lucky treasures

December 5 gave us a thrilling morning this year. When the children awoke (30 minutes earlier than normal- yawn...), they found that a special visitor had been at our house.

In anticipation of St. Nicholas' arrival, Samantha and Jasper carefully lined up all of our shoes in front of the fireplace. Tradition has it that if children leave their shoes out on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, that he will bless them with a lucky treasure. Well, Sam and Jasper where blessed with cookie cutters and John and I with cookie recipes. Who knew that this St. Nicholas guy was so creative and knew us so well!!

The children had quite the exciting day at school when they found that St. Nicholas had also blessed their school slippers with golden walnuts and clementine oranges and Samantha got to meet St. Nicholas in person. But the fun didn't stop there. When we got home from school, we began our work at "The Harrison Gingerbread Factory" where our cookie cutters and recipes really came in handy. After an afternoon of baking, eating and decorating, we all went to bed with the inviting smell of gingerbread lingering throughout the house.