Festival of Trees & St. Nicholas

This year Berlin's dance class performed at the Festival of Trees. After her performance Ryan went back to work and we walked around and looked at some of the trees, wreaths, and gingerbread houses. It was a nice afternoon overall.

Our friends Katlin, Berlin, Finley, Logan

St. Nicholas Day: 

German tradition has it that if you are good then St. Nicholas fills your shoes with little treats & goodies. However, if you've been naughty, you get a visit from Knecht Ruprecht instead, and he places a switch of sticks in the shoes so the parents can give the kids a good spanking when they are bad. 

Sunday night was the eve of St. Nicholas Day so the kids put their shoes outside their bedroom door hoping that they had been good enough to get a visit from St. Nicholas. I'll be honest, I was a little worried that St. Nicholas wouldn't show due to some recent melt-downs and temper-tantrums, but the kids cheered up, helped-out, and luckily awoke Monday morning to goodies in their shoes. PHEW!

 Finley with his goodies.

Berlin with her surprises.