In a previous post, I spoke of my son Jake and his carrying on the Naylor gingerbread house tradition. He pointed out to me that I didn't really show his talents and he would like to be famous for good reason. So here are some examples of his skills…prepare to be dazzled with his talent! Disclaimer: All gingerbread is made and baked by Jake…you can't do this with graham crackers! These houses are major sturdy! He sorts the M and M's into different colors from different bags. Anyone have any Shrek bags hanging around? They have good colors in them! Flash!!! Don't try this on a fresh house! This one is 6 weeks stale…see the dumpster in the background? Here's from a different year… And still another! Isn't he incredibly creative and talented? Gingerbread house is kind of an understatement! Trust me, in my children's younger years we never went to this extreme!
My kids have been around enough while I am cooking or working in the kitchen that I expect them to absorb some basic skills. Some areas of proficiency will never be learned in my kitchen, like boiling lobsters alive or cooking liver. Kids learn best when they are paying attention, which apparently they don't always do. Becoming familiar with the recipes or practices of other people will happen when they come in contact with them. My son Mike has had a cold, that is accompanied by a bit of a sore throat. No temperature, just a little discomfort. He has been preparing for an audition and one of his drama classmates suggested chamomile tea with honey and lemon. So Mike requested that I go buy some chamomile tea. We don't drink tea in our family, but occasionally I bring some herbal tea home from hotels when I travel, so I went out to the garage to try and find some. I don't think I have ever fixed anyone in my family a cup of tea before, but I thought that I could figure it out. Here's where the paying attention comes in. When I came back into the house, I found Mike pouring honey into a cup - a lot of it - and preparing to drink the cup…of honey. I asked him what he was doing. He said "Drinking a cup of honey". "No, no, no", I replied. "I don't think that would be
When I was a little girl, I remember bringing the Christmas tree into the house on Christmas Eve and leaving it completely bare for Santa to decorate. When it was time for bed, and bedtime always seemed to come extra early on this night, we would scurry around, looking for the biggest stocking we could find to leave out on the back of the couch – we didn't have a fireplace to hang it on - in hopes that we would find it filled to the brim with treats from Santa in the morning. Not everyone remembers that there was a time that we actually used a sock from our drawer. This was a really long time ago, before the cute homemade stockings or darling store-bought ones that we have now. It was hard to get to sleep on Christmas Eve and I never remember dreaming about sugar plums, but they were sweet dreams nonetheless. In the morning, as we crept down the hall to the living room, we would come upon a wonderful, magical sight…the bare tree had been transformed and was beautifully ornamented. The colored lights were glimmering in the early morning darkness. The experience was quite miraculous, especially since "Santa" had so many children to take care of. I never doubted his ability to accomplish the tasks. I was sure that every child would have an equally wonderful experience. I don't recall exactly when the changes came, but the
I love the musical "Scrooge" with Albert Finney in the lead role, based on Charles Dickens's, A Christmas Carol. Stories told with music and lyrics can bring to mind many lines that I most likely would otherwise forget. After an especially long night, with visits from his old partner Marley and Christmases Past, Present and Future, Scrooge awakes to find himself alive and with a new outlook on life -"I've got a chance to change and I will not be the man I was!" Nothing helps repentance like a near death experience! Faced with a wasted life and a future of endless COLD and misery, Scrooge does not accept his doom, but rather takes this second chance to make the changes in his life that will bring him to a much more pleasant existence. A little excerpt from the visit by Jacob Marley: "Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,” cried the phantom, “not to know, that ages of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!” “But you were
I was talking to my girls a few days ago and every yummy idea I was coming up with involved one common ingredient…Peppermint! Did I have any in the house? Nope! So this morning I stopped at the grocery store during EMS (Early Morning Seminary) and bought 3 big boxes of peppermint candy canes. I didn't even mind when I started taking the wrappers off and found that most of them were broken…this time I wasn't even slightly disappointed because the next thing I did was to put them into a heavy freezer Ziploc and smash them into tiny pieces…not a total winning method as the canes are a little sharp and poke holes into the ziploc. But it did the job. A couple of days ago I posted the Double Chocolate Cocoa Cones…here's an idea I adapted by putting the crushed peppermint on top of the marshmallows, and deleting the chocolate chips from the mix. They are so pretty! However, I have a big DISCLAIMER: As I was handling the cute little packages this morning, I noticed that the crushed peppermint was pretty hard and seemed to have melded together. I am going to go down right now to boil some water and make sure it will make a good cup of Peppermint Cocoa…otherwise, I just made a whole bunch of pretty for nothing! My day ended on a better note. My assignment (for myself) was
It is cold, no freezing outside! When you live in San Diego, that's a true sign that winter is here. By mid-day, it will be delightfully warm outside in the sunshine, but in my house, it definitely feels like winter. That…and the fact that it's DECEMBER 1st and I haven't started decorating for Christmas yet can cause a good deal of panic at my house! When I presented the idea of getting down the Christmas boxes from the attic shelf in the garage last night, my dear husband suggested that getting the laundry done first might be wise – I don't know…maybe because he needs to put the ladder somewhere! So this morning, laundry is going full blast, next comes the dusting and cleaning, so that when he gets home this afternoon, there will be no excuses! It is so much work to set it up that we like to have it around for at least the whole month of December, and frequently keep it around until the first full week of January is over. Along with the cold weather and decorating, the Christmas season brings lots of handmade crafts, goodies and gifts. I am attempting to actually handcraft a pile of gifts this year and there are always things that get in the way. But if I do one or two things a day, I can accumulate quite a stash. Here are a couple of cards