St. Nicholas Day

My older kids haven't believed in Santa for years, but they still like to pretend for the younger boys. The idea of Santa as a gift-bringer doesn't bother me too much, just not the "all-seeing", "all-knowing" part. We've been pretty up front with our kids when they've asked questions.

A couple years ago a friend mentioned a tradition her family practiced. Her husband is from Hungary and this is common there. They celebrate St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December. That is when "Santa" brings his presents and fills stockings.

I loved this, as it still let the kids experience the fun of receiving gifts from Santa, but it also separated it from Christmas. Unfortunately, I kept forgetting until later in December.

So this year I made sure to plan in time. The kids cleaned and put out their "boots" (just their regular shoes) for Santa but decided they'd rather do stockings on Christmas morning. They've long known that in our household mom fills those, not Santa anyway. =)

They awoke on the 6th to chocolate Santas in their shoes, and a family gift under the tree.

This came with the added bonus of giving the kids something new to do during Christmas break. We definitely plan to make it a new Riley tradition.

Traditions - German Food

My grandparents on my mom's side are German so I grew up on some wonderful traditional food. My grandma is no longer able enough to cook but some of her recipes have been passed down. One of our favorites is called Kraut Bruschke.

It's more commonly called Kraut burgers. A lot of times it's made with ground beef but we prefer bacon.

By the time we arrived at my mom's, she and my dad had already cut up all the bacon and had it cooking.

Then we drained and rinsed the sauerkraut and cooked that a little. Then added pepper to taste.

And added the bacon to it.

We then rolled out bread dough. Both Conner and Brenna helped out.

Then we placed the bacon/sauerkraut in the bread dough and folded it over.

Then we baked them until golden brown.

They take some time to make so we generally do quite a few at once. This time we made 32. And they don't last long.