Tag: holidays

family

Happy Holidays

Andi

The holidays are upon us! When you hear “Happy Holidays” what do you think of? Most people probably think of Christmas and Hanukkah, maybe Kwanzaa. But did you know that there are many more holidays that fall in the month of December? I gathered up some info and crafts to do with my kids on the holidays and I thought it might be interesting to share some of those fascinating facts.

Starting on December 6, there is Saint Nicholas Day or the Feast of Saint Nicholas, preceeded by Krampusnacht on December 5. This is mostly celebrated throughout Europe in honor of the Saint that legendarily left money in people’s shoes to help them through hard times. Instead of keeping all his great wealth to himself, he gave to the less fortuanate. According to the story, he left the dowry for two girls too poor to pay any in their drying shoes by the fire in secrecy at night so that the girls were able to marry. Our tradition to hang stockings by the fireplace also stems from this legend. In some areas there is a legend that the day before Saint Nick’s Day a half goat half demon comes to punish bad children before Nicholas arrives. This demon goat is called Krampus. The night of the 5th children leave their shoes out, some with hay or carrots for Saint Nicholas’ horse. Then, the morning of the 6th, children awaken to find small gifts or poems in their shoes.

Bodhi Day falls on the 8th day of the 12th Lunar month, this year it fell on December 8. It is the date that Siddharta Guatama first experienced enlightenment sitting under a Bodhi tree. This day is not observed by all Buddhists however. Many celebrate a different holiday called Vesak which observes the birth, enlightment and passing of Guatama. Celebrations of this holiday include covering a Bodhi tree with lights and lanterns and meditating. The biggest celebration occurs in India where the Bodhi tree he sat under still lives nestled next to a Temple.

This year Hanukkah Begins on December 10th and last until the 18th. Also called the Festival of Lights, this is Jewish Holiday. Though not one of their most sacred holidays, Hanukkah has achieved cultural prominence, most likely due to its closeness to Christmas. Hanukah celebrates the succesful rebellion of the Macabees against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Talmud states that the Temple’s menorah burned for 8 days even though there was only oil enough for one day’s lighting. Celebrations include playing a game with dreidels, eating oil based foods, and lighting the Menorah each night. The dreidel game is played because of a legend that the Macabees used the tops to cover the fact they were studying their sacred texts, which was illegal at the time. The oil based foods are to signify the sacred oil that burned for so long, and the 8 candles signify the 8 days it burned. My favorite are the Latkes. I love Latkes.

December 13th marks the day of Saint Lucia. A Swedish Holiday that commemorates a martyr that legenadrily snuck food and water to early Christianas hiding from the Roman Emporer underground. She couldn’t carry candles to see as her hands were filled with provisions, so she crafted herself a crown of candles made from Holly and Ivy. St. Lucia’s Day is celebrated with sweets given out by the eldest girl dressed in white and donned with a candle crown. These sweets are often gingersnaps and washed down with coffee.

Multiple Holidays ancient and modern revolve around celebration of the Solstice. Many of these traditions were obsorbed into the traditions of Christmas, and so many probably couldn’t distinguish them as seperate holidays. Most prominent and still observed is the tradition of Yule. This has been celebrated since Pre-Roman times throughout ancient Germanic and Scandinavian Culture. It is traditionally tied to the Wild Hunt and the Norse God Odin. In Germanic tradition, a large feast was held, and a sacrifice was borught to the Gods. People, happy the long nights were getting shorter, would bring pine branches inside and make wreaths of them or deceorate their homes with them. They often built huge fires or placed candles in their windows. The Yule Log is another ancient tradition that revolves around burning an ash tree to honor Thor. Today, this holiday is observed by modern day Pagans and some Satanists. Many observe some version of both Yule and Christmas, while others adher as closely to the ancient tradtions as they can. Yule is significant becasue it preserves ancient tradition and culture and should not be washed away by the larger Christmas Celebration.

Christmas falls on December the 25th. There is some debate about the date and why its in December, but whatever the reason, modern celebrations fall in late December. This is a Christian Holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus. Modern tradtions include a candleight service the night before and what is called a Longest Night service to honor loved ones not able to celebrate with their families. Gifts are given and a large meal is usually made. Some more secular traditions involve writing letters to Santa and Hanging Stockings for him to fill for good boys and girls. This is by far the biggest December Holiday in the United States and it often dominates stores and media for an entire two month stretch between November and December. Christmas is special becasue it brings families together to make memories.

