Bonne Fête de Saint Nicolas!

 Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags, wishing all of you a bonne fête de Saint Nicolas! -- or happy Saint Nicolas Day! As long time readers of the Ao4 Digest may remember, our parents lived in Belgium for three years; that's where our first great-sisters adopted them! I've been filling Ragnar in on all the traditions we continue from their time there!

Anyway, in parts of Europe (to include Belgium), children put their shoes (wooden sabots) or small baskets at the hearth with treats for Saint Nicolas' horse and maybe even leave out a glass of wine for the saint. Mom bought the sabots we are posing by in this next shot ... when she, Dad, and our great sisters lived in Belgium. On St. Nicolas' Eve, St. Nicolas rides on horseback over the rooftops, dropping gifts down the chimneys. In the morning, shoes have been filled treats!

Here we are, yesterday afternoon:

"Hey!  Bonne fête de Saint Nicolas!"
"We haven't put treats out for Saint Nicolas' horse yet ... Mom thought we might eat them."

Yeah, so we were getting all ready for Saint Nicolas Day and ...

"Oh, don't, Maggie!  C'mon!"
"Ha roo roo roo!  I've GOTTA, Ragnar!!!"

I can't resist. Mom was going to save this for another post, but you've GOTTA see this!  Raggi insisted on helping her get stuff out of storage in the guest rooms so ...

"Seriously, Mom?"
"❤Oh, Santa Raggi, you're so CUTE!!!!!!❤"

I mean ... he really IS, isn't he?  So cute in fact, that he should be the one to wear the Santa hats from now on - don't you think?!?

Anyway, this morning, we checked our sabots and ...

"Mom!  Get a shot of this!  Saint Nicolas left treats for us!"
"We must have been good puppies, huh?!?"
"VERY good puppies!"

 Mini Zuke's, shaped like Christmas trees!!!!!  How awesome is that?!?

"Hey, Mom.  Maybe if you didn't have that gigantic bow on the sabots,
there would have been room for something else."
"I love Zuke's!!!"
"Maybe he DID bring you something else, Maggie!"

Something else?!?  Mom said Saint Nicolas heard we've been exceedingly good this year and brought us something very special.  What ... what could it be?!?  And then ... she brought it in!

"Oh, Saint Nicolas!!!  It's PERFECT!  Exactly what I wanted!"
"Did he bring anything else for me?"
"He thought you might be ready to try boxing, Ragnar!"

I mean, I haven't had a decent box in quite a while.  And at that point, Ragnar hadn't even been here a month yet and was a bit confused by the whole boxing thing.  I encouraged him to give it a go, though ...

"You mean you get in like this, Maggie?"
"That's it, Raggi!  I won't push.  You've got to want to do it on your own."

Mom said to be patient with him, so I gave him lots of room.  

"I've got two feety-feet in!"
"Go, Raggi!!!"
"Good puppy, Ragnar!"

And then ...

"Look at me!!!  I'm BOXING!!!!"

See?!?  We ARE related!!!!  I'm so proud of Ragnar!  That's even better than posing in the Santa hats -- am I right here?!?  And seeing him boxing is like another gift!!!

THANK YOU, Saint Nicolas!  Merci bien pour les cadeaux!  And to all of you - happy Saint Nicolas Day/bonne fête de Saint Nicolas!!!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher