St. Nick strikes again

St. Nicholas.  Sinterklaas.  Kleeschen.  Pere Noel.  Mikuláš

He goes by many names and he has different origins and backstories in many European countries.  But one thing is the same from place to place:  Children, young and old, eagerly await his arrival on the evening of December 5th and go to sleep dreaming of all of the sweets and treats that will be found in their shoes/stockings in the morning.

It is a tradition I grew up with.  And one that B and I have passed along to our girls.

This year (as in the past few) we also had Fidget our elf to help St. Nicholas - or maybe hinder him as she usually tries to steal the girls goodies.  And this year, once again, the girls added the Czech tradition of Anděl and Čert.  I love the multi-cultural Christmas mash up we have going!

This is what greeted the girls in the morning.  Fidget (and her helpers) stole the girls stockings, replaced them with tiny socks and only one little candy cane.  The girls were not amused and it took them a moment to recover and search out where their stockings had gone.

They found them...And this!!!

Needless to say, Fidget was forgiven and the girls couldn't stop smiling.  Or hugging their bears.  They even forgot that there were presents in their stockings for a bit.

We finally opened the presents, and I made Christmas pancakes in a rush - as we had to get to church for class.

The Mass after class was the Children's Mass and the kids all had a great time...they even got to help the priest in the preparations of the offerings. 

And then, a huge surprise, as Mikulaš and Anděl came walking in...

And handed out gifts to all of the kids...

What a great tradition and a fun day!