It used to be that we would spend the evening of December 6 walking through the forest near the kids’ school. After a few minutes spent singing Christmas carols round a fire, out would come Samichlaus with his buddy, Schmutzli and his donkey. He would pull out a bag with the child’s name on it, that child would go up, say his/her poem or song and then would receive the bag of goodies. But a few years ago, the parent group in our town decided to stop having Samichlaus come on his actual day. Now they just do it on whatever Sunday comes nearest to the day. Um, no.
So we stay home and Samichlaus still manages to find us and bring the children bags full of goodies. 
Lots of peanuts, mandarin oranges, chocolate and Grittibaenz! Although, that was already eaten by the time I took this photo. 🙂
Our sweet neighbor, Maya B. also leaves treats in front of the door for all of us, which the kids love. We still have all the little fabric Samichlaus’ from last year, and this year she sewed pretty little bags for each of us that were stuffed with more peanuts and chocolates. So fun.
The next day Papa came home from work with a chocolate army.
Everyone got a chocolate Santa left on their desk in honor of the special day, and several people gave theirs to Chris. You know, the guy with all the kids. 🙂 Their numbers slowly dwindled over the next couple of weeks, until finally the last remnants were turned into chocolate fondue on New Years’ Eve. Yum! Yum!
Maybe next year we will venture out into the forest again, it would be good for Alexandra to experience it at least once….