St Nicholas Day and inspired lunch

Today is St Nicholas Day- it's a day that we celebrate because we are lucky enough to have an Omi (My mommy) and it's a tradition that is from her family and heritage.  The tradition of Saint Nicholas Day on Dec 6 is a festival for children in many countries in Europe related to the surviving legends of Saint Nicolas, and particularly his reputations as a bringer of gifts. The American Santa Claus and British Father Christmas also derive from these legends.

In Northern Germany Saint Nickolas is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot or shoes outside their door on the night of Dec 5th. Saint Nicholas fills the boot with gifrts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks that the children were good, polite, and helpful the last year. IF they were not, they will have a tree branch in their boots instead.

The way I remember being taught about St Nicholas involved a sliding scale... little presents like a coloring book and candy meant you were a good kid, coal meant you were bad but there was value in you because your family could heat the house with what you provided (coal to heat the house), a stick was left for the worst children so their parents could beat them for being bad. I can remember opening my bedroom door, peaking one eye at my shoes to see what was left for me.. and breathing a sigh of relief when I saw candy,


Keeping this tradition alive on the night of Dec 5th we made a big production of placing a pair of shoes for each of us in the living room and explained about St Nicholas coming. Little S thought it was pretty strange that the shoes were put where they normally do not go and that mommy put out his snow boots.

When he came down stairs the next morning he found all our shoes had been filled with candy and there were books for him.

Being the smart kid that he is at 19 months.. he looked over the scene decided that he wanted more candy and took the candy from mommy's shoes and put it on top of his shoes. It amazes me what connections he puts together on his own. Last year at this time he didn't have any shoes - I saw no point in buying shoes that would never touch the ground so we put his gifts on his walker toy so this is the first year with shoes. It took him less than 2 minutes to look things over and decide that the candy on your shoes meant it was for you and that mommy's candy should be his also. Don't think that's what happened? the kid took my marzipan (favorite cho

colate) and ran off with it trying to open it. I was robbed by the little squirt.

Keeping this tradition alive meant I also used it to inspire the lunch for the day.

Main Compartment:

Quesadilla Cowboy boots (put your boots out or at least your largest pair of shoes it means more room for candy) - i filled his cowboy boots with minced fruit chews to simulate candy, and added a few snowflake sprinkles for holiday cheer.


Top Left Compartment:

Dried Cranberries and unsweetened coconut to continue the red/white theme


Bottom Left Compartment:

Pretzels

mini silicone cup of unsalted roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds.