St. Nicholas Came!

St. Nicholas comes on December 5th in Croatia (and many other parts of the world)...it wasn't a tradition I was completely familiar with.  But Ava came home from school overjoyed with the prospect of another occasion to receive a few gifts.  St. Nicholas even made an appearance in her classroom yesterday!  She also got to hear the story of Kraumpus, who is St. Nick's "evil" counterpart.  Either Ava and Reese will get some goodies for being "nice", or a stick/coal for being "naughty". 

So, I was out of the house at my wine drinking/painting class from about 7-10 pm and didn't get the complete scoop about what was supposed to happen overnight. So when I got home I asked Scot, "Now what are we supposed to do?"  Put the toys in their boots.  "Are they supposed to be by the chimney?  Somewhere else?"  Not sure.  We didn't know.  I suppose I could have spent more time being a good mom and less time drinking wine last night...but eh, it was more fun the way I did it.  We improvised. We put their boots by the front door and they each got an orange and a fairy doll.  Luckily, I had a few on hand that I was planning on using as stocking stuffers.

When I came downstairs this morning, I was expecting to be met with squeals of delight.  Instead, I got glum looks.  Ava pronounced, "St. Nicholas didn't come."  Huh?  I looked at the boots neatly aligned near the front door with the presents still in them.  Ava said, "The boots aren't on the windowsill, that's where they are supposed to be."   Again, information I would have had if I hadn't been out drinking wine and painting.  Scot jumped in with, "Well, did you put your boots on the windowsill?"  Ava: "No."  Me:  "Well, maybe you should look around the house and see if St. Nicholas found your boots." 

They found the boots and the oranges and the fairies and were bright-eyed with excitement at the magic of St. Nicholas.  Oh, how I will miss this innocence and faith some day.  Sretan Bozic!