More Bean

While my little Bean sleeps I figured I'd post some more cuteness...

A little monkey

There is a Bean in there somewhere...

Bean's first Christmas!

Christmas Fun

In our family (meaning, in this case, my parents and siblings) we have a Christmas tradition in which each sibling comes up with a "to share" gift.  This gift is always edible and is cleared with mom beforehand to make sure we get food from all the food groups.  Then, as we open gifts on Christmas day, every so often we will open a "to share" gift and share it around. By the end of gift opening we are all quite full.
This year David and I decided we were doing veggies and dip.  But we didn't want to just do a veggie tray...so we did a veggie tree!

My favorite were the little yellow stars.  We made them using a Linzer tart cutter.  David cut out the big star for the top. 

Christmas Grief

In seminary I took a course called "Pastor as Person".  It was a required course for all students and most of us took it in our second year. It was all about how being a person, a human being with feelings, emotions, and experiences, affected our pastoral identity. It affects how we preach and how we interact with people. All and all it was a very interesting class taught by a stellar professor. It came to mind this year as I sat in our Christmas Eve service at church.
I've never looked at Christmas through the eyes of a grieving mother before.  I couldn't.  Not before I became a grieving mother.  Sitting in church listening to the pastor talk about the hope and expectation of a baby, a tiny bundle of hope coming, hurt.  It hurt a lot. Listening to the pastor talk about labor and delivery, reminded me of the baby that I would not deliver.  And I wept.
I wept for my baby who was already home with Jesus and I wept for all the babies who weren't home with their mothers and fathers this year.  The babies who were called home far too early for our liking.
And I wondered...how do you approach Christmas with a sensitivity to all that hurt?  How do you a preach a Christmas message of hope and new life to those who are mourning the loss of life?
These (and others) are questions I ponder as my pastoral identity continues to be shaped. These are questions that I hope I can keep in mind if and when I ever get called to lead a congregation on my own. Because Christmas should bring hope to everyone.

And so it begins...

Thanksgiving has officially passed in the USA, which means the Christmas season is upon us.  It's no secret that Christmas is not my favorite holiday.  That honor goes to Easter, which is 134 days away. I couldn't tell you how many days it is until Christmas, just that I have to endure Christmas before we can get to Easter.  Christmas is important.  Without Christmas, we couldn't have Easter.  I get it and I appreciate it.  But I struggle with Christmas.  To my knowledge it is a holiday fraught with more controversy and consumerism than any other holiday.
In North America, consumerism is a problem in general, but come Christmas Season things get even more out of hand.  The very thought of "Black Friday" gives me shivers.  I purposely stay away from all places of retail on the Friday following Thanksgiving.  I don't want to brave the crowds for a possible deal.  It's not worth it.  Nearly every year I read about people being injured or even killed in the melee.  Is it really worth it?
And then there is "Christmas Controversy" or perhaps it is better named the "Seasonal Controversy" even though that doesn't sound as nice (no alliteration).
What is the appropriate way to greet someone during this season between Thanksgiving and December 25?  It seems that no matter what you choose to say you run the risk of offending someone, even if that is not what you intended. I'm a Christian and I tend to say "Merry Christmas", because for me, this season is Christmas.  I have friends who are Jewish.  For them it is Hanukkah season.  I have friends who have no religious affiliation.  For them, it's simply the holiday season.  There are many other groups that have specific holidays this time of year, I just don't know them.  It's not that I don't care to know them, I just don't know them yet.  I'm forever learning and I'm okay with that.
If someone where to say "Happy Holidays" to me, I'd smile and reply either in kind or with "Merry Christmas".  I would take no offense and would hope that they would take no offense, for no offense would be intended.
What bothers me and even offends me at times is people who insist on only their view being accepted and refuse to accept others.  I speak both of people/groups who are in the "Merry Christmas" camp and of those who are in other various camps such as "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Hanukkah" and everything else.  Both sides can be insistent and insistence on either side bothers me.  Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and their own way of celebrating the season as long as it does no harm to others (I'd hazard a guess that entitlement ends if it involves damage to another or to property of another).
It bothers me that people can live peaceable with one another throughout the year only to come to irreconcilable differences from the end of November until the end of December.
This post was spurred by a video sent to me by a well meaning family member.  I love him dearly and don't intent to speak poorly of him, but I could not agree with the message in the video. It was called "Say Merry Christmas".  The video is here  and it has lyrics on the video.  The basic message of the video is to avoid merchants who don't post "Merry Christmas" in their stores and who don't greet people with "Merry Christmas".  From their website (http://saymerrychristmas.net/)  they say "patronize only the stores that celebrate the true meaning of Christmas." The creators of the song complain about how the "Every Christmas, the media and PC police tell us, the Christian majority, what we can do and say to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. If you've had "enough" of this biased propaganda and believe in the true meaning of Christmas…now's your chance to fight back and bring Christ back into Christmas."
If that's how they feel, then fine, they may feel that way.  What bothered me most was their hypocrisy  They complain about being told how they can celebrate this season, and in their song they sing "Please don't tell me what to say or what music I can play", yet the entire song is telling people how they think this season should be celebrated. If the song was in first-person all the way through, it wouldn't bug me, but it's not. It's in a form whose name I can't remember right now that is more instructional or command like.
Sometimes I wish people like this would take their own advice. Live and let live.
Maybe I'm too passive, maybe I'm too pluralistic, but it's who I am. There are bigger battles to fight and better ways to go about them.
Just my opinion, which of course is naturally biased by me being me rather than a completely impartial third party.

