The Feast of St. Nicholas

So RA asks on the feast of St. Nicholas, how come you don't see St. Nicholas in purple, or green, or white? He was a bishop after all.

For the feast, we fill the kids stockings. It is a great way to celebrate the feast and spread the traditions of the season all throughout, instead of overwhelming them on Christmas day.

I was able to find two really good books from the library about St. Nicholas: The real Santa Claus / Mayer, Marianna and A gift from Saint Nicholas / Kismaric, Carole.

So before we went downstairs, to investigate the stockings we read about the real Santa Claus.

In each stocking, they get candy and one "big" gift. In past years at Christmas, Nana has given them snow globes. This year they got their snow globes with their stockings.

Before they got to their stockings

Sorting

This is good stuff, Mom

"A chocolate penguin?"

So I mentioned before that PG's Godparents gave him this really neat Advent calendar. If you can find one on sale, they are really amazing. But one word of advice. After attending a party with an hour and a half drive both ways, returning home at 10:30, putting excited and exhausted children to bed and then filling stockings might not be the time to assemble 24 small boxes and fill them with tiny toys.

PG got a Veggie Tale movie in his stocking. For you VG fans and for those who have small children. Run out and get St. Nicholas. It is fantastic and other than not making him a bishop is really spot on. I am so impressed. There is even a religious sister in the movie. A few years back they did a bit on St. Patrick in one of their movies (Summo of the Opera) and DG now has a huge devotion to St. Patrick. They have their saints down and do them with a great message for kids.

For those of you who are curious, RA got a VG Christmas CD. Which by the way was poor planning on my part as we don't start listening to Christmas music until the third Sunday of Advent. Opps!

DG got an Altar Gang CD about Advent. Yet another plug -- I really like the Altar Gang. This was my first experience with the CDs!

And the snow globes: PG and DG got Veggie Tales ones, they are so cute. RA got a Nutcracker one as the girls (my mom, grandma, aunt, sister, RA and I are going on the 4th Sunday of Advent to see the ballet).

Advent and Some Great Feasts

Ok for those of you who know me, you know why I haven't been blogging. It is Advent -- my favorite time of year and I have been so busy creating the perfect Advent that I haven't been blogging.

So here is the update.

On November 29th, the day after PG's b-day, we put up the tree. Thanks to Target we added the purple lights, snowflakes, and ribbon. The ribbon and I had a big fight this year. It is so nice to have a big window to put the tree in front of finally. But I couldn't take a picture that night because we didn't have any Jesse Tree ornaments on. I thought, "Ok somewhere in week 2 of Advent, I'll take a picture." Two nights ago, the middle section of purple lights went out. So still no pic. I looked at Wal-Mart. They had purple lights (on WHITE wire) so still no picture. As far as the Jesse Tree ornaments, here is a big shout out to the Mothers for Children at OLMC in Carmel. Thanks for the years of ornament trading. My ornaments are so pretty and I think of each one of you as the kids hang them on the tree.

November 30th was the feast of St. Andrew. It made me a little sad. I was thinking of our Andrew and how we are so blessed to have little ones in heaven.

On December 5th, we headed out to Byers CO (an hour and a half away) for Mass the Knights of Columbus Party. We left ourselves plenty of time. Dressed in our Sunday best, we stopped for gas. It has been pretty cold here so Blake waited in the car with us while the gas pumped. When he heard the click, he got out and took the hose out of the car. It started spraying all over him. It soaked him through, so home we went to change. We got to the parking lot of the church at the gospel. We would have been ok except there was no music at Mass.

At the party, there was a special guest (Santa Claus). We had prepped the kids. For those of you who don't know, we don't "do" Santa Claus. On the feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th next post) the kids get there stockings in honor of St. Nicholas. So we decided to remind the kids that some kids think Santa is real and please don't say anything if someone asks you about Santa. Well RA was so taken by him, she didn't leave his side the whole time. Then he starts into this 5 minute speech about, who believes in Santa Claus. Asking kids individually and telling them to raise their hands. I was holding my breath. I could just here DG going on some soliloquy about how Santa was not real and telling the whole story of St. Nicholas. Luckily, he followed directions. Phew.

More about the feast of St. Nicholas later. Here are some pics:

And thanks Mrs. Wrobel for the really cool Playmobile Advent calendar!

Feast of St. Nicholas

I know this is late but:

In many places St. Nicholas is the main gift giver. His feast day, St. Nicholas Day, is December 6, which falls early in the Advent season. Some places he arrives in the middle of November and moves about the countryside, visiting schools and homes to find out if children have been good. Other places he comes in the night and finds carrots and hay for his horse or donkey along with children's wish lists. Small treats are left in shoes or stockings so the children will know he has come.
Where St. Nicholas is prominent, his day, not Christmas, is the primary gift giving day. Parties may be held on the eve, December 5th, and shoes or stockings left for St. Nicholas to fill during the night. Children will find treats of small gifts, fruit or nuts, and special Nicholas candies and cookies. St. Nicholas gifts are meant to be shared, not hoarded for oneself. - this is from the St. Nicholas Center http://www.stnicholascenter.org/

So my kids get their stockings on the feast of St. Nicholas. They don't think they are from him just in honor of his gift giving legacy. Here are some pictures of the event. Oh RA and DG got Sacrafice beads since St. Therese has played a big role in RA's life since Oct. and since DG really needs help making sacrifices. Daddy even got Godiva coffee. Mommy got her traditional chocolate orange.

Advent Traditions

So since Christmas isn't quite upon us the Helgoths have some Advent Traditions. First is the Jesse Tree. Our tree goes up the first Sunday of Advent and we decorate it with purple lights, ribbon, and snowflakes (I found them all three years ago at Target). Then each day of advent we add a Jesse Tree ornament. For the past two years, we have been part of an exchange so I think I have all the ornaments now. This is totally the way to do it, because then you just have to make two different types of ornaments for however many people instead of making 28ish different ornaments. Great chart for ornaments at http://www.cresourcei.org/jesse.html.
Then on the third Sunday of Advent we take down the purple and put up the Christmas lights and decorations. The kids like leaving the Jesse Tree ornaments. The 3rd Sunday of Advent is also when we start listening to Christmas music.
We don't do Santa in our house. Another day for the why of that. But on the feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6th) the kids get their stockings filled.
We also have a creche (crib) under the tree for Jesus. It is filled with good deeds. Last year, we put in straw for each of our good deeds as mom and dad saw them and took some out if the need arose (ok when the need arose). This year we have a sacrifice jar. Each night they chose a strip of paper with a sacrifice they can make the next day. If they do it, they get to put straw in the creche.
Our letters to Santa are letters to Jesus asking for gifts: material and spiritual. We exchange gifts as immediate family on Epiphany and if no extended family is around we open their gifts then too. Christmas day we try to have a birthday party for Jesus!
We also have an Advent wreath and there are these great seek and find Advent books we use each day. http://www.printeryhouse.org/ProdPage.asp?Prod=DYK&cat=226.
Oh and you can still sign up for Holy Heros Advent Adventure. They send a daily email with activities and videos. It makes it really easy! http://www.holyheroes.com/.
Happy Advent!