6: St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas has his feast today, December 6th. Children put out their shoes and he leaves candy or a small toy.

 Every year I plan to put together some cute little thing to put in their shoes for St. Nicholas day. I can never find the right shoes or the right trinket. Then we can never find the pair we need or we discover someone just outgrew a very expensive pair.  Shoes are not a laughing matter.

My girlfriend Kara has it together:

Three beautiful little girls, three adorable pairs of shoes, look at the ribbons on the cookie bags!  I LOVE this! Next year...I swear...I will do it.

This year was not without happy shoe moments at our house.....

In October, I took Frances to the Soundrunner to buy her first pair of real running shoes on her birthday. We ran around the green with some friends.  As we were laying out her clothes for PE day one night, she said, "PE shoes are great, but I think I need a pair of art shoes, and music day shoes, and I really need a completely different pair for library day too mom."  The diva in her is too much for me to take.

I asked the kids what we should do special this holiday season for anyone in need, and Kenneth immediately said, "SHOES!  Could you imagine having nothing on your feet?"  We collected every pair of shoes we had outgrown and the amount was enormous. 

What shocked me was how many pairs of running shoes I went through training for a marathon:

Our shoes are headed  to Soles4Souls.  They prefer new and slightly used donations. Here is another list of places you can send your old shoes.   You should check them out-especially if you are one of my running buddies!

I think St. Nicholas would be very proud of us- and next year I'll make sure they get a treat!