One month and its Christmas.  That's  hard to believe with the way the weather's been these past few weeks. Not that I've heard any complaints except for a snowboarder I know.  Thinking about the Christmas season makes me remember childhood days.  My parents immigrated to Canada from Holland.  With lots of kids ( there are eight of us) and only little money, they still managed to make Christmas-time special and to keep some of the old ways.

In the Dutch tradition, a bishop named Nicholas (who became the patron saint of children) is honored on the date of his death (Dec. 6). As children we would put out our shoes on the evening of December 5 and wait for Saint Nicholas to fill them with goodies.  My Mom would make a big show of it...and we could almost see 'SinterKlaas"outside the window where she had gathered us all in great excitement.  Meanwhile, our Dad was filling our shoes right behind us.  In younger years, I was completely mystified by how the treats miraculously appeared in our shoes.

Although we loved Saint Nicholas, he had a helper called Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) of whom we were afraid, for Zwarte Piet kept track of naughty kids and saw to it that these children received only sticks in their shoes and sometimes had to carry them off in his sack until they learned to be good!

Christmas day itself was dedicated to remembering and celebrating the birth of Christ, with church services and dinner with my Uncle and Aunt and cousins, as well as anyone my parents knew that had no relatives with whom to gather.  It was not unusual to have our little house filled to capacity since many of our family friends were also immigrants.

To me, Christmas has always been a special time of year and I'd like to close off with the words to a song written by Jim Murray...  'As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord, let us always remember why He came.  And as we present our gifts to our friends and all of our loved ones, Let us offer Him the holy gift of praise"

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Klaas & Bernadine Gerrits