4 Dec 2006
Liam woke up excited that today was Monday, the day before St Nicolas day. Children clean their boots and leave them outside on the steps to be filled with small gifts. They will clean them tomorrow and leave them out. Around dark, someone comes by and fills them with gifts. I bought some small gifts and treats for them. Csaba said someone would come by and we would discreetly hand the gifts over to the mystery boot filler. I am looking forward to it.
5 Dec 2006 – St Nicolas Day!
Today is St Nicolas Day. The children cleaned their boots well and placed them outside on the front steps at dark. Csaba gave us a call and told us that Nicolas-Bacsi is at his house right now and would be at ours in about two minutes. We tell the children tohurry and go to bed where they jump in bed. James gets off the phone and says that Csaba said it was okay if they looked out the window when Nicolas-Basci placed the treats in their boots.
James goes outside to meet Nicolas-Bacsi. James tells us thay the kids can come to the door and say hello and watch him. We open the door and we hear bells approaching. The kids have big smiles on their faces including Byron. Through our gate enters Nicolas-Basci in full Santa dress except he had a backpack of goodies. He speaks in Hungarian. The children say Yo Estet (spelling incorrect). He delivers bags of goodies. Each one got two bags of goodies. The children are amazed. James offers Nicolas-basci some palinka and he drinks a bit and leaves with Csaba. I tease James about making Santa drink and how in my childhood a drunk Santa was a very bad Santa. He says in his child it was traditional to offer cookies and wine. Hmm… So needless to say we have a nice picture of James drinking with St Nicolas!
The kids come in and raid their bags. They get candy and treats galore, some toys and socks. Liam is thrilled and tells me with so much enthusiasm in his big blue eyes, “That is the REAL Santa!” Luna agrees and says, “Santa is real.” Now in all honesty I have always been agnostic around Santa. I never wanted to deny my children of the magic yet I felt strongly about creating a lie that they later discover. I have issues with lying form my childhood, even sweet ones. So I never sign gifts from Santa nor create the story. I also never deny one either. If they ask I ask them what do they think and say I am not at liberty to answer.
But this is all so sweet. It is so personalized and in a way removed from commercialized Christmas. The kids only got enough to fit in their boots and they had to do something to get it, clean their own boots. I like the idea of the kids thinking real Santa is from Transylvania. I like that they saw him give the gifts. So I played along a bit. Byron would ask if we bought the gifts and I just said “I dunno.”
Here in Transylvania St Nicolas day is for children only and celebrated in the villages. Christmas is also celebrated on the 25th with 3 days of church. The first being communion. Families gather and gifts are also exchanged. We will fortunately experience the first two days of Christmas but leave on the 3rd day.
Earlier after the children cleaned their boots but before Nicolas-Basci arrived, Eszthi-Neni stopped by. She came with three bags of goodies for the children too. I got teary-eyed at her warmth. She loves our children and us so much and the feelings are mutual. Her husband is sick right now and she is getting sick yet she came over and remembered the children on St Nicolas Day. I sent her with a bag of oranges trying to communicate the health benefits of Vitamin C as best I could with body language.
I was just feeling ready to leave the village, a nice sense of closure but bounced back into a little sadness. People here are so kind and warm and hospitable. We experienced that in Spain too. We rarely see the depth of the nurturing here in the States. I didn’t wan to leave all this. People here have absolutely nothing but give everything. Eszthi-neni is always dropping by with something for us whether it is fruit, veggies, offers to do our laundry. The kids went over to her house the other day. They actually got in trouble from me for wandering out of the yard. They go over to Eszthi-Neni’s for a while. She feeds them and lets them have all the chocolate they want. She is conscious of our diet and cooks the potatoes with salt and some sauerkraut. They followed her in the yard trying to speak Hungarian. She is in heaven as are they. I fetch the kids and am always greeted with a “Cecily!” smile and big hug. She tells me the kids are speaking good Hungarian. The kids tell me later how much they love Eszthi-Neni and Domi-Bacsi and they know they are loved by them too. How can we leave this? How great this is for the children. I sit thinking about this realizing that perhaps Eszthi ha played the role of the mother I never had. the children have a surrogate grandmother while away form home. Eszthi took such good care of James while we were traveling. She ironed his clothes, fed him and was there for him when he buried the puppies. She even came by the other day and gave him a new dress shirt and tie for his suit. She adores James.
It is not just Eszthi-Neni who has treated us with such kindness but other beautiful people in the village. Alex and his dad came over twice to cut our wood and refused any payment or food. Another woman dropped by with some fruit yesterday. Someone else gave us two bags of clothes for the children. I am overwhelmed with the kindness. I do hope that it rubs off on me and I can be even kinder to others. I hope I can rub off on others in the States making it a more hospitable and loving place like here.
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