The Feast of St.Nikolaus

In the midst of our boxes the kids managed to celebrate St. Nikolaus Day on December 6th. In Germany and other parts of the world, on the Eve of December 5th they put their shoes (Nikolaus-Stiefel) outside their doors and Nikolaus and Servant Ruprecht come to check on the children in the middle of the night. If their behavior over the last year was good, Nikolaus fills their shoes with small treats. If they behaved poorly over the last year a tree branch is placed inside their shoes. Servant Ruprecht brings fear to many of the children because as legend has it... he would beat the naughty children to bring out better behavior.

Our kids were happy to find treats in their shoes in the morning! It seems as though Nikolaus is helping Santa Claus out because our letters to Santa were missing out of our special North Pole mailbox in the morning. We can only assume that Nikolaus is delivering them to the North Pole for us.