December Daily – Day 6

Friday, December 6

First let me wish you a "Happy St. Nicholas Day." When I was a kid, my sister, brother, and I would set out our shoes the night of December 5 in the hope St. Nick would fill them with oranges and nuts. My husband wasn't familiar with the tradition, but was all for continuing it with our children. I honestly don't remember what St. Nick left for our son and daughter, but doubt it was fruit and nuts. It was probably chocolate and maybe a small toy.

And now my daughter is continuing the tradition with her boys even though it was new to her husband as well. Her boys don't get fruit, nuts, or candy. Instead, each boy gets something off their Christmas list. And the tradition continues and grows.

Because both of my parents are mainly German, I always assumed our celebration of St. Nicholas Day was a German tradition. But when my husband and I visited Amsterdam, we learned St. Nicholas was dutch. In fact, most major cities in Amsterdam have a St. Nicholas church.

Then today I did a quick search and found St. Nicholas originated in France. So why we celebrated St. Nicholas's feast day as a kid is a mystery. I suspect someone started the tradition many generations ago and future generations just followed suit without question.

For what it's worth, there's more information about St. Nicholas day on Wikipedia.

Today was also our school district's first snow day of the season. I woke at 6:00 A.M. to learn there was no school and, therefore, no need for me to get Elliott on the school bus. Since I'm still sick, that was great news. I turned off the alarm clock and didn't get out of bed until 10:00 A.M.!

I spent the rest of the day watching Project Runway and Scandal, and making Christmas cards. I also unboxed the only new holiday decor item I purchased this year, a set of three mercury glass trees for the mantel. They're just what I had in mind. And I got them as an "As Is" item from QVC, saving $15 dollars. Yay!

So more holiday decor pictures today, including some vignettes I forgot to include a few days ago.

I display my trinket boxes on the dining room hutch
along with a cookie jar. The trinket boxes and cookie
jar change with the seasons.

By far, I have more trinket boxes for Christmas
than any other season.  

I took this picture with my back to the hutch. It took
years, but I finally love how the chandelier looks
for Christmas. I've been using this same look for
several years now.

This is the first year I split the stockings for a full view
of the electric fireplace. This setup also keeps the stockings
from blocking the fireplace's fan. But this setup also leaves
a big hole in the middle of the mantel, which is why I bought
the mercury trees.

The mercury trees include a light that can be set on a timer.
But since we have spotlights on the mantel, we won't
be using that feature.