There is no other season for us more steeped in family tradition than Advent and Nativity. The first of these for our Advent season this year is St. Nicholas Day.
As a family, we love St. Nicholas. Who doesn't, right? He is one of the most beloved Saints in the Church. His intercessions have helped us through a specific issue recently, and our love for him has grown stronger. He is a model of humility, generosity, and, of course, piety.
Now that we have a child, I have the immense joy of sharing our family traditions with her. The night before St. Nicholas Day, I hung our stockings on the fireplace screen. (We just couldn't bring ourselves to put nail holes into that mantle that we worked so hard to make look nice!) Anyway, I hung our stockings and filled them with a small trinket for each of us. I got hand-made soap from the farmer's market, E got a movie and Z got one of her favorite things...a panda!
*Side note for those of you who don't know about Z's obsession- I do not use that word lightly- with pandas. Every time we get in the car and start driving towards church, she says 2 things: "A-men!" and "Manna!" (read, "Panda!") not necessarily in that order. You see, there is a giant picture of a panda which advertises the zoo that is on our route to church. She loves reading the panda book, visiting the previously mentioned advertised panda at the zoo, and basically just saying the word "Manna!" at any opportunity.
Needless to say, I was greatly anticipating her reaction to walking into the living room on the morning of St. Nicholas Day to find her true love peeking out of her stocking.
She did not disappoint:
Oh my goodness!! That first picture is awesome!! I love how excited she was!!
ReplyDeletefinally an update, and what a great one!! those are adorable pictures of her total elation! if only we were still so easily made happy...
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