime down in the very bottom, in the toe. The dime is brand new, from the current year. My children all have dime books and they save their Christmas dimes every year, so that they have a complete set of dimes marking every year since they were born.

After breakfast it was time for the presents!

This year my mother and I got Zac the beautiful David's Double Shelf Playstand with Canopies from Elves and Angels. They came swiftly and went together beautifully. They look just gorgeous in front of our living room picture window! So I set all of the presents out on them. Zac's on the left hand side of one and Becca's on the right hand side; Leah's on the right hand side of the other and Natalie's on the left hand side. When we came into the living room the children were delighted!

(Another bonus: the large sturdy box the playstands come in makes a fantastic boat!)

In addition to the playstands, I got Zac several wooden Holztiger animals and an easel.

I got Becca (age 12) four metallic folders and a box of gold sparkly pencils, the Thames & Kosmos Optical Science Kit, a 30 color sampler of Sculpey III Oven Bake Clay (to go with Clay Lab for Kids, her new art book from Cassie Stephens), and the World of Dots: Folklore activity book from Mindware.

I got Leah (age 14) two Science Academy Kits (Slime Lab and Crystal Jewelry Lab), a subscription to Creation Crate, and a fountain pen.

I got Natalie (age 15) Square Up!, WhatchamaDRAWit, and several activity books from Mindware (Algebra Antics and the Color Counts: Sun Catchers and Fairy set).

All of my children got beautiful presents from grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and one another... and I got wonderful gifts from them and from my family as well.

It was so fun and so sweet to see the handmade gifts they gave each other (little handmade books for their dolls, coupons for giving one another facials and hairstyling evenings, and cards that say "your gift isn't ready yet but it will be done soon"). Natalie made me something in her ceramics class and made Zac something in her machine sewing class. They're growing up!!!

I so appreciate being able to carve out this time to relax and spend time with my children.

Tonight we will have my mother-in-law over and have a fancy dinner: Slow-Cooker Oxtail Soup and Steamed Mussels with wonderful crusty bread.

Happy St. Nicholas Day to everyone else who is celebrating today!

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