Jolly Old St. Nick

Yesterday was St. Nick's Day, which I have a special affection for. It's not Christmas, and it's not your birthday. It's not even Easter. It's a holiday that everyone forgets about, which is what makes it so great. Although it's the same date every year--December 6--I still somehow manage to forget it. Like a first winter snow that falls deep in the night, St. Nick's Day sneaks up on you. Thus there are no expectations. No lists of things you want. No anxiety over what you'll get. No expectations and thus no disappointments. Only the joy of finding, on what you believed to be an ordinary day, a sweet or some other small treat waiting just for you. A gift that is completely unexpected and thus all the sweeter. Hooray for St. Nick's Day.