Jolly Old St. Nicholas

We're getting used to life as a family of 4 now that Big Brother has been living on campus for 4 months. Not that we don't miss him, but we're just getting used to the different routine.

And then something comes along and smacks you in the head. For me, this week, it was St. Nicholas.

I always get the kids a treat for St. Nicholas Day, and put it in their shoe near their bedroom doors. (Parents get a treat as well. Rumor has it that my treat this year will be a Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt bar. Yum. But I digress.) So when I was in the grocery store the other day, I remembered that I needed to get busy shopping for those little treats.

Then I remembered that one of my kids is not going to be here with his shoe outside his door. It's almost worse than not having him here for family dinner or Sunday Mass.

Dorm security being what it is in his urban university, it's not like I can sneak into the third-floor hallway and leave him some treats outside his room. Instead, I had to depend on the US Postal Service. So the other day I filled up one of those Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes with all kinds of yummy things--enough for him and his roommate and some friends to share--and sent it along, with a big note marked on there that said "Do not open until December 6."

It's not the same, but it will have to do.