A sweet holiday tradition

I love holiday traditions!   Long after the presents have been unwrapped and 'buyers remorse' has set in about the feasting,  these are the lovely little bits will linger to light up the longest days of winter.
They are the sentimental apron strings that not even time or distance can completely sever.   
Today is Saint Nicolas Day  .... and there is still a teeny part of me that expected to see a pair of wooden shoes filled with chocolates outside my bedroom door this morning :) 
It does not matter that here in my three dog adult life it simply would not be sensible.   I still have the wooden shoes that my mother used to fill as part of a family tradition to respect our Netherlander roots ... although admittedly they are hanging by the back door as a gathering place for dog boots.
Even if my parents are no longer here to fill the wooden shoes, the sixth of December has become the day that I start my holiday decorating.     Will I do it all in one day?  Of course not!   I am a middle aged grandmother, not a television celebrity with her own crew of elves ... so it will take a few days for all the little bits to fall into place.
One of the sweetest holiday traditions I have seen is the lovely tree that the kind hearts have at the Westwood Hills Veterinary Hospital!     All autumn long, the Animal Rescue Coalitions collect donations of lovely ornaments.   Then ... in December the tree is set up by the desk in the clinic lobby so that visitors can support ARC by purchasing an ornament!
What could be sweeter than that?   Why of course that all proceeds go straight 'to the dogs' because ARC is powered purely by volunteer love for the animals.  
What time is it?   It is always time to support the pawsitive rescue work that is helping to create better communities in this province!
And that is how I see it on Tuesday, December 6th ... the TWENTIETH day since the dismissed shelter manager and the disbanded board created the renegade shelter.