I Believe!

Alessandra has been sick and I've been dealing with her and the rest of the household responsibilities solo.  Last night was just like all the others.  I finally got her settled into bed, and I took Dotty out for one last bathroom trip before I tidied up the house and turned in myself.  

This morning I opened up the front door to get Alessandra's boots - I left them out because they were all muddy.  And that's when I saw this.  Sitting quite perfectly on the top of our doggy potty shoes and muddy rain boots.

I wish someone was recording my reaction because if it was half as good as what it felt like, it was pretty darn amazing.  I felt like I was 6 again.  Like I just walked out and saw the one thing I asked Santa, and only Santa for.  

There Is A Santa!

But then I got really confused.  It's the beginning of December.  I asked one of my neighbors who said "Oh yes, Sankt Nikolaus comes last night.  I hope you were good all year!"

My response was, "I must have been, our shoes were filled." 

I came inside, got online with the intention of looking up this holiday and it's traditions when of course I got a bit distracted by facebook, and that's when I saw all of the posts between my expat-parent-friends from the night before.  Warning each other not to forget about this German holiday.

I guess I didn't need to worry about forgetting because the Eich's were just that good that the 

REAL SANKT NIKOLAUS

came and filled our shoes.

And just like that...

I'm still a

  BELIEVER!