Wednesday, December 06, 2006
St. Nicholas
Since we’re living in Germany now, we had a special visitor last night. Last year the kids forgot to leave their shoes outside our door when they went to bed on Dec. 5, and St. Nicholas (or Nikolaus, in German) passed us by. However, this year they remembered…and each selected their largest shoes to leave outside for St. Nicholas: boots!
St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children and a model of how Christians are meant to live. Here in Germany, children put boots outside their front doors on the night of Dec. 5 in anticipation of St. Nicholas’ visit. He comes during the night to check up on the children and to see if they’ve been good. If they are, they receive candy and gifts. If not, they’ll receive charcoal in their boots instead. Zachary and MacKenzie almost forgot about checking their boots this morning, until they opened the door to leave for school. The boots weren’t filled to the top, but there was more there than I expected to find. St. Nicholas truly came to visit us last night and introduce us to this European tradition.
After our Wednesday evening routine and dinner out, Zachary and MacKenzie worked on their homework…and Benjamin worked on his candy from St. Nicholas. I thought it was humorous how he kept the “shoe” theme alive by emptying all his candy (and his orange) into one of my shoes. He had been quiet for almost too long, so I knew he was up to something!
St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children and a model of how Christians are meant to live. Here in Germany, children put boots outside their front doors on the night of Dec. 5 in anticipation of St. Nicholas’ visit. He comes during the night to check up on the children and to see if they’ve been good. If they are, they receive candy and gifts. If not, they’ll receive charcoal in their boots instead. Zachary and MacKenzie almost forgot about checking their boots this morning, until they opened the door to leave for school. The boots weren’t filled to the top, but there was more there than I expected to find. St. Nicholas truly came to visit us last night and introduce us to this European tradition.
After our Wednesday evening routine and dinner out, Zachary and MacKenzie worked on their homework…and Benjamin worked on his candy from St. Nicholas. I thought it was humorous how he kept the “shoe” theme alive by emptying all his candy (and his orange) into one of my shoes. He had been quiet for almost too long, so I knew he was up to something!Labels: Benjamin, Christmas, MacKenzie, Zachary
