Visit from St. Nic

Last Monday (December 6) was the feast day of St. Nicholas. (I know I'm behind on my blogging!) We'd been talking a lot about who St. Nicholas was, and about how he secretly shared his gifts. We told Beth that we'd leave our shoes out that night and he might leave some goodies for us in the morning! Being the polite girl she is, Beth wrote St. Nic a preemptive thank you note, in anticipation for all the candy she thought she'd be getting! She also drew him a picture of a fish.
The next morning...St. Nic has left us all some oranges, chocolate gold coins, candy cains, and a play nativity set! Jackson got two jars of baby food which we'll use in a month or so. :-)
Beth was psyched! She was so excited about the gold coins whereas Luke went crazy over the oranges! They both played with the nativity, Beth loves it but Luke's still a little too young for this particular set.The rest of the day was filled with excitement, coloring pages about St. Nicholas, stories, and songs. I love that we were celebrating a real person who points us to Jesus, and their little gifts had nothing to do with being good or bad. Yes, I admit, I still feel a twinge of guilt for telling them that St. Nic filled their shoes. But I think I'm okay with it for now. I don't plan on intentionally misleading them as they get older- if they ask I'll tell- but for now the "magic" is alive and well in our household!