Friday, December 6, 2013

St. Nicholas' Day

Today, as I'm sitting at work, I'm trying to find possible excuse to avoid grading the stack of papers in front of me. I've read blogs, talked to coworkers, texted my husband, and now, I'm writing to you all. It's the last day of class, and I'm pretty burnt out this quarter. Only 1 more class, and a couple of finals until I'm free to enjoy 3 weeks of much needed vacation.

In other news, today is St. Nicholas' Day. James and I randomly decided yesterday that it would be fun to celebrate, and it would give us a time to do stockings for each other and Elijah without making my mom feel bad. It also allows us to do a little of the St. Nick/Santa Claus stuff with Elijah, without the creepy "man watches you all year and then comes down the chimney one night while you're sleeping" stuff. I like the idea of focusing on all the kind things St. Nicholas (supposedly) did, and I sense a new family tradition starting!

We've set a budget of $30 each to fill each other's stockings with fun things. Next year, we will be much better prepared for this, but for this year, we're both running around like crazy people to get the stockings ready for tonight.

We were able to fill Elijah's stocking with some Thomas trains, Octonauts figurines, a shirt, candy and a DVD that we picked up at the store last night while constantly trying to distract Elijah from what was in the cart. We only had to deal with one screaming meltdown. Ahh, 2 1/2 year olds...

Before work today, I stopped by the Dollar Store and Grocery Outlet to pick up the candy and random items portion of James' stocking. I also happened to find some great deals on really nice flashlights for James' friends for $3 at Grocery Outlet - score! You should totally check them out if you have one close to you. My real-life friend, Ang, often blogs about them over at The Coupon Project.

After work, I'm going to stop by Guitar Center and pick up the actual gift part - I'm thinking percussion instruments because James is trying to add some more acoustic elements to his studio.

Here's hoping our first St. Nicholas' Day celebration goes well! I'm very much looking forward to tonight.

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas' Day? Any advice? Traditions? I would love to hear them!

2 comments:

  1. My family celebrates the feast of St. Nicholas. I'm not sure how many cultures do this but it is a German tradition to have children put their shoes out and St. Nicholas puts candy, fruit and gold coins in them. My parents did this for us as we grew up on military bases in Germany. Now I do it with my children.

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    1. How fun! We enjoyed moving our stocking tradition to St. Nicholas' Day. I don't know how I feel about using actual shoes though...we'll probably just stick with the stockings :)

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