St. Nicholas Day

Happy St. Nicholas Day! It is snowing here today, which seems appropriate. He is a saint often prayed to by travelers and therefore I have an icon of St. Nicholas on the dashboard of my car. Given the weather, it will be by his prayers that I make it home safely tonight.

Every year before we had kids, the Deac and I would disagree on when to decorate for Christmas. I, having been raised in a secular family of origin, was used to the decorations going up as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey had finished digesting. He, from a more religious family, insisted that Christmas decorations should go up to celebrate CHRISTMAS - the holiday that begins on December 25th and lasts 12 days. So he always wanted to wait until Christmas Eve. This disagreement usually resulted in a slow trickle of decorations going up throughout December and then putting up our main decorations around December 23rd or so. When we had kids, we finally reached a compromise - we would decorate for Christmas on St. Nicholas Day (December 6th). So, tonight the tree, stockings and Dept. 56 Christmas Village are going up at our house.

St. Nicholas visited our house last night. He filled the girls' shoes with candy coins, toys, bath fizzes, ponytail holders, and their own princess ornaments to put on the tree tonight. This morning I asked Emmelia if she liked what she got and she replied that she had, only she thought she would get a Barbie. Sigh... the inability to be pleasantly surprised begins so young.

This past Sunday we observed the 10th anniversary of our entrance into the Orthodox Christian Church. I've now been Orthodox for two years longer than I was ever even nominally Episcopalian. I'm so happy that 10 years later I can still say I've found my heart's true home. Sunday was also the feast day of St. Barbara, the patron of St. Barbara monastery in California - a place near and dear to my heart. In one of those "I can't believe they get this" moments that evening, Emmelia drew a picture of St. Barbara in her tower with three windows. I'm going to send it to the monastery so they can hang it on their refrigerator, but first I have to remember to scan it in or something for memory's sake.

In other brief news: the Deac started a new (secular) job yesterday that promises to present new challenges but less stress (yeay!); We had a lovely dinner out with the fire department last Saturday while the girls stayed with a babysitter - everyone had an enjoyable evening; The Deac and Em got some kind of 24-hour stomach virus that the rest of us are hoping to avoid - they both seem to be feeling much better; Maura's responding well to the treatment from the allergist - she's actually sleeping for hours at a time for the first time in her life; I'm in the process of reviewing for my Russian final this Saturday, getting Christmas cards designed and out and all the other common pre-holiday stresses. Those are the main reasons why you haven't seen much of me lately. Thank God, because life could be worse.

Troparion & Kontakion of St. Nicholas:

The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith,
a model of meekness, and a teacher of temperance.
Therefore thou hast won the heights by humility, riches by poverty.
Holy Father Nicholas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Thou wast a faithful minister of God in Myra, O Saint Nicholas.
For having fulfilled the Gospel of Christ,
thou didst die for the people and save the innocent.
Therefore thou wast sanctified as a great initiator of the grace of God.