Almost the Feast of St. Nicholas!

I cleaned our kitchen today in preparation for all the cooking that I'll be doing in the next couple of days. I already bought everything for the Speculaas cookies, so that'll be our dessert, and we'll also be having Apple Stuffed Chicken, homemade French Bread, Potato Soup, and Maple Glazed Carrots. I'm totally going to be roasting chestnuts too. I found out how from online:

You can roast chestnuts in the oven: Preheat your oven to 425 F (210 C), and make cuts in the round sides of the nuts. Sprinkle with salt and/or red wine if you want. Arrange the chestnuts either on an oven rack or on a cookie sheet and roast them until the skins have pulled back from the cuts and the nutmeats have softened (exactly how long will depend upon the chestnuts, but at least 15-20 minutes. wrap them in an old cloth, squeeze them until they crackle, and let them sit in a warm place for five minutes.

The cuts in the side is important, because it keeps them from exploding. CUT THE SIDES!

We'll be putting up the Christmas Decorations tomorrow as well so the house will be fully decked out for The Feast. Anyone else have a St. Nicholas Tradition?

I'll post pictures too of the shoes all done up in each family's house. It's still all a secret. Shhh...

Advent Wreath Prayers

Ok, so not exactly "later that day" but still, I got them up before Advent officially starts. I have been quite busy too, with a lot of family get togethers (Thanksgiving for example), work, shopping (all of my Christmas Shopping is done and wrapped) and I got my bedroom decorated for Christmas because my Mother is a grinch and won't let me decorate the rest of the house.

Anyway, I'm going to be using the prayers found at Fisheaters.com :

http://fisheaters.com/customsadvent2.html

There's also a great history about the wreath there too.

I've got to get some stuff on here about my Advent Calendar, and about St. Nicholas Day (yes there's more) and possibly the celebration of St. Barbara's Day. I think I'll do something for St. Lucy's Day, but maybe not. I don't know. I really aught to be getting to bed, because I have to teach CCD tomorrow morning, but blogging is so much more fun then sleeping....