[Nevertheless] St. Nicholas Came [Advent 7]

It's been tradition since my children were small - St. Nicholas Day is celebrated in our house. Each December 5th, the children go to bed in anticipation of their first Christmas gift.

Gifts have been left in shoes or stockings, sometimes wrapped, sometimes not. Some years they received gifts of experiences. Others, gifts of time. 

This year, there was a stack of books. 

3650 Jokes, Puns & Riddles for Coren.
Germs for Alia.
The Measure of All Things for Alex.
Worlds Elsewhere for Zephyr.
A History of Western Music for Haley.
Robert Frost for Fynn. (Who doesn't even know St. Nicholas left a gift here for him!)

The children were a tad bit confused at first.

Alex took his book off of the stack, opened it, and revealed its secret. Its secret compartment, that is. In his book, he found a Switch online membership gift card and some cash. In Zephyr and Haley's they found diffuser necklaces and gift certificates for essential oils. New cell phones were found in Coren and Alia's - sooner than the "sometime next year" they had been promised. Alia's reaction, "Now I have a book with a secret compartment!" Precious! I love that the two were pretty much equal in her mind. 

It was wonderful to begin our morning remembering the joy of giving, the gratitude in receiving, and that new discoveries and wonder aren't relegated to the very young. 

In the midst of sadness and heartbreak, it is these moments that remind us that gratitude and love and hope prevail.