Nikolaus

So it's Nikolaus today. We almost, just almost did a BIG mistake and forgot to put out the boots. At 11pm I remembered, woke 4 year old up and got her to put out her boot (letting her off the cleaning bit which is part of the tradition, but I thought it would be a bit cruel to make her clean the boot when I had forgotten to remind her to put it outside the front door).

Tonight, incidentally, she couldn't remember having put out her boot. 

Nevermind, the big eyes when she saw it filled with chocolate were priceless. Because, you know, she'd been doubtful. What with the Nikolaus being German and not quite knowing his way around Scotland/Glasgow. Would he find her? Well, she wasn't all that sure he would. And how would he travel? Isn't it Santa who's got the sledge and rendeer, so surely Nikolaus has to travel some other way? The only thing she didn't question was the fact that the storm door had been locked all night...

Thanks to the Kinderclub (German playgroup in Glasgow), there was even some Nikolaus crafting on the 5th, Nikolaus eve, and we ended the day by watching Mausspuren im Schnee, which is all winter themed and features the Nikolaus heavily. Considering none of this was particularly planned, I'm totally stressed workwise, it was pretty magic and couldn't have been any better. To round it all off, the Nikolaus is coming to the Kinderclub on Saturday. 

And if ever there was a doubt if it was all worth it, this upholding of German tradition and the effort it takes, the doubt was crushed by the proud announcement of 4 year old: "I'm German". This is the first time ever she's said that. And it came without prompting, was said with conviction, and instantly followed by "and English too" (we're still working on the "Scottish" bit, because as far as we can trace our family tree, she's definitely not English).

Thank you Nikolaus, you rock.

The day I almost forgot about Nikolaus

Tonight is the eve of Nikolaus. That's Santa Claus, German version (or maybe even European version, methinks Nikolaus is celebrated in quite a few countries in Europe on the 6th December). I think I mentioned before that November/December is a rather busy time for our two cultured home - still, there's no excuse to forget about this rather important fella.

In Germany, children clean their boot and put it out on their doorsteps on the even of 6th December, so that Nikolaus will fill it with goodies. The goodies are nuts and potentially small presents, and yes, there is a definite parallel to the Christmas stocking. The boot in my days was a red plastic one which was only ever used for this purpose, but for want of the Nikolaus boot, we resorted to a pink
wellie, which is considerably smaller. The children have to clean their boot because otherwise Nikolaus won't leave anything in it. Oh, and only good children will get their boot filled, naughty one's get the stick from Knecht Ruprecht, the nemesis of Santa.

So I remembered just in time to tell Cubling that she needed to clean her boot. She was a bit concerned that Nikolaus would come to see her but once assured that he's too busy to actually come into the house, she rushed off to enthusiastically clean her boot. Must remember that trick to get her to clean various other things in the house. Then there's the question if you can trust the neighbours not to steal the filled boot. Then I rushed off to our not so local supermarket to get boot fillers, which was quite an undertaking (feed Snowflake, scrape car, fling Snowflake in snowsuit and car seat, drive, shop, return, just in time for the next feed and bedtime stories, read stories while feeding, reassure there are no monsters or dinosaurs in the house, thank husband for having managed to get Cubling bed ready without tears, get stuff from car, fill boot, put boot back outside, thank heavens Cubling didn't wake during this time, collapse on sofa and be thankful for lucky escape from yet another mummy fail).

All sorted. And on Saturday, she'll meet Nikolaus in person at the Kinderclub; the German playgroup.
It never ceases to amaze me how busy we are these weeks of the year. There really wasn't time for 2 weeks in hospital. Just as well Cubling is too young to notice how improvised things are.
Can't wait to see her face in the morning though!