Easter House! the finished product

These are the pictures of the finished "Easter House"

Front door 

one side 

The other side 

Back view 

Bird's Eye view 

leftover Gingerbread made into cookies

Easter House!

It is Easter.  Christ is risen!  The sadness of Good Friday is all but forgotten in the glorious joyousness of Easter morning.  I like Easter a whole lot.  I may or may not have been awake in the wee hours of this morning because I was so excited.  Just maybe.
At Christmas last, I wrote a post called "The Christmas Cross" where I talked about how Christmas would be meaningless if it weren't for Easter and how we wouldn't have Easter without Christmas.  At Christmas G-d gave us Jesus who grew up and died on the cross so that we could be set free from all the evil powers and our own sinfulness. I am more of an Easter person than a Christmas person. I like Christmas and all, but I could tell you quicker how many days are left until Easter (349, just in case you were wondering) than I could how many were left for Christmas (I actually have no idea).
At Christmas I enjoyed mixing traditions a little bit and making chocolate bunnies. I decided to continue in my pattern of mixing traditions, since the two holidays really do go hand in hand,  and made a my very first ever Gingerbread house.  After making it I realized why I never had a gingerbread house growing up.  There is just so much wrong (allergywise) with gingerbread houses.  For starters, gingerbread itself is a challenge.  But I conquered it a couple months ago.  Second, Royal Icing (the "glue" that holds a gingerbread house together) is typically made with egg whites.  I googled vegan royal icing recipes and found that they all had corn syrup in them.  Corn syrup is an issue.  So I googled alternatives to corn syrup and found one that I could make.  Then I could finally make Royal Icing.  Royal Icing also has powdered sugar (icing sugar, confectioner's sugar) in it, which is made with corn starch.  My mommy is amazing though and makes me corn-free powdered sugar.  She's just that great. The third major problem with gingerbread houses, especially here in the US, is the decorating candy.  Americans have this strange fascination with corn syrup.  It's in everything.  Thankfully I had thought far enough ahead and had Mommy bring decorating candy with her last time she came for a visit.
Here is some pictures of the process.  Pictures of the finished product will be in a different post:

Gingerbread cooling 

A nice green foundation 

lots of colors! 

Candy all set out.  Most of it is free from artificial flavors and colors...but the icing definitely wasn't. 

Dyed mints.  I dyed blue ones too. I like how speckled they turned out. 

In process.

One Small Light

There is a song that we sing almost every Christmas.  I think it's called "One Small Light", but the part I remember best goes like this:

One small light in a land of a thousand
One small dream of a Savior tonight,
One small hand reaching out to the star-light,
One small city of life.


One small light from the flame of a candle,
One small light from a city of might,
One small light from the stars in the endless night
One small light from a face.

