Thursday, December 6, 2007

Happy Saint Nicholas Day

We had a double party for our beloved Saints' feast day today. Maria from Ordinary Time came for a visit with Paul & Lucy. Lucy, at 13 months, was so adorable wiggling in that precious bottom-scooch of hers, waving her jingle bell necklace and finding dropped candy canes to munch. The quote of the day comes from Maria's description of her daughter talent for finding the sweet spots in life. (I'm paraphrasing badly) "She can find happiness the way an experienced traveler finds the best seat on a train."

We made a Jesus craft suggested by Alice from Cottage Blessings. (I love raiding this blog for feast day teas and craft ideas). We made a simple baby Jesus in "swaddling clothes". The goal is that everytime one of the kids does something good from now until Christmas they get to add a piece of straw to the manger scene "to make baby Jesus more comfortable."

What I didn't expect was our manager project would be such a hit with Paul's imaginary horse, Mike. "Mike going to eat this!" he giggled happily as he left our house loaded down with straw, manager, candy canes, jingle bell necklace and of course, Baby Jesus. The pleasure was all ours Paul!

This afternoon we invited all the neighborhood kids in our apartment building to a Christmas tea. I hope this becomes an annual tradition. I so much prefer to host kids parties then to send wilted cheese balls to all of our neighbors this time of year.