Celebrating the feast day of St. Nick

On December 6, we celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas, the true Santa Claus. It's a Czech tradition to have your stockings filled with small gifts from this saint.

Our parish held a Breakfast with St. Nick event that included a huge, delicious breakfast, and pictures with St. Nicholas. Eli wasn't so keen on seeing St. Nicholas and he was about .00029 seconds away from bursting into tears in this picture, but it came out to be a great picture. 

My mom asked all of my siblings to be there with their children so she could get a grandchildren picture. It took a little coercing, but she got a precious picture of all of her grandchildren in their Christmas pajamas. 

When we got home, St. Nicholas had left a few things in our stockings. (Please excuse the messiness and missing baby Jesus in the Nativity)

Eli was excited to see what he got

He liked that he could dump everything out on the floor

Eli received a toothbrush, toothpaste, puzzle, coloring book, and Rudolph bandages.

He was excited to start using his toothbrush.

Doris wanted to know what he got. St. Nicholas brought Doris and Mr. Bates a few things, too.

Trim the Tree

It takes me a full week to put up my Christmas decorations. I know that's too much. But, I absolutely enjoy every minute of getting out old ornaments, placing decorations in new places in the house, and hanging garland...lots of garland. 

Last year, I put everything up with a 6 week old. This year, it was with a one year old. Eli was a lot of fun to have around. Yes, he threw most of the decorations on the floor once I put them up, but we made memories. 

He was really intrigued by the tree and I guess most children are. He loved to hold the ornaments and tried to put them on the tree.

I kept the glass ornaments on the top portion of the tree for obvious reasons.

He is putting his cousin, Billy's, ornament on the tree that was sent to us a few years ago.

I love this shot

And after awhile I noticed that he wasn't putting ornaments on the tree anymore, but sitting in his rocking chair and admiring the tree. He reminds me that I need to relax and enjoy this time with him. I need not worry about every minute detail. I need to sit back and relish this special time with my family.