“Isn’t St. Nicholas Day a Catholic thing?” a friend asked me last year as I shared what our kids got in their shoes that early December morning.
“It’s OK. I AM Catholic.”
St. Nick has always been a favorite of mine – I named my son after him, even though I didn’t convert to Catholicism until my son was almost a year old. But I didn’t know about the tradition of St. Nick’s Day.
Then came the year my son was in kindergarten, and his sister was a second grader. We visited another family, who observed St. Nick’s Day. Their kids showed MY kids the presents they had gotten in their shoes that morning.
My kids cried. “Why did St. Nick skip us? Were we bad?” My son added, “And I was named after him!”
“Don’t worry kids. St. Nick got really busy last night and couldn’t get to everyone . Let’s put your shoes out tonight and see what happens.”
Thank God, that night, St. Nick made it to our house. Disaster averted.
In the Christmas rush, it took me a week to realize the kids were leaving out their shoes nightly. They had decided maybe he would stop again. So each night, they tried leaving out shoes in different rooms. They swapped from shoes to boots to see if that makes a difference.
Since then, St. Nick has made it to our home, every year, on time. He doesn’t visit twice.
During the hustle of the Advent season, if you find shoes lying on the floor for no reason, there may be one you don’t realize.
Lesson: keep your boots at the door so you’re prepared for new opportunities whenever they arrive!
Real Life in River City 