I hope you all had a wonderful St. Nicholas Day! Here are a few pictures from our celebration this year:
.: Gifts from St. Nicholas :.
This year St. Nicholas was extra generous, leaving each of the children a new pair of (much needed) boots in addition to a few little treats treats in each of the children’s slippers (A Holy Card from St. Nicholas with a note on the back, an orange, and a bag of treats including a
St. Nicholas Cookie, a
small candy cane Bishop’s Staff, and some
St. Nicholas Chocolate Coins) and a
new Christmas Picture Book!
*Our candles really are purple and pink, even though they all look pink most of the time!
I sure wasn’t thinking when I scheduled orthodontist appointments for 8am on the feast of St. Nicholas, especially with how late I usually end up staying up on the 5th! Thankfully the alarm was set, and I was the first out of bed… By the time I was done showering, Snuggles had made his way out to the living room to discover the treats!
Captain and Twinkle Toes got dressed quickly and I snapped a picture of all the kids, before we dashed out the door. Poor Twinkle Toes now has (in addition to red and green rubber bands for Christmas, matching her older brother) a double wire on top, elastic rubber bands from the top front to bottom back, chains on the bottom, and has been pretty much miserable ever since… Although I was able to get a smile out of her when I took a picture of her with her cookie! 🙂
By the end of the day everyone had read (or listened to) their new books, at least once!
.: Saint Nicholas Cookies :.
I’ve mentioned before that last year we enrolled our children in a local homeschool charter school, and that we have an ES/Tutor that comes about 3 times a month to spend an hour with each child enrolled (3 weeks on, 1 week off plus holidays/vacations). We have been very blessed to have one of my friends, and mother of one of my Little Flowers, as our ES this year! She comes on Thursdays for 5 hours… I LOVE it! It is such a blessing to have even the little bit of help, plus the fact that my older children have to be accountable to someone other than myself! Anyhow, Thursday is the day that she comes, so while she was working with each of the children, I was able to spend some time with the rest of the kids decorating cookies and preparing some treats for our St. Nicholas Day Brunch (which ended up being breakfast for dinner this year!
The other fun cookies that I made this year for the children (or rather from St. Nicholas) were these Saint Nicholas Cookies made with Nutter Butters! You can find the recipe over at Catholic Cuisine.
.: St. Nicholas Day Brunch :.
Did you see
Charlotte’s adaptation of our
Candy Cane Coffee Cake and
Cherry Cheese Coffee Cakes, combining the shape of one, with the recipe from the other?! Her and I were thinking along the same lines this year, and I ended up doing the same thing for my family. It’s just so much easier to pop open a few cans of crescent rolls after a long and busy day, than it is to make a braided bread. Plus, I can never go wrong with the Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake, it is hands down the favorite in our home.
I ended up using the exact recipe for the Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake, only I used three cans of crescent rolls instead of two.
I made the bottom of each candy cane with 1 1/4 pkgs. of crescent rolls, using the remaining 1/4 package to cut strips to lay over the top. I topped each candy cane with half of the cream cheese mixture and half of the pie filling.
I also served Scrambled Eggs, Oranges, Orange Juice, and
St. Nicholas Hot Cocoa (actually just pre-made peppermint cocoa this year, but the same idea).
God, we pray that through the intercessions of St. Nicholas
you will guide and protect our children.
Keep them safe from all harm and help them grow
to become loving disciples of Jesus in your sight.
Give them strength to always mature into deeper faith
in you, and to keep alive joy in your creation.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Prayer of Mothers
Father in heaven, grant me the grace to appreciate the dignity which you have conferred on me. Let me realize that not even the Angels have been blessed with such a privilege—to share in your creative miracle and bring new Saints to heaven. Make me a good mother to all my children after the example of Mary, the Mother of your Son. Through the intercession of Jesus and Mary I ask your continued blessings on my family. Let us all be dedicated to your service on earth and attain the eternal happiness of your kingdom in heaven. Amen.
Honest to goodness, I don't know how you do it! You are a true Blessing to your family and to all the rest of us out here in cyber-land. So inspirational! May God continue to Bless you and your family!
Just noticing how big your big kids are looking all of a sudden! Chiquita, especially, seems to look older lately. You will have a nice looking group of teens someday! (start saving for the groceries, now, 😉 )
I know!!! This is going to be our last Advent/Christmas/Year without a teenager in our home for quite sometime! And just recently I have noticed a huge jump in the amount of groceries I need to buy…
Oh mon Dieu quelle est belle votre vie, quelle chance d'être tous réunis, votre bonheur rempli ma vie de joie à chacun de vos articles ! venir ici me ressource merci merci pour tout ce bonheur partagé ! amitiés de FRANCE? marylin
Ha! I did the same thing with the candy cane coffee cake!
Meagan
I love the candy cane idea. But I was wondering g if you could give me another idea. My son and husband will not eat cherries no matter how I do it. Thank you. I really would love to try this
Just use whatever kind of pie filling you do like, preferably red if you want to make it look like a Candy Cane. Perhaps Strawberry, like Charlotte made hers?
What is the cream cheese mix?
What is the cream cheese mix?
You can find the recipe at Catholic Cuisine.
It is made with the following: 8 oz. cream cheese; 1/4 cup powdered sugar; 1 egg; 1/2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
Please tell me how to line up the crescent rolls for the candy cane version
I just made them the Cherry Cheese Candy Cane Coffee Cake again… This year I used one can for the bottom of each – shaping the dough into the shape of a candy cane. (I unrolled the dough and used 3 of the rectangle sections as the base and then the last 1/4 of the dough to fill in any gaps and added a bit to the edges to hold in the filling.) Then I used 1/2 a can for the stripes, dividing it into 8 strips before placing them on top.
I made this today and it didn't cook at all on the bottom. I even cooked it double the time of the recipe. I thought I had finally got it browned and put the glaze on. It looked pretty, but was raw when we went to eat it. I had to throw most of it out. Any suggestions?
That's too bad! I'm not sure what happened… I've been making the Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake for years (and the candy cane version this year and last) and have never had any trouble with it baking. I do bake mine on stoneware which does help everything bake more evenly. My crust is also pretty thin, with just one layer of the crescent rolls rolled out. I'll be making another one tomorrow morning for our Christmas Day brunch. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!
Thought you may be interested in a DVD for St. Nicholas Day, 2015, which was released this past December. The name is: "Saint to Santa: How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus." It is co-produced by Catholic Television Network, (Archdiocese of Boston) and Pauline Media (Daughters of St. Paul, Boston). You may view the children's DVD trailer at the following Home page: http://www.stnicholasinstitute.org . God Bless Y 🙂 U! Fr. Joseph Marquis