Tonight was our Maundy Thursday service at church.  I've never been to a Maundy Thursday service before.  Back in Canada we always had Good Friday morning church.  Apparently that's weird.  I think people here are weird (especially since I have school tomorrow).  Anyhow, at the service tonight we had a huge cross with candles on it.  At the beginning of the service they were all lit.  As the service went on and we progressed (figuratively) towards Christ's death, the candles were extinguished. As I watched I was struck by how much difference the extinguishing of a single candle made.  Even with the last vestiges of daylight filtering through the windows (with Easter so late this year, it was still daylight during the service), the room got noticeably darker every time they extinguished a candle.  That's when the "One Small Candle" song started running through my head.
One small light can make such a difference.  A tiny light can brighten an entire room.  Turning out a light can bring darkness to an entire room.  When a single light bulb is burnt out in the kitchen in my parent's house the entire room feels darker and we quickly send someone out to the shop (usually Isaac or Papa) to get a replacement bulb.
One small light can make a huge difference.  As Christians we are called to be lights to the world.  Imagine what a difference we could make if we were all lights?  How much of a difference would that make in our world?
In 2 days, 3 hours and 30 minutes it will be Easter.  About 6-10 hours after that many of us will gather in churches to celebrate the gift of salvation that was started at Christmas, finalized at Easter, and continues to this day.  Unfortunately, many people have no idea why we celebrate beyond chocolate and eggs. That makes me very sad.  Be a light.  Share the joy of Easter with someone.

PS: I figured out later that the impact of a candle being extinguished was increased by the dimming of the lights...however, if it hadn't been daylight, the candle extinguishing would have been very noticeable. 

Adventures in Baking

 Some very wise family member (I think it was my sister if I recall) got me this delightful cookbook for Christmas.  I'm not sure who was more excited: me or my family.  Regardless, we've all been eating our share of baked goods this week (and it's only Wednesday!)

The first recipe I tried was double chocolate chip cookies.

I made them before church Sunday morning and they turned out marvelously.

We brought them along to family Christmas and didn't bring any of them home at all!  I also made apple butter thumbprint cookies (they were supposed to be chocolate, but I was chocolated out!) and chocolate chip cookies.  I wasn't overly impressed with the chocolate chip cookies, but I think that had something to do with my oven temperature being off (our thermostat for the oven is temperamental).

Today I made a mango betty.  I'm not quite sure what a betty is supposed to be, but this was not a big hit with my family.  It was rather dry, so it got a sad face in the cookbook.  But after I was done baking that, I made these:

Cinnamon rolls. They were supposed to be for tomorrow's breakfast.  About half of them are left in the pan. I had never had a cinnamon roll before, so I don't know how they are supposed to taste, but I didn't hear any complaints.

Isaac pretty much inhaled his. He's never had a cinnamon roll before either.

The project for tomorrow is some sort of bread type thing. I haven't decided what yet...maybe rolls.

Christmas Day, Part 1, Take 2

There were some troubles with the pictures in the original Christmas Day, Part 1 post, so I'll try again and it should work better this time around.  Sorry for the troubles!

The Lucia buns rose in a "warm friendly location" (aka a seldom used shower) on Christmas eve day.  They were devoured Christmas morning

The advent tree was finally complete...for about 37 seconds.  Then we began to eat it.

Lollipops are the best breakfast ever!

Especially lollipops with rubber ducky tea!

If the wood pile falls when no one is home, does it make a noise?

Christmas Day, Part 2

Mauschen knows exactly which gift is hers.  She also knows better than to open it before it is time.

Our tree.  We all sit and admire if for a time

Even Mauschen admires it for a time.  Then the little boys started to get impatient.

Styrofoam packaging makes excellent helmets...

We can't really see each other...

Smash!

My head is stronger than your head...

Reuben and Isaac try out a new game together. 

After all is said and done in the house, the little boys head outside to start constructing an epiphany piñata
(Their final product is only about half this size...I managed to talk them down)

Christmas Day, Part 1

There were some troubles with the pictures not loading on this post, so I've taken them out and put them in this post.  Click on the link and you should be able to see the pictures that I wanted you to see in this post.  Sorry for the troubles!

