Uh-Oh HO-HO

In my ongoing effort to tattoo the real meaning of Christmas into the brains of my children, I decided we would celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas.

This is totally new to me. As a matter of fact, I only learned about it the day before at Faith but it seemed like it was just the outlet I was looking for to tie it all in: Santa, Jesus, gifts.

This is the website that tells us all we ever wanted to know about the jolly guy. I'll admit that I didn't go there -- I had no time -- but the tidbits I learned at Faith told me just

enough to throw something together.

Apparently, he was a guy who gave gifts to the underprivileged people of his town, especially to the young women who had no dowry. He would come by their house and throw in three chunks of gold that always seemed to land by the fire; thus the legend of him coming down the chimney. In some countries they put their shoes out in hopes that he leaves a little something inside them, usually Mandarin oranges (three balls of gold), and gold coins.

And the story goes from there, the shoe thing became the stocking by the chimney thing.

Because we put our shoes out on January 5 for the Epiphany, I decided to go the stocking route. And so,

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

J hadn't written his letter to Santa yet, so I thought it would be a good idea to do so and leave it out for him; however, he stayed up doing God knows what and had no desire to do it before heading off to bed.

In the morning we had no time to see what St. Nick had brought. A good thing since there was not a thing, zip, nada, in those stockings yet :)

But by the time J came home from school, we were set. I told him to take a look to see if there was something in there. He wouldn't because "You can't look in your stockings until Christmas." I practically had to twist his arm to walk over there.

Inside they found a note from St. Nick himself in which he praises their "niceness" and points out their "naughtiness" and/or areas that need improvement. He asks them to work on those until his return on Christmas Eve.

He left a little something for each one of them....oranges, of course. An ornament for M, and little Santa chocolates for Jacob that melted because I decided to turn on the fireplace. Hey, it was cold. How was I supposed to know what was in those socks?

He also left J some window decals that for some twisted reason he remembers us buying at Target a couple of weeks ago. Hmm.

So let me get this straight: St. Nick pays a visit on December 6 in the wee hours of the morning to check things out. He picks up the Wish Lists; leaves some small tokens of his appreciation -- for what, I don't know. Poor guy didn't even get cookies this trip; he goes back to wherever he came from, Heaven, I guess; and then decides if the kid is worthy of a present?

Oh, I have so many unanswered questions.....Did he get here on a sleigh? With or without reindeer? Or is he, like J asked, "Magic because he's a saint"?

Is this really my story? Yup, and I'm sticking to it even if my kid thinks Santa is a thief who is trying to steal Mommy's thunder and take credit for his window decals.

I better get on that website and find some answers to my questions before they become J's. But not before making a"Don't read unless you've entered adulthood," label for this very entry.