Christmas Day was, in a word, perfect. At one point I looked around at everyone and had a true joy in our posterity moment. Just sitting here writing my blog I'm feeling a little verklempt. I realized that this is our "all are safely gathered in" year as Lindsay will be graduating in June and off to university. Our Christmas was somewhat simple as we had scaled back so that we were able to share Christmas with another family. Christmas morning brought the magic that always accompanies little ones and there were smiles, laughter, and genuine interest in each other.
Indeed there was a lovely spirit -
the spirit of Christ in our home all day.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Gingerbread House
The GINGERBREAD Expert Annie says:
"I don't know why a gingerbread house has a certain charm on children, but it does. It doesn't really matter what age the child is. You can be 4 or 40 and but you seem to be drawn to them. Maybe it's the detail or just the candy. But there is a special warm smile that comes over us when we look at the wonderful results of someone's imagination. It brings out our creativity and peeks our interest."
The ginger plant originated in southeast Asia.
The name "ginger" is derived from the Sanskrit "srngaveram" which means "horn root".
In Medieval England, gingerbread simply meant "preserved ginger" and evolved form the Old French "gingebras" which came from "zingebar" the Latin name of the spice.
In Medieval Europe, ginger was the second most highly traded spice after pepper.
According to legend, Queen Elizabeth 1st of England invented the "gingerbread man".
The English brought ginger to the American colonies early on. Ginger cookies were handed out to persuade Virginia voters to elect certain candidates for the House of Burgesses.
During the 19th century, gingerbread was modernized and romanticized when the Grimm brothers collected the fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel. This story was about two children who were lost in the woods when they discovered a house made of bread, cake and candles.
One House with fours sides, five decorators, lots of candy and some frosting glue equals one masterpiece and many smiles!
Info gathered at www.annieshomepage.com/gingerbread.html
"I don't know why a gingerbread house has a certain charm on children, but it does. It doesn't really matter what age the child is. You can be 4 or 40 and but you seem to be drawn to them. Maybe it's the detail or just the candy. But there is a special warm smile that comes over us when we look at the wonderful results of someone's imagination. It brings out our creativity and peeks our interest."
The ginger plant originated in southeast Asia.
The name "ginger" is derived from the Sanskrit "srngaveram" which means "horn root".
In Medieval England, gingerbread simply meant "preserved ginger" and evolved form the Old French "gingebras" which came from "zingebar" the Latin name of the spice.
In Medieval Europe, ginger was the second most highly traded spice after pepper.
According to legend, Queen Elizabeth 1st of England invented the "gingerbread man".
The English brought ginger to the American colonies early on. Ginger cookies were handed out to persuade Virginia voters to elect certain candidates for the House of Burgesses.
During the 19th century, gingerbread was modernized and romanticized when the Grimm brothers collected the fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel. This story was about two children who were lost in the woods when they discovered a house made of bread, cake and candles.
One House with fours sides, five decorators, lots of candy and some frosting glue equals one masterpiece and many smiles!
Info gathered at www.annieshomepage.com/gingerbread.html
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Creativity Is (or is not ) Pretty?
Everybody knows that Christmas time adds to life a few extra demands; especially on moms. The baking, the laundry, the decorating, the dishes, the shopping, the cleaning, the wrapping, the taxi-ing, the trying to remember where gifts are hidden, it can all be a little overwhelming! When the Dads ask why we torture ourselves so, moms tell them they like doing all these things...moms love to create magic at Christmas. But as someone once said, "Creativity isn't pretty."
This seems to prove that point. The other day I needed to wrap gifts. I decided to give in to the pleas for painting. " Wow, this will entertain them while I wrap." What was I thinking you ask? Clearly, I wasn't! It is a proven fact that when a mom is overwhelmed at Christmas time the brain functions are the first to go. Anyways, I wrapped 2 gifts and this is the pretty-ness, (or is that mess) I came back to. I guess it is a good thing I didn't wrap all 20 before checking on the kids.
Merry Creating.
This seems to prove that point. The other day I needed to wrap gifts. I decided to give in to the pleas for painting. " Wow, this will entertain them while I wrap." What was I thinking you ask? Clearly, I wasn't! It is a proven fact that when a mom is overwhelmed at Christmas time the brain functions are the first to go. Anyways, I wrapped 2 gifts and this is the pretty-ness, (or is that mess) I came back to. I guess it is a good thing I didn't wrap all 20 before checking on the kids.
Merry Creating.
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