A venit Mos Nicolae

Christmas IS beginning already. Here in Romania we celebrate the first stage of gifts on the morning of December 6th. Well, the kids do at least! The kids leave their choice of shoes out at night and Mos Nicolae comes and fills them with small toys and candies. If the child has been bad then he just leaves a stick. Caleb, now at 4 1/2, is definitely understanding these traditions now. Still though, the thought of some man coming into our home while we are asleep is a little freaky (it was last year as well.) This year I told him that Mos Nicolae had 2 rules. The first being that he can only come once Caleb is asleep. The second being that he can only come when Mommy is awake so that Mommy can let him in and out, as well as lock the door after him. : ) Caleb chose his boots - the biggest shoes he has - to wait for Mos Nicolae. I stuffed them with a couple of books that my parents sent awhile back, candy (including a kinder egg - actually officially "Kinder Joy" - his absolute favorite) and some small cars. He was so overjoyed and told me that the things he got were exactly what he has always wanted and he is "just so pleased and thankful!" (I loved it!)

I had to buy a new, fake tree this year. Mine burned in a house fire last year (my tree ended up not at my apartment for about a month last year and during it's time away got caught in a fire at that home) but I was able to get a real one for free! This year I don't think I'll be able to get that real and free one again, so I purchased the cheapest, fake one in the city last week after church. Once we got home from church Mihai, Caleb and Dani helped me set it up and decorate it. Mihai didn't know what to do with himself he was so excited...seriously. I bought an ornament for him and put his name and the year on it. Caleb and I both have ornaments with our names and Mihai will be spending Christmas with us so I thought he deserved one as well! He couldn't believe that he actually got his "own" ornament. So sweet...

And, in the pictures below, you'll see Caleb's favorite use of our kid friendly manger scene. What to do...my kid is obsessed with cars- everything becomes a garage!

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