Good ol' St. Nick, please no coal!

...to visit us tonight, I hope! :)

The kids all reminded me that tomorrow is the feast of St. Nicholas.  An old tradition (and a very cool one indeed!) is to put out our shoes near the chimney.
 
Why, you may ask?

Check out HERE for more details...
THIS is a whole website about St. Nicholas.

The short of the story of St. Nicholas is that he threw down some gold down the chimney of this family that needed it so that the 3 daughters could soon marry.  And that gold ended up in the stockings that were being warmed by the fire.  Hence,why we have stockings for Christmas!  Cool!

In our house and many others too, we put our shoes out near the chimeny so that St. Nicholas can throw down some golden chocolate coins into them!
Oh, those precious gold chocolate coins near the day of Dec. 6th!
It took me 2 stores to find these gold coins today.  I'm glad I did...I was starting to wonder what I was going to do!  My kids would be devasted without seeing those coins in the morning.

And I am still in need of finding 3 purple and 1 pink candle for our advent wreath.  I ended up actually buying an advent wreath this year b/c I could not find ours!?!? I think the movers took it!!! haaa.  Those special advent candles!  Argh, can't find them anywhere!  Been to 4 stores already.  So much for being on time and ready this year for Advent, huh? 

DO you have Advents like this too?

Anyway, Happy 2nd Sunday of Advent today!

There is so much that I would love to do with the kids to have us all experience Advent in a special way this year.   My expectations were pretty high, I guess.   Not this year, I guess.  It's been very hard of an advent for me.  (you too?  Oh,  please say you too!!??!) 

"It is what it is", some say. 

But it is hard for me to let go and not have everything go as planned or hoped for.  Even if I got 1/2 of what I would have liked for this Advent, actually being done, I would not be so bummed out.  Things such as I would have loved to do the Jesse tree (even to some degree) ...but can't swing it this year.  I would love to be able to keep our manger Nativity set up all day long, even all Advent long...but not this year.  My sweet -gone- wild 2 year old has made me use the glue gun too many times.  Mind you, we just found the nativity manger and JUST put it out yesterday.  So much for the change of scenery around here!  argh.  I would have also liked to have prayed certain prayers for the Sundays of Advent ...but not this year, b/c I just bought an advent wreath yesterday after spending over a week trying to find ours.   And...I am still on the hunt to find some candles too.  I would have also liked to do a "secret Santa" but not this year.  It is hard enough to keep some secrets untold around here and it would only end up in a fight and whining about doing more things for another sibling...at least this year.   I wonder when is a good age to start that.  It seems so fun to do! 

As many seasoned mommas have told me, and I truly believe it, is that things will change and time flies by.  Then remind me to just accept what life brings right now, and try not so hard to understand it as much to just accept it.  Sounds simple, but it's not.  It is my own will that gets in the way!   I believe what they tell me but man is it hard to accept when in the middle of it.  It is very hard to see that big picture, some days.

Well, that was a big of a tangent, huh?!?! :) 

Hey, Jolly and good ol' St. Nicholas, please pay us a visit tonight?
Then again, maybe some lumps of coal is what I deserve...

God bless,
M