A happy St. Nicholas Morning

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

This is one of our favorite mornings each year, and today was quite sweet. We had a St. Nicholas party earlier this week, and so we already read our St. Nicholas stories, ate our St. Nicholas cookies, and found coins in our shoes once - but I couldn't resist doing a little something again this morning.

The girls put out their shoes last night, and found them this morning filled with quite a lot of gold (chocolate) coins, and a few stickers - each girl got stickers just right for them - ocean creatures and pink ponies. There was even spontaneous sharing! It was a simple treat, but enough to remember the secret kindness of St. Nicholas, the real joy of gift giving in this frantic season.

So we spent this quiet St. Nicholas morning coloring pictures for the stickers, nibbling on chocolate [and coffee], while listening to the last few chapters of The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. We picked up on the joyous chapter where the stone creatures come back to life:

Everywhere the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd. Instead of all that deadly white the courtyard was now a blaze of colours; glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, reddy-brown of foxes, dogs and satyrs, yellow stockings and crimson hoods of dwarfs; and the birch-girls in silver, and the beech-girls in fresh, transparent green, and the larch-girls in green so bright that it was almost yellow. And instead of the deadly silence the whole place rang with the sound of happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs and laughter.

This is a bittersweet day for me: reminding me of the joy of children and life, saints and loved ones in heaven, and the kindness and goodness that connects us all. This reading from C. S. Lewis seemed just right.

And I had my own little St. Nicholas Day miracle: I've been wanting a copy of Mother Gavrilia: Ascetic of Love for a few years, but used copies are listed on Amazon for ridiculous prices in the $1,000's. I set up a saved search thingy on Ebay. Occasionally I get an email saying the book is for sale for something like $100, and I just delete the email. Last week, I got an email saying it was listed for $5.98! I snatched it up before someone else did! A nice thick book arrived in the mail just in time for St. Nicholas Day, so this morning, I'll settle in with my coffee for some reading.

I'll share our The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe studies soon! In the meantime, wishing you all a happy St. Nicholas Day.

Find activities and stories for St. Nicholas Day here.