Thursday, December 06, 2018

St Nicholas Day (Part 1)
































Happy St Nicholas day to all who celebrate today!
I was up early, a bit before 7 AM and had the Fia Sauce
cooking in the slow cooker by 7:30 AM!
Liturgy at 9:30, I was there, miraculously, before then! :) 
The St Nicholas day lunch at my place went very well,
I was very pleased with it.
Lovely people, the meal went as planned,
pasta first,
then baked (breaded from box!) fish and salad
then cake with tea and coffee.
The baked fish was really good...
one of my friends helped me plate everyone's meal, which
was nice...
It was enjoyed by all...
We had white wine with meal and red with the 
chocolate cake ;) :) 
...the words as follows:

Oh who loves Nicholas the saintly

O who loves Nicholas the saintly,
O who serves Nicholas the saintly,

Him will Nicholas receive,
And give help in time of need:
Holy Father Nicholas!*
He who dwells in God's holy mansions,
Is our help on the land and oceans,

He will guard us from all ills,
Keep us pure and free from sins
Holy Father Nicholas!*
Holy Saint, hearken to our prayer,
Let not life drive us to despair,

All our efforts shall not wane,
Singing praises to your name:
Holy Father Nicholas!

***
Here is our local priest singing this song... 


 (Another version of the song is here)
***
The little girl was so wonderful and her Mother
told me how she hugged each of the stuffed animals goodbye 
before she left! :) 
***
It was a very peaceful joyful and festive meal!
I was so pleased and it was such a blessing!
And clean up was great, two friends helped put away the food
and load the dishwasher... I love that I have some 
pretty dishes that I can put in the dishwasher,
as my Grandma always did through the years.... :) 
***
I had a nice talk with my Mom this afternoon, 
after everyone had left and I was washing up some more dishes...
And it was so nice to have leftovers to eat for dinner
with Mr Husband! 
We had the pasta sauce with added canned (drained) clams
and a spinach salad for dinner... we were both hungry and had seconds of the Pasta! 
***
Various guests brought treats...
radishes for the salad (really good ones!),
a bottle of red wine, two bottles of white (one is unopened and will be
kept for later!) and I was given this tower of goodness, which will wait
until Christmas is here as these goodies are full of yummy caramel filled milk chocolate!!...


Fun! :) I have it under the Christmas tree for now,
all pretty and green! 
Well, it was a blessing of a day for me, I am so grateful....
***
I just commented on my last blog post to Lisa and thought I would repost it here
so that you know why I will be celebrating St Nicholas day again 
(why I have 'part 1' in my title of this post):

it's PART 1 because we will have St Nicholas day again on the Julian calendar... some of the Orthodox churches went to a revised Julian calendar, meaning that many dates are with the Western Christian calendar, including this one, Christmas, Annunciation and others. 
***
So that means I have more cookies to bake! :) 
***
Things are still difficult in our unbloggable but this day really lifted up my spirits
and was a day of joy, a real gift, 
typical of St Nicholas to be so generous with. 

4 comments:

Granny Marigold said...

I enjoyed seeing your table all set beautifully with your pretty dishes, ( with your cat proudly sitting on a chair), The lovely gifts your friends brought. Now you get to celebrate St. Nicholas a second time.

karen said...

you set such a fabulous table and have a welcoming spirit in your life. May God bless you!!

Becki said...

Glad you had a good time with your guests. Everything looks beautiful. And that crockpot takes me back! My husband brought one identical to that it into our marriage in 1980. It lasted us for many years, and we have since had two (probably much lesser quality ones) since. What a flashback.

GretchenJoanna said...

Oh my goodness!! What a party that was. Just getting your house and tables ready would take a long time and much concentration, I know, and then there was the important cooking! And the hospitable spirit that makes your guests happy to be there... It would not be any wonder if your nerves were a bit whacked out and tired, leading to the trouble sleeping you mentioned in the following post.

Everything looks perfectly lovely!!