Boxing Day Falls on December 26th and is also Saint Stephen’s Day. It originated in the UK and is still observed in many places that were or are part of Britian. This was a day traditionally meant as a relaxing day for servants and when their masters or employers would give them a gift. Saint Stephen’s Day is a religious Holiday honoring the first Christian martyr, Stephen.

December 26 also begins the celebration of Kwanzaa, an African American Holiday as a celebration of life. It focuses on African Heritage, Unity and Culture. It is based on African Harvest festival traditions from various regions and was first celebrated in 1966. Many people don’t know much about Kwanzaa perhaps because its still relatively new. Its traditions include a large feast usually falling on the 6th day, lighting a candle in a special candle holder called a Kinara, and playing music.

Lastly, as it falls on the last day of the year, comes Omisoka. This is Japanese tradition for families to gather together and prepare for the coming year. They might purify their homes of bad spirits, repay debts, or bathe themsleves and then relax. Close to the end of the day they will eat long noodles as part of an old tradition to carry over to the next year. At midnight many visit a Temple or Shrine to bring the new year in with a clean, pure beginning.

So the next time somone tells you “Happy Holidays!” You will have a little more knowledge about what all those holidays are. I am of course no experts on World Cultures, these are just a tidbit of what holidays are observed around the world. If you have any additions or changes, let me know, I’d love to learn about them! And of course, Happy Holidays!!

family

Teigan Candies

Andi

I got Chrissy Teigans new recipe book and guys, I actually love it. I generally don’t go for celebrity cookbooks as they tend to be full of expensive ingredients or tedious processes. We are on a budget, I can’t afford mutton. And I have kids, I don’t have time for a time consuming recipe.

I was so pleasantly surprised with the kinds of recipes I found in her book. I also liked that she included both her parents in the book with childhood recipes they made for her growing up. I seem to have horrible luck making Thai food, but this is almost making me want to try again. I tried probably the easiest recipe first, these peanut clusters.

Perfect for Christmas! For real. If you have a Christmas party or family gathering to attend, these are literal perfection. And pretty quick to make as well. And they are yumm-mmy! So delicious. Of course, I love peanut butter and just nuts in general, so they can’t go wrong. Everybody, go snag this cookbook. It really is the best. You can purchase it, or, probably find it at your local library. Get to snacking!

family

Santa Claus

Andi

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Santa Claus. And I like him so much for a couple different reasons.

Santa was real! Or at least Saint Nicholas was real. He was a Turkish monk born around 280 A.D. Which was a long time ago! He inherited a fortune from his parents, but decided to give it all away. He became legend for traveling around the world helping those in need. Helping others is not a bad thing to be known for! The tradition of hanging stockings for Santa to fill came from a legend of St. Nicholas as well. Many years ago, when a woman was married, her parents would give a sum of money to the groom. This was called a dowry. If you were poor and your parents unable to afford to give a groom a dowry, there was the possibility you wouldn’t be able to get married or that you would be trapped in poverty. There was a father like this who had 3 daughters. According to legend Saint Nicholas came one night and left each woman a sock full of enough money for a decent dowry assuring they could marry. This may seem like a crazy origin story, but at the time, the dowry was a big deal that had a huge affect on woman. Giving them the money no doubt aided the family tremendously and his unconditional kindness did not go unnoticed.

Santa Claus came to the US in the 1800s with the Dutch who called him Sinter Klaas. They were also the ones who introduced the making sweet goodies for Santa and being good to get presents from him. His story quickly caught on with American families and his popularity soared.

In 1822 Clement Clarke Moore wrote a Christmas poem for his daughters entitled “An Account of a Visit from St Nicholas” in which he described the Jolly Chubby Santa we picture today. It was Thomas Nast, though, who first drew Santa Claus in a red suit and tiny sleigh. Combining these two gave us the image most recognizable as Good Saint Nick. In a very short time the white bearded rosy cheeked jolly old man became the Santa we know and love today.

