An Irish Carol I sing of a night in Bethlehem A night as bright as dawn I sing of that night in Bethlehem The night the Word was born The skies are glowing gaily The earth in white is dressed See Jesus in the cradle Drink deep in His mother's breast And there on a lonely hillside The shepherds bow down in fear When the heavens open brightly And God's message rings out so clear Glory now to the Father In all the heavens high And peace to His friends on earth bel

Our family loves St. Nicholas Day, first of all because he is the patron of the Byzantine Church. There is a beautiful icon of him in our icon screen and we will celebrate his feast day with liturgical prayer and lovely Carpatho-Rusyn hymns. Secondly, I am German and grew up with putting my shoes in front of the bedroom door on the night of the fifth of December to find them filled with candy, nuts, tangerines and a fragrant fir branch by Sankt Nikolaus in the morning. There