St Nicholas Feast Day

Ah yes. December 6. St Nicholas, bishop of Myra and the inspiration behind Santa Claus. This one slipped by but Bea Marshall got on my case for not mentioning it, and rightly so. She also told me what her family does to celebrate:

"It's one of the highlights of sdvent for us marshalls - on st nicholas eve we make speculoos biscuits with the kid's friends and read the st nicholas story while drinking hot chocolate. then we hang up our stockings and get gold coins in the morning on st nicholas day."

Fantastic! A recipe for those biscuits, known as Speculaas, Speculaus, St. Nicholas Cookies, Kris Kringle Cookies, or Dutch spice cookies is here (American) or here (international).