What a Brody can do to a tree!

I would have said "What a two year old can do to a tree" but we have raised three of them already and never had anything quite like Brody. We were probably asking for it when we thought for some reason it would be nice to have Candy Canes on our tree this year but again we have done it with the first three kids and it has been fine, why wouldn't we think it would fine this year? Well, after the first two days of Brody eating everyone in reach we finally figured we were "safe" we simply took any remainders and moved them up higher. Good idea, right? Well not if you have a Brody in your house. I suppose he was really just doing us a favor when hauled a kitchen chair over to the tree and knocked the whole thing down! I mean we did talk SO much about how much fun we love decorating it. I have to say this was a first for us... we have never gotten to decorate a tree twice in one year. I of course lucked out and was not home when the incident took place. When David first found Brody and the tree he was relieved, but only for a second, that Brody wasn't under the tree, of course after giving it more thought he kind of wished the tree would have fallen on him... he may have left him under it for a while and let him figure his way out.

This I think is exactly why parents of many children are never bored with it. My Mom use to say she never needed any more children because she had one of each and after that she would just be getting repeats. Yes, this is true but as Brody has proven this is very much not always the case! I suppose it is nice to know after 5 kids we will still continue to be surprised and exposed to new areas of parenting... We could use a few more good surprises which we do get as well.

So here is a picture of our tree after I got back home. We then of course had another Christmas special movie night after redecorating it. And then the kids got tucked in bed awaiting the arrival of St. Nick that night. I am happy to report our tree looks exactly the same as it did the first time we set it up!

My Boys!

Yep, we do St. Nick. Funny thing is David does not always remember him coming as a child but he came every year to our house. I know, I know, some may find this odd, especially since we are not dutch, that St. Nick could find his way to our house every year but Santa never could. I suppose St. Nick had more history behind him than Santa did. Although it makes me wonder now...

Here are the shoes after the kids got to them already the next day. The two on the far left are the ones from my childhood, the middle two are a pair I picked up after we had Aubriel and the last two are the ones my friend, Andrea, brought back from when she lived in Holland for a year.
Yep, she lived in Holland for a year so when she returned and I asked about my childhood holiday figure she actually said she had heard nothing of St. Nick. What? I swear isn't St. Nick the Netherlands Santa? Why else for the wooden shoes? But she did tell me a story of a Sinter Clause (that could totally be spelled wrong too!) that they have a big parade for every year, I think I recall her saying it starts in the harbor and goes through town since he comes in on a ship. Which got me thinking perhaps Sinter Clause over the years had developed into St. Nick or vice versa....

Kind of like how in the Victorian Era, the ancient Yule Visitor (usually a Celtic God) that road on his white horse usually dressed in firs, turned into what many now know as, Father Christmas, Father Yule or most of us know as Santa Clause. Santa didn't even get his traditional red and white suit until the coca cola company decided to use him to market their product and it stuck. So I suppose my beloved St. Nick that visited us every year could actually be the very same Sinter Clause found in Holland!

It fascinates me in any case. I suppose having a mom that has always been so into history I love tracing things back to their origins and finding out the "why" of things. Maybe that is why "St. Nick" was always sure to get an invite to our house every year and half the people we talk to don't even know who he is!