The Saint Nicholas Day Snow

The Saint Nicholas Day Snow begins on the morning of St. Nicholas Eve. Catherine's best friend, Elizabeth, is coming for a sleepover. They'll share a day filled with warm cookies, squabbles with siblings, holiday traditions, and the excitement of an unexpected snowstorm. It's all familiar, comfortable, and delightful.

And yet Elizabeth is worried. She's spending the night with Catherine because her grandmother is ill, and her parents are heading to the hospital to see her. The brief references to Elizabeth's grandmother in the main story are developed into a fully realized wordless story-within-a-story in the corner of each spread. Both stories are filled with kindness, prayer, faith, and love.

And snow.

At the end of the day, the girls set out their shoes (with apples and carrots for St. Nicholas's horse), and their parents pray and keep vigil for Elizabeth's grandmother. All of them, in the end, receive joy.