St. Nicholas Day 2023

It's St. Nicholas Day, and sure enough, Maddie's boots were filled with candy canes and other Christmas treasures, and yes, there was Jingle Bell inside a boot for fun.  Maddie did her advent calendars upstairs, and she says she's liking these Star Wars characters more than the Pop figures from last year.  The LEGO Star Wars characters are great too!  We've had some good ones so far. 

Before getting on with the crazy busyness of the day, Mom and I have our little morning routines as well.  First, we started out with some Bones Egg Nog Coffee, which was actually pretty good when you pour actual egg nog into it, rather than regular creamer.

Of course, I'm walking on the treadmill, in the midst of a Holly Jolly Fitness Challenge that's been fun.  I'm starting out with the walking first, but will advance on to the running in a bit, even doing a 5K with a bunch of others dressed as Santa.  Will I dress as Santa while I do that?  Maybe?

One thing that we continued today we enjoyed a good bit, our next lecture in the Hillsdale Christmas Carol online course.  We spent roughly an hour with it (including supplementary material and a quiz afterwards).  Today we were diving deeper into the passages that introduced the story, including a visit from Jacob Marley.  It was actually quite enjoyable, and we look forward to the third class tomorrow.

Of course, we listened to our radio theater for the next day too.  Jacob Marley seems to be the timing of the day, as his eerie chains were heard this morning, dragging upwards from somewhere deep within the house.  

It was a busy day, as noted, and much of this was done early - along with the other routines.  The back bird feeders are packed with visitors now that the cold has set in.  And we're in the thirties now, which is that miserable temperature that suggests hope of snow and wintery fun, but usually lets us down and instead just makes us cold and miserable.  Still, we enjoy the season here with activities like what's described above, and of course going through our immense category of Christmas music - we were listening to the Monkees Christmas Party today, as well as VeggieTales and some of the more traditional classics from Perry Como and Nat King Cole.  I have nearly two hundred jewel case CDs of Christmas music, and we start listening on November 1st!

We were at a Christmas meeting today, one for the upcoming Spectacular, and before continuing, the accolades for this past production were still pouring in.  So nice to hear.  But we're still really behind on this latest production, and to illustrate that fact, Mom and I were putting rhinestones on dancer's outfits tonight, one at a time, 144 of them per outfit.  It's a painstaking process, glue dot and then little sparkling stone.  And then again.  And again.  Times 144.  Per outfit.  Nearly twenty outfits.  It will take us some time.  We might be doing all of the above tomorrow while continuing this lengthy process.

Tonight, Maddie had her first of two Team Edge performances in front of parents and students testing at Edge Martial Arts.  Mom and I got great seats, and we were in such a rush driving about that I forgot my camera, but that's okay - the above picture is a screen capture from a video of another parent.  Mom and I just got to sit back with our front row seats at the window and watch Maddie and the rest of the team thrill the crowd with some fantastic moves.  They did really well!

Afterwards, Maddie was over at FCY, and she had a great time there (all this while Mom and I were putting rhinestones in place!).  On the way home, she was telling us all about it and we were glad she was able to have some fun mid-week. 

We all got home after that, quite tired, but still there was that last episode of "The Santa Clauses" to watch.  We spent about a half-hour on the couch, and then went upstairs to start a new book, "I Shall Wear Midnight."  Maddie and I read for a bit, and then we all said our prayers... and it was off to sleep.  Except for Mom, who is still busy with these costumes.  It's a very busy season for Mom right now, and she's doing her best.