Mikulas and Chester Greenwood

Ten years ago, I had no idea two men were going to affect my Decembers every year. Which two men? Mikulas and Chester Greenwood, of course. Mikulas is a guy most of you at least have a concept of. Comes at night, delivers presents to good girls and boys, wears a red coat and all that? And he puts the presents in their shoes, of course. TRC and DC love the fact that they get TWO days of presents in December: Christmas and Mikulas. He came last night, and so yesterday we all cleaned up our shoes and set them out for the requisite loot (note: in Slovakia, I guess he just typically brings candy, nuts and fruit. I had a talk with him back when Denisa and I got married, and I persuaded him to throw in a little extra toy each year. Because I’m a capitalist, and that’s how we roll.) TRC got a cool buildable car, and DC got a Cinderella jewelry set. They’re ecstatic. And they avoided getting the dreaded onions or raw potatoes, instead of presents. 🙂

Chester is the inventor of the earmuff and a town local, and each year we celebrate his warm ears by having a parade in his honor. I took the kids out to check out the festivities this year. Maine parades are pretty fun: they involve some floats, lots of firetrucks, and snow plows. This year there were a bunch of people on roller-skis, too. The Chester Greenwood parade is unique because all the floats and cars have to involve earmuffs somehow. So you get buses with earmuffs, cars with earmuffs–earmuffs all around. Check out the local coverage.

So to those of you who missed the festivities, happy Chester Greenwood Day, and here’s hoping Mikulas comes to visit you next year. If you’d remember to put your shoes out the night of the 5th, that might help your odds . . .