St. Nicholas Day festivities

This year, our St. Nicholas Day celebration lasted a whole weekend! (This exclamation point is for Pete, who thinks I am far too frivolous with them)

On Friday night we got together with friends, and for part of the time we talked about the true St. Nicholas, and then played some games related to the holiday.

Then on Saturday, we endeavored to emulate the man, as we spent the day doing some giving... some of it anonymously, as he is reported to have done. So, I don't have any good pictures of this, other than this one...
Part of the fun was getting to do some stealth maneuvers in the dark... although a few of my kids have some things to learn about what "stealth" means!

The kids had their stockings out Saturday night, and sure enough St. Nicholas swooped on by and left them some presents...

... Sunday morning I was awakened by shrieks of "MOM, I got a candy bar in my stocking!!" They got a lot of other things, too, but it was the candy bars, of course, that were the highlights.

After church yesterday, again in the spirit of St. Nicholas, who lived in a time when gingerbread would have likely been a treat, we decorated a Gingerbread Train. We would get no awards for neatness, but the enthusiasm was there nonetheless.

And to top off the whole weekend, our neighborhood had their annual Tree Lighting time last night, so Pete took Rayna and Colsen down for the festivities. And who should they get to meet, but the modern-day St. Nick!

Now, we say goodbye to Santa/St. Nick.... and focus our attention for the rest of Advent solely on the baby to be born! (Must end with an exclamation point, too)