St. Nicholas Sweetness

Happy feast!  Such a blessing today to take a break from our busy week and spend a quiet day at home with some simple treats and cozy pleasures:

Gifts lined up, ready for children to wake

A morning of sunshine, fresh air, and mud!

Afternoon teatime

And a bit of crafting

I love these opportunities to celebrate with a little sweetness in the midst of this penitential season.  Certainly, these little celebrations aren't required, and some years I don't get to all I want to do--and that's just fine!  But this year I'm trying to put in a little extra effort, reminding myself that these Advent feasts can be wonderful opportunities to engage in the spirit of cheerful giving that these holy saints practiced so well.  Setting a pretty table, baking a sweet treat, wrapping up a few small gifts as an act of love and service toward my littlest ones, all in honor of the Patron of Children.  

And all with an eye toward that very special Child we'll be celebrating just a few short weeks from now!  This reflection from Don Gueranger's The Liturgical Year highlights the lovely connection between these two December feasts:

"Neither the lowliness of the flesh, which the sovereign Lord of all things assumed to Himself in the womb of the Virgin, nor the poverty of the crib, hindered him from confessing the Son of Mary to be Son of God, equal to God; and for this reason, God has glorified this His servant, and given him the power to obtain, each year, for the children of the Church, the grace of receiving this same Jesus, the Word, with simple faith and fervent love."

Isn't that beautiful?  Wishing you "the simple faith and fervent love" of this great defender of the Faith today!