St. Nicholas Day

This is a little out of order, but I wanted to post it anyway. As I mentioned before, we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6. This makes a really busy week, as we have December 4 and 5th for two children's birthdays! This year we decided that we should just take the week off school and focus on FUN for the week!! One of the joys of homeschooling - call your own holidays!

On the Saturday, around the 6th, we took the children to a town a couple hours from where we live. We could do some good last minute Christmas shopping, plus take them to a hotel for the night. We love to do that once a year, so that they can swim in the pool and play in the waterslides.

So off we went. We got there and immediatley went to Costco shopping. From there we took the kids to see Enchanted at the movies. It was 'fine' but definitely not what I was expecting. The little ones liked it and even Colt, but I am sure there were other Christmas movies more up the big boys alley! *smile*

After this, we headed to our hotel and swimming. It was now 11:00 pm, but we knew the next day would be busy so we had to take them swimming that night.

The boys had a blast in the waterslide; Briton was so tired that he only played a few minutes before he sat zoned out in the hot tub.




That night when I tucked Cooper into bed, I whispered in his ear that St. Nicholas would be coming that night. We had not pointed out the date to the kids, so they weren't even thinking St. Nicholas. They just knew it was coming soon. He quickly shut his eyes and was asleep in minutes. Briton was oblivious to it all!








Have you ever seen the Grinch Who Stole Christmas? Well, read between the lines here. Do you remember those moments when Santa was filling the stockings and the little girl came into the room and Santa was caught filling the stockings?

Well, suffice it to say, in our hotel room, there were a few close calls. Moments when Santa stood stock still, barely breathing, hoping the sleeping child would turn over the 'other way' when they began shifting in their bed! I am sure Santa couldn't fill stockings with the lights off, so 'he' had to risk discovery and keep at work until 'his' job was done! In a life of make belief, that would have been a horrible way to 'find out' - and so Santa had to diligently keep at work until 'his' job was done!

In the morning when the older boys came from their room next door, they were sure surprised to see what awaited them!







The next day we took the kids Christmas shopping and then surprised them with a second movie: Fred Claus. THAT was a good movie. Where we live there are no movie cinemas, so this was a real treat to see two movies in a big theatre.

Waiting For the Movie

After the movie, we headed home. It was a blizzard by now and the roads were covered, but we got home in good time. It was a great St. Nicholas Day!