December 8, 2006

• Thank you all for all your sweet comments for Maria~Angelica. Here are a few pictures of her . She was all bundled up the other day, it is FREEZING here. The kids at school, especially the girls, really enjoy Maria~Angelica. They are so polite when they ask me to hold her and then they line up to take turns. Nicholas’ name day celebration went really well. We are so grateful to have the children at a Christian school that not only respects our Christian tradition as Orthodox Christians, but is also very interested to learn more! The teachers were all very excited and the children too. They all sung, “Happy NAMEDAY to you”, to Nicholas.  I had a big basket filled with bags of chocolate gold coins, wooden St. Nicholas icons and photocopied books of the one I read to the class. The children enjoyed coloring the books.  After we left the school. Jonah, Maria~Angelica and I met up with my parents for lunch. Jonah was so cute. The minute he sat down across from my dad he said, “So Papou, are you having a good name day?”

  I prepared a note to send home to the parents and gave each child a bag of chocolate coins and an icon from Nicholas’ baptism. Nicholas was so pleased to be able to pass out the icons to all his friends. They learn about iconography in art and in the 4th grade they make icons in art class. History and art are taught in tandem.

  Here is my letter to the parents. I printed it on pretty Christmas paper. I regret not taking a picture of the basket with everything: the icons, coins, books, all lined up and ready to go.

  Today, December 6th is St. Nicholas Day and Nicholas’ name day. Nicholas wanted to celebrate is name day with a treat for all his friends. We hope you enjoy the chocolate coins representing the money that St. Nicholas would give to those in need. The wooden icon is a Byzantine icon of St. Nicholas. They are from Greece and  were the favor at Nicholas’ baptism when he was a baby. The Orthodox Christian tradition is to name your children after, the Saints,  those men and women that lived a life in Christ and died for Christ. In this way the child always has an example of what it means to be follower of Christ and his teachings. They customary greeting on someones name day is to wish them, many years! May God grant our Nicholas, MANY YEARS! Thank you for celebrating with us today. With love, Lisa

   

  Here is the book I read to them. The Life of St. Nicholas

  We copied it in black and white from the original colored so the children were able to color the pictures.

  

   the icon

  

  and the bag of gold coins

  (Thank you Mom for finding these for me and buying them too! )

   

  Nicholas’ class coloring their  books and holding up their St. Nicholas icons.

   

  At lunch time with Maria~Angelica.

   

  The “two Angelicas”,  my Goddaughter, Angelica, holding her Godsister.

   

  

  On the way home…. It’s exhausting being cute!

  

  I added more photos to the photo section of my blog. Click on “photos” in the upper left hand corner, it is a bit hard to read the word “photos”.

  • 12:32 pm
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