St. Nicholas Day - Countdown to Christmas - Day 6

The sixth day of the Countdown to Christmas marks St. Nicholas Day. This morning we checked the shoes that we left out last night in the mudroom for St. Nicholas. The girls were so excited to see their shoes filled with gifts.

Sophia and Olivia looking at the filled shoes.

Since it was so cold outside, they asked if they could see what St. Nick brought them indoors.

Sophia bringing her gifts inside where it was warmer.

So, we gathered our shoes (or boot, in Olivia's case) and brought them to the dining room.

Olivia bringing her boot inside.

They were very happy with what St. Nick brought them and were surprised at how much he was able to get into each shoe or boot.

Olivia taking a look at the unusual crayon she received.

It didn't take too long to go through our shoes/boot since St. Nicholas doesn't wrap any of the gifts. One of the special treats that we received this year were gold coins that were actually chocolates.

Sophia sampling the chocolate coin.

Once we finished looking at what each person received, we had the Candy Crozier Coffee Cake we made yesterday along with orange slices.

Ready for breakfast.

In the center of the table, we put the Klausenbaum that we made yesterday. Today, though, we lit the candle.

The Klausenbaum with the lit candle at top and 

gold coins at the base.

On the tray with the Klausenbaum, we put a bowl of walnuts and a St. Nicholas wooden statue. There were also some more gold coins scattered around the base of the Klausenbaum.

Having breakfast on St. Nicholas Day.

For dinner, we made homemade pizza. I saw the idea on Pinterest to make a pizza and have the miter (the hat that St. Nicholas wore) cut from a slice of cheddar cheese. In the center is the shape of a cross that is cut out.

Tammie Says Hello has a picture of the pizza that she made with the cheddar cheese miter. Her cheese miter stayed in its form and you can see the shape. After baking my pizza for 15 minutes, the cheddar cheese melted and the shape was indistinguishable. Oh well. We all agreed it wasn't worth a picture. A description was more than sufficient.

By 7:00 p.m., we had finished putting 1,037 books in boxes for the library in Lesotho, Africa, that we are creating. The boxes need to be mailed tomorrow, so we are happy that at least all the books are boxed at this point.

We still have a few more things that we need to do before bringing them to the post office tomorrow. However, to have everything in boxes is a tremendous relief!