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.

baking

Brenna and I spent the day with my sister-in-law and nieces, baking breads and cinnamon ornaments.

The girls were very "hands on"

Here are a couple of Brenna's ornaments after they were dried and decorated

December daily book

I really love the idea of this book so I'm working on my own. You create a scrapbook for the month of December, and work on it each day so you have a completed book at the end of the month. I was able to go scrapbooking with a friend last month and got started on it. Since then, I've found a few spare minutes here and there and got all the pages done. Now I'm taking a picture a day to put in it. The first few pages will be advent and decorating the house.

A couple of my brilliant friends planned a fun activity for the first night of advent. We got together and had a Jesus birthday party. We had cake and crafts and talked about the real meaning of Christmas.

Each of us ladies created an advent wreath to take home.

Later, the men enjoyed a few games of darts.

At home, we lit the first candle and read some verses of the Bible. I hadn't yet dug out Jotham's Journey which we usually read each night.

All this week we have been getting the house decorated and making crafts. We did a simple, homemade advent calendar which I'm filling with small treats.

I'll try to update as the season goes on.

Christmas Day

We were heading up to my parents house in the mountains, so we woke the kids early so they'd have time to open their stockings.

They each asked for hot wing-flavored pretzels so that's why there is a bag sticking out of their stockings. Isn't that funny?

This was Declan's first trip and he did amazing. He slept the whole 3-hour drive. My mom enjoyed seeing how much he's changed since Thanksgiving. She had a wonderful lunch prepared and waiting for our arrival. We ate and then exchanged gifts.

It was a nice day and such a relief to have the bustle of the holidays over. Time to relax and enjoy family!

Christmas Eve

Scott's mom was over and we had a fun time watching the kids open their gifts.

We hid Conner's phone in a game box.

He was a good sport.

Declan looked a little freaked out by his gift. LOL

There -- that's better.

catching up

Such a busy time of year! Every year the sheer volume of things to do surprises me, I don't know why.

And it seems like every single activity we're involved in planned some kind of function this year where we were asked to bring either an ornament, a plate of goodies, a small gift or something for a potluck. So did I do the smart thing and make up a huge batch of cookies or something? Noooo...I had to make/buy something completely different for each one. Usually the night before.

But we did manage to get through it all. And of course it was a lot of fun.

Here are a few pictures from this month:

I attended a Cmas party/ornament exchange for MOPS

Brenna had her very first piano performance at a nursing home

Chase competed in an archery competition for Boy Scouts. He came in second in his division!

We got the tree up and decorated

The boys worked on building an igloo in the backyard

A very dear friend was in town visiting from Florida, and she got to meet Declan for the first time and see how all the other kids have grown

Then she and I (and Declan, of course) got to spend an evening out having dinner and shopping and catching up

And Declan somehow turned 2 months old!!!

We had a few more fun events but I kept either forgetting my camera or batteries!

Tonight we're celebrating as a family here at home, then tomorrow we're off to the mountains to see my parents for a few days.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

May God Bless you all in the coming year!!