St Nick

December 6th is the feast of St Nicholas. He was a bishop in the third century, and also very wealthy. He was know for giving money to those who had one. One notable story is there was a man with three daughters and he could no longer afford to keep them or give them a dowry and was going to sell them into slavery. Nicholas heard about this, and waited for the family to fall asleep. That night he snuck into the house and filled the eldest daughters stocking (left by the fireplace to dry) with gold. The family was overjoyed to be saved from slavery. The second night he did the same for the second daughter, the third night the father stayed awake to see who was saving his children and discovered it was Nicholas. Nicholas refused his thanks and told the father to thank God instead that his prayers had been answered. He wanted to remain anonymous, and continued to go about the city helping people in need as he could.

Do you see where Santa Claus has come from??? Anyway, growing up St Nick used to come and fill our shoes with candy and toys on the eve of his feast day, and it is a tradition I am trying to keep up with my boys. Except, I've decided they don't really *need* candy or toys, so this year they each got their own water bottle, a tube of chap stick ("lips") a singing toothbrush and a St Frances coloring book with markers or crayons. Yes, I am that mom. But I think they are happy with their gifts even if its not candy or toys, and Liam is pretty excited that "Santa" visits him twice. If you want to know more about St Nick visit this link http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=170 they have several stories, games, coloring pages, etc to keep you busy learning about this remarkable man who really saw Christ in the poor.