St. Nicholas Day

My grandmother, whom I loved very dearly, used to tell us about her Dutch upbringing alot. One custom that she looked upon with fondness was celebrating St. Nicholas Day.

The Dutch tradition for receiving presents on that day is that children leave a shoe outside their door at night, and St. Nicholas fills it with presents. In some of the poorer families, grandma used to say, he would replace their shoes with new ones... maybe the only new pair they would get that year. To Dutch children, part of the thrill was going to bed and having something very ordinary yielding a wonderful surprise...

This morning I had a similar experience. While my shoes were empty, my inbox was filled with Robot 13 pages- all lettered and colored... while I knew I would see them soon, the unexpected nature of seeing them today was a big thrill.

I can't share them yet, but I can say we have sent them off with a pitch to a well established publisher.

More news soon- tonight, I am too giddy to sleep...