St. Nicholas Day Fun!

Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Nicholas, and all around the blogosphere there have been wonderful ideas for celebrating this beloved saint's special day. This one definitely crept up on me - what with being all consumed with my Ina moment yesterday - so we began our own activities this morning.

First up was making some miniature candy cane cookies. I had many little hands helping me cut these out. :) The largest shape on the tray was my amateur attempt at cutting out a miter hat shape freehand. Next year I will definitely be ordering the cutters from the Saint Nicholas Center! (Seeing the beautiful ones Meredith and Katherine made makes me wish I had thought ahead!)

As the cookies baked and the boys played around with the leftover cookie dough scraps, I read the story of Saint Nicholas from Great Saints in World History, Grade 2. We then went to the world map and found Russia, whose patron is St. Nicholas.

Next we made some bishop hats using a template from The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions. I photocopied the pattern onto white cardstock and cut one out for each of my boys. After they colored them in with red crayons, they applied glue to the cross and sprinkled it (liberally) with gold glitter. (If you're going to use glitter, it must be used liberally.)

While the hats dried we turned our attention to the cookies that had just come out of the oven. We ate some as a mid-morning snack, and packaged the rest up into little cellophane bags as treats for our family.

Then it was time to head over to our monthly Homeschool Book Group at the library. While Bookworm discussed Gregor the Overlander with his group, Crackerjack and I combed the library for books to take home. By the time I was finished, I was wishing I had brought a tote bag with me - or maybe a milk crate! I was so excited they had many Tomie de Paola books on hand - and I can finally catch up with Elizabeth's amazing Advent unit study! I can't wait to start with The Legend of the Pointsettia; I am using Cay's Catholic Mosaic as well, so we will have lots of fun and educational activites to keep us busy next week. Below you see a picture of our library basket and for the details, please see my new Typelist on the right, called, oddly enough, Library Basket. I will update that list every week or two with the books we have taken out.

I am particularly excited for my "mama" selection ~ A Miracle for St. Cecilia's (another great suggestion by Cay). It looks similar to the Mitford series but it revolves around a Catholic parish and is set in New England. There is a whole series of these Dorsetville books by Katherine Valentine so I have my winter reading planned!

Later in the afternoon we had a little teatime - but with a peppermint twist! We steeped bags of Candy Cane Lane Herbal Green Tea in hot milk and while the boys had theirs with hot cocoa mix, I had mine with a little vanilla and sugar. Mmm-mmm, it was good!

Here is my Crackerjack wearing his St. Nicholas miter and a bit of hot chocolate around that sweet smile.

And finally, as the sun set in late afternoon, we lit our candle, set it beside a Saint Nicholas prayer card and our spoon saint from last month.

 

The day got so late, we didn't even get a chance to read The Night Before Christmas, as I'd planned. Well, we'll just have to continue the fun tomorrow. :)