The Christmas Cross

I got a delightful book from my dear Aunt Nancy on Christmas morning.  She knows me so well.  At first I wasn't sure what to be most excited about: the fact that it was called "The Christmas Cross", the fact that it was a beautiful picture book, or the fact that as I started to read it I discovered little envelopes inside of it to lift up. I got excited about all of it, one step at a time, but mostly and longest lasting I was excited about the Christmas Cross.
Christmas and Easter.  You can't very well have one without the other.  Before the end of advent, I was already counting down the days until Easter (119 days from Christmas day this year if anyone wants to know). Jesus was born to die.  We couldn't have Easter if we hadn't had Christmas.  And Christmas would be meaningless if it weren't for Easter.  The two go together even better than goat cheese and smoked salmon on lentil crackers (or peanut butter and jelly).
That's why yesterday, when I made Christmas chocolates, I grabbed the bunny mold as well and made Christmas bunnies, because Easter is part of Christmas.

Cute Christmas bunnies!  

The manger and the cross.  The tradition that Mary road a donkey to Bethlehem and the triumphal entry on the back of donkey to Jerusalem.  "Away in a Manger" and "The Old Rugged Cross".  Chocolate letters and Easter eggs.
Merry Christmas and Happy Easter!
(now I just need to decide if I want to make an Easter calendar like an Advent calendar...)

Christmas Party Fun, part 2

This was the other star of our Christmas party, though not as welcome as Sadie.  (16.5*C is about 61*F. By the time we went home it was down to 15*C)

Elbert even came to try and fix it (since it was his house we had taken over).  He wasn't successful. We put on our coats and listened to Abba on an 8 track, because we are cool like that.

It was definitely a boy house...there were tractors everywhere.  These were my favorite though because they were made out of matchsticks.  Elbert made them himself.

Christmas Party Fun

Sadie was the star of our Christmas Party this year

Sometimes she even almost looked at the camera

We all watched her have her bottle.  She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

Olga took advantage of the carpet to have some tummy time with Sadie

Sadie is all bundled up and ready to go home and take her nap

"Activity" scenes

I have always loved Nativity scenes.  My favorite is the wooden one that my grandfather built over the years.  It is completely kid proof and he even built me a whole host of angels after I complained that 1 angel did not equal a host.   Our flock of sheep is a little small, but Grandpa has been celebrating Christmas with Jesus for 5 years now, so it won't grow anymore.  I dream one day of having my own wooden nativity scene, patterned after that one.
Anyhow, one Christmas, when Isaac was rather little yet, he excitedly started talking about the "activity scene".  We couldn't figure out what he meant so he showed us the wooden nativity, pointing and saying "activity scene". I remember correcting him initially and then realizing how correct he was.  That scene is really the hub of activity and in our house, it truly is an activity scene.  It isn't set in one location and it does not remain stationary, by any stretch of the imagination.

The stable waits in Bethlemhem, empty, except for a donkey and the manger. Sometimes the star hangs out before Christmas, other years it doesn't appear until Christmas eve.

Mary and Joseph travel with their donkey from afar, moving a little closer to Bethlehem each day.

The shepherds keep watch over their three sheep.  This year they have a little "fire" to warm their hands at.

The angels are waiting to make their big debut and proclaim the birth of Jesus.

The wise men and their camels have the farthest to come.  They won't make it to the manger until January 6 (if they make it all...depends when Christmas stuff gets packed away this year).

By Christmas morning everyone (except the wise men) will be at the stable in Bethlehem.  It truly is an activity scene.

Since I love nativity scenes so much, I actually set up four of them this weekend when I was decorating with the boys.  Here they are:

This is my least favorite of all of them.  Its one redeeming quality is that it doesn't have three wise men.  Scenes that have the stereotypical 3 wise men bug me to no end.  Long story there.

This is the newest piece in our family's collection.  It's from Peru and sometimes we pretend the llamas are really alpacas.  It's living on top the fish tank this year.

This is our tiniest nativity scene.  Some years it hangs on the Christmas tree.  This year it's sitting in the window sill

This is a close up of the tiny baby Jesus.

This is my second favorite nativity scene.  It is mom's and she got it when she was in college or something, so it's older than I am.  This year, faith is meeting science in a whole new way.

A close up of the manger.

Only the wooden one moves around, but it is a enough of a reminder that here, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from the fields to the stable, from the East to the West, here is where the real activity of Christmas happens.