Our Second St. Nick's Day

Today we celebrated a tradition from my childhood in Germany, Nikolaus (St. Nick's Day), for the second time as a family.  The children put their shoes on the window sill in the evening of December 5th and a very practical Nikolaus "filled" them with gifts overnight.  Each child received a new set of Christmas pajamas and a new pair of shoes.

 Here's Rex cautiously checking out the unusual window sill display in the morning:

And then taking a closer look:

Emilia who got up much later immediately seized upon her new shoes:

And inspected them thoroughly:

Before she asked me to put them on her feet.  She walked around the house with those new shoes on for a few hours before the novelty wore off.

I know right now my kids do not really understand what this tradition is all about, but I hope someday they will be as excited as I used to be on December 5th, cleaning my shoes and getting them onto the window sill so that I could find them full of treats the next morning.