St. Nicholas Day 2021

Well Krampus didn't come last night, and that's good news.  Even better, both Mom's boot and Maddie's boot were filled with goodies, including candy, a Hallmark movie, and new Christmas socks as well as a Crunchie bar for Mom.  Jingle Bell is looking on like always on St. Nicholas Day.  We like celebrating these little traditions along with the more mainstream ones here in America.  The chocolate is a great incentive, at least!

Maddie was off to school, and then off to taekwondo after that.  She's running through practice for her black belt ceremony already, which of course is in just a few weeks.  She earned her black belt back in March, but this ceremony is for all the students who earned a black belt over the past year.  So it's been a bit of a wait, but it'll be great.  We've seen a few of these ceremonies before for the other students, and this will be nice to see for Maddie.  Meanwhile, she's still advancing of course, still training, still learning, and still keeping focused.  And she's still having a great time too, obviously.  Watching her do her form tonight was very impressive.  She was talking about it afterwards, recalling how it seemed to go quicker for her this time as she was ahead of the others.  It's a lot of moves and positions, and she knows them all very well - "muscle memory," as they all like to say.  I wish my muscles would remember something!

There was a rehearsal tonight for the upcoming Christmas production, but it didn't involve us.  I think tomorrow night things will start in earnest, as things lead up to the big day on Sunday.  It's a lot of weight on our shoulders, and it will feel great not having that weight on our shoulders anymore on Monday.  Today we were doing some work around the house - Mom was still working on costuming, and we were just generally cleaning up.  We kept the Christmas music and movie marathon going, and we kept the fire going today all day too.  It was a cold and wet December day, I got to say once more.  Thanks, Bono, for that line that sticks with me thirty-three years later.  Anyway, the fire burned brightly, thanks to Mom and I coming over, adding fuel to the fire and using our fireplace implements.  Every single time you get the poker out, there's Patrick Stewart's voice from "A Christmas Carol," yelling out, "Poke it!  Poke it, sir!"

I was having a conversation online with Mary Shannon, one of our neighbors, who was asking about a Christmas movie to borrow.  We didn't actually own a copy of the 1968 "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and the conversation was about how many other Christmas specials and movies we own, and yet not that one.  So when Mom went to the mailbox, guess what she found inside, other than the mail?  Yes, they gave us a copy of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  This led to us watching it tonight, along with an entire study of the career of Thurl Ravenscroft afterwards, the guy who sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."  We were marveling at how low his voice could go!  In that conversation with Mary Shannon above, I was joking with her that I didn't have the Grinch special, but I did have two copies of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" if she wants.  Now that she got that Grinch movie for us, I'll probably leave a copy of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" in her mailbox!

The other special we watched tonight was "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas."  We have a tiny jug band kit, and I'm hoping we can use it this year!  Nana liked this special a lot.  Maddie was working on her homework while we were singing along in the living room.  The whole reason we chose this one to watch was based on dinner tonight:  we had barbecue.  And because that's one of the songs in the special, we just went with it, singing along with "Barbecue" as well.  

Anyway, it was a quiet day today.  I did my walking again, listening to podcasts about the history of poinsettias, and why we have them at Christmastime.  And a few other topics too.  We read tonight again, and Maddie is concerned about the one plot line within the Kingdom Keepers book:  who is the enemy within?  There are other issues left to resolve too, of course, and we're getting there.  It's a long book, and we'll be racing towards the end this month.

We're heading to bed now, although Mom is working late again (it's the only time she can do that without Nana interfering).  It's been a good day, although things will pick up speed as the week goes on with practices.  Time to get some rest now, because we may all start having a few late nights.