Celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas

I fell asleep last night before I could write about the beautiful family day we enjoyed yesterday! Our morning began with a yummy breakfast of waffles and coffee and, of course, gold chocolate coins! We read about St. Nicholas from our book of saints and I also read to the children a cute story found at St. Nicholas Center for kids. While Darren and I got ready, Dylan and Caitlyn took turns playing clever little online games at that same website and then, after Daddy made a quick run to the store for a few key ingredients (how could I have run out of flour?!), we made--for the very first time!--a batch of salt dough ornaments. What fun! My mom still has some that we made when I was little but for some reason, I had never thought to make any with my own kids. Yesterday, though, it seemed the perfect activity, and while I thought at first that we would focus on an actual Saint Nicholas theme, we decided it would be more fun to just get creative. Dylan and Caitlyn discovered quickly that our bell shaped cookie cutter, for instance, created perfect ogre faces. :) Can you spot Shrek and Princess Fiona on our tray of finished products?

I put Meghan down for a nice long nap while our ornaments were baking, and the rest of us took the opportunity to play a game that's been up in our closet for the longest time but which we had never actually played since the kids were so little. Dylan rediscovered it a couple of days ago and just had to try it. And oh my gosh! What a blast!

Later we got started with our outdoor lights and decorations, but discovered (of course!) that we are in need of several replacement light bulbs. And by the time we finally located and sorted through the house lights, it was too dark and windy to actually climb up onto the roof, so those will just have to wait until this weekend. But we've made progress, and we're happy! The kids were just thrilled to be outside "helping", and really, that's what it's all about. It was, to me, the perfect conclusion to a perfect day, and a crackling fire in the fireplace as we readied the children for bed finished it all off beautifully. We are so very blessed.