December 5, 2007~ Of Tradtions and Routines

It's Saint Nicholas Night. This is not something that we participated in when I was growing up. I did have one friend who did. If I remember correctly it was the night that their stockings were filled. But, we don't fill stockings on this night in our house.

This was actually started about the time Michaela was in the four year old class at day care. She learned about it there and she and her daddy talked about it. He thought it would be a fun thing to do. We read a little about it and found that some places just set out shoes and St. Nicholas leaves small treats or small toys in the shoes. We also have the kids put their Christmas Wish List in their shoes for St. Nicholas to take.

Usually St. Nicholas takes the list and leaves a Pez or other small toy for each kid. It's never anything more than a trinket. Sometimes there is a roll of Smarties or something like that, too. But, they know that they are going to be getting stuff on Christmas Eve (from my mom and her boyfriend) and on Christmas Day so they don't get anything resembling a present on St. Nicholas Night. It's basically just a way for them to "send" their wish list letter to Santa in our house.

Michaela had Girl Scouts tonight. They met at one of the girls' house for baking and cooking. I am assuming this was a badge night. She seemed to have a great time. I did not stay. Michael is working late again so I had Caleb with me, too. There are about 15 girls in their troop and my gosh are they loud.

We watched a couple Christmas specials on television tonight. Family Channel had T'Was The Night Before Christmas on tonight. We watched it before Michaela went to Girl Scouts. ABC had Here Comes Santa Claus on from 7:00 - 8:00 pm. We watched it but missed a little while Caleb and I went to get Michaela.