St. Nicholas Feast Day Hymn

Gifts From St. Nicholas

Hanging up our stockings is still an annual tradition in our family, even for the adults.

What makes ours a little different is that we moved that tradition from Christmas Eve. to St. Nicholas Eve back in 1983.

As my oldest children grew older, they became part of creating the magic for the younger children.

Once all the children were adults, we kept the magic intact by drawing names. Everyone contributes to to the stockings for the grandchildren and the nieces and nephews who are still young.

We used to keep the stocking gifts to twenty dollars, then twenty-dollars and so forth. But with inflation, that is hard to do. So we just keep the cost reasonable.

Abd everyone receives gold foil chocolate coins and candy canes, for which we pray this St. Nicholas blessing prayer before we enjoy them.

This year, with this past week being so busy for everyone (extra work duties, finals for Timothy and Daniel, WriteOn Joliet anthology release party for us all), we moved the actual celebration to Sunday when everyone had a few hours to gather.

Jasmine drew my name. Here is what "St. Nicholas" brought me this year.

A cat-shaped tote bag.

Cat socks

Three at pawprint keepsakes for Midnight, Faith and Senna 

And new incense in scents that smell amazing

Although it's wonderful to set asides days for gift giving and celebration, we can give to others with joy in our hearts any day of the week.

As we begin this new week, may we all look for those opportunities.

Happy Monday!

Sues Diner: Easy Santa Cookies

This week's recipe is perfect for St. Nicholas Day (today) and simple enough to prepare that even the youngest child can help.

This recipe isn't featured any BryonySeries cookbook. But we have made this recipe almost every year since my own children were young. In fact. my young grandchildren made the cookies in this photo

Just so you know, the cookbook Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony," is a permanent fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties and features all the recipes referenced in the novel Bryony. 

The cookbook makes a great gift for people of all ages who like to cook, love history, or are simply curious as to the foods people once liked to eat.

Two other fun cookbooks with recipes easy enough for children to make (with the help of an adult), have mouse and cheese-themed recipes and werewolf-themed recipes. 

You can try the recipe Easy Santa Cookies on the Sue's Diner page on the BryonySeries website. 

But try the recipe this week. It will be gone some time next week. A new recipe will take it's place.

If you have any troubleshooting questions or comments, email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com. 

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

Here is the full diner page: bryonyseries.com/sue-s-diner. You can't really order, of course (wouldn't it be great if you could?).

For more BryonySeries recipes, check out our three cookbooks at our BryonySeries bryonyseries.com/general-store.

Hymn to Saint Nicholas

A BryonySeries Gift For You

Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of giving gifts, especially giving gifts to children.

We at the BryonySeries wish to continue that tradition.

Although Christmas happens in many of the BryonySeries books, we currently have two books completely devoted to Christmas.

Email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com and tell us which book you'd like to receive. Include your address, and we will send it to you. This offer is good through Dec. 31, 2021.

You might also enjoy reading these Christmas excerpts from some of the other BryonySeries novels.

Here are the books:

Bertrand and the Christmas Surprise

It's Bertrand's first Christmas, and he can't wait to meet Santa. But instead of the man in the red suit, Bertrand comes face to face with a bit of Christmas magic.

Cornell Dyer and the Flu

It’s Christmas Eve and a very sick Cornell Dyer is stuck in the hospital, frustrated because he can’t find the vending machine and because he’s too sick to solve his latest supernatural mystery. Another patient tries to help Cornell, not with food and medicine, but with a journey into realms Cornell doesn’t want to go.

Enjoy the day! 

Christmas Joy, Cats, and St. Nicholas

Celebration is important and unique to the individual, even when collectively celebrating.

This is why I'm all-encompassing at our home when it comes to celebration.

As a child when I had goldfish, I colored, cut, and taped paper decorations near the fish tank and added a pinch more food on Christmas.

When I had my first dog at age forty-ish, he always received a package of Buddig lunch meat for Christmas and Easter and inside his St. Nicholas stocking.

Scooter loved Buddig lunch meat and only received it these three times a year. No one could miss the rapture in his eyes.

Of course, he didn't have the same soul-depth appreciation for, say, the birth of a Savior. But we did, which allowed us to invite him to share the joy.

So obviously when cats became part of our lives and home, they also each received a St. Nicholas stocking (complete with their names in glitter, which is wearing off) empty on the Eve and filled with a tiny tin of cat food in gravy.

The same was repeated for Christmas, Easter etc.

Now after each holiday, all stockings were packed away to await the next feast day. But, somehow, Faith would find them, and randomly leave them all over the house. Coincidence? A hint?

But it happened. We'd walk in the door at six o'clock in the morning in early July after a night of delivering newspapers, and a tiny plush stocking would be laying in the middle of the mudroom floor.

Faith is no longer a kitten. I would call her geriatric exactly, but kittenhood is definitely in her paat.

So imagine my surprise when, on the morning of St. Nicholas Day, I awakened to this on my bedroom floor.

This meant Faith had to drag this stocking, with its weighted tin of food, away from the Christmas tree, across the living room floor to the staircase, trudge up the steep stairs to the landing, turn, climb another flight of stairs, turn again, and then drag this into the middle of my bedroom floor.

Amazing!

But, apparently, totally worth it to her.

The cats are, from left, Frances, Faith, and Midnight.

I'm Not Much for Candy Canes, Except...

...when the candy canes show up in my St.Nicholas stocking or when Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, distributes them.

Yes.

At 57, I still hang up a stocking on St. Nicholas Eve, which is tonight in our world because of everyone's crazy work schedules. We draw names and leave gifts as surprises, which we open together.

Years ago, I found a St. Nicholas blessing prayer for candy canes, so candy canes and gold-foil chocolate coins are traditional candy pieces for our stockings.

The "traditional: candy cane flavor and size, if you please.

During those last few years of our newspaper delivery days, we worked with Ed. He always kept a container of miniature candy canes (see below), with him in the distribution center, which he passed out to people with their bundles.

It sounds strange, but those candy canes tasted frosty good in the December middle of the night air with the windows rolled down.

Every now and again in December, I find myself wishing for an Ed Calkins candy cane.

Ed must have read my mind, because at last year's Calkins Day event, he had a couple leftover ones in his pocket, which he offered to me.

Um, no.

And I said so, too.

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: Two Links and a Prayer for the Feast of St. Nicholas

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Two Links and a Prayer for the Feast of St. Nicholas

To help you celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas, I've included two links.

One is a story I wrote about St. Nicholas for last Thursday's Herald-News. This has been on my story wish list for a long time. Since our photo editor couldn't find appropriate at for the story, I asked Daniel to don our costume and pose for a photo.

http://www.theherald-news.com/2016/11/28/a-look-at-the-saint-who-inspired-santa-claus/aeqnmx5/


This second link is the prayer our family has used for the blessings of candy canes, modified to include all the contents of our St.Nicholas stockings before we partook of them. My copy of Prayers for the Domestic Church, over thirty years old, is now in tatters, but it's heartening to know I can purchase a fresh copy on Amazon.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/blessing-candy-canes/

Hymn to St. Nicholas

The Male Rite of Passage at our Church

One of my sons, dressed as St.Nicholas at our parish's 60th anniversary celebration and St. Nicholas banquet.

 

Now here's a game for loyal followers.

 

Message me at bryonyseries@gmail.com with the name of the correct son.If you guess correctly, we will send you a Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony" cookbook.

 

You already have one? Cookbooks make terrific Christmas gifts. ;)