St Nicholas and later Santa Claus is a man known for joyfully giving. He spends his time helping other people and loves to do so. He does not discriminate because he gives to all the children all over the world. While some parents want to use Santa as a threat to make their kids behave, that’s not what Santa truly is.

The real magic is when you grow out of the childhood wonder and discover a big mystical man doesn’t come down your chimney on Christmas Eve. Because you get to become that magic for someone else. If you are a parent this appears in the sparkle in your children’s eyes. You get to share happiness with the person behind you in the drive thru line by buying their sandwich for them. You get to sit down with a struggling friend and hold them. You get to help the mom juggling her kids and grocery bags by distracting the crying one with silly faces in the checkout line. You can give a gift to the kid who’s parents are frantically working to make ends meet and may not be able to give them a gift.

This Christmas season do something kind for someone you know. Be benevolent to a stranger. Send someone a smile.
What kind of world would we have if everyone tried to be a little bit like Santa?

family

Christmas Eve Box

Andi

This idea floats around every year, and I decided to dive in a give it a try. We already have a Christmas Eve tradition, and this fits in perfectly.

This is a Christmas Eve box. A gift to be opened on Christmas Eve by the kids. It contains Christmas pajamas, popcorn, hot cocoa, a Christmas book, some candy, and The Polar Express.

Pro Tip: I learned the hard way that Christmas PJs are a common tradition and they sell out quickly. Especially if you want matching ones. I’ve gotten pajamas at Walmart, Target, and Carter’s. Good thing about Carter’s is they have decent sales and coupons. But I’ve taken to buying the pajamas before Thanksgiving just to be sure I’d get the ones I wanted.

After it’s opened, we get everyone into their pajamas and read the book. Then we make the popcorn and cocoa. We drag every pillow, stuffed animal and blanket into the livingroom and build a fort. Grab the snacks and turn on the Polar Express.

The kids usually fall asleep in the livingroom, and we carry them to bed and tuck them in.

It’s a warm and cozy tradition, and I love it.

family

Little Christmas Tree

Andi

One of the traditions I’ve started with my family is that everyone gets a new ornament each year. When the kids got big enough, they picked out their own ornaments. It’s an event now. Going out to the store, picking out everyone’s ornament and then going home to put them on the tree.

A couple years ago, an old boss gave me some little trees she’d used for table center pieces. I’m guessing she got them from somewhere like Michael’s.

I kept one for each of us so that the ornaments from Christmases past could be put on them and then placed in the child’s room. So each kid has their own personal tree, filled with their favorite things.

I’m going to need to find bigger trees soon though, as you can see, this one is already full, and this child has only seen 3 Christmases.

This does add a little more expense to the Christmas budget. One way to keep this down is to find the sales. I’ve found that a lot of craft stores put their Christmas stuff on sale fairly early. For example, we got ornaments this year from Joann’s at 60% off. This can usually keep our ornament cost down.

The biggest bonus for me is the fact that my kids love having their own ornaments and personal tree. They run around declaring who’s tree it is. When they grow up, I can give them their ornaments to start their own family Christmas trees with.

Most of all, it brings joy to our home, and that makes it all worth it.

family

Precious Ornaments

Andi

I have these ornaments, and they’ve been on every tree I can remember. They are a pair of figure skaters, and they were made by my Grandma Fern.

Well, she wasn’t really my grandma. She was my dad’s brother’s wife’s mom. So she was my cousins grandma, but not mine. But she lived down the street from my aunt and uncle and we visited every December.

She did a lot of bead crafting. I can remember her craft room with an entire wall of drawers filled with every color bead you can imagine. She gave me several ornaments over the years and I still have most of them. This pair was one of the first.

She had rheumatoid arthritis, and gradually her hands became more and more stiff. Eventually she became unable to handle the small beads. The last ornament she gave me is a little elf that my son now thinks is his.

Her last few years she developed alzheimer’s and she passed this last year. I’d not thought about it until I pulled all these beaded ornaments out of their boxes and it rushed over me. I hadn’t seen her in the final stages, but in a way, I don’t regret that. In my mind, I still see the smiling face cheerfully showing me how to craft. That’s the face I want to hold onto. That’s the face I remember when I hang this skating couple on my tree.

family

Just. Listen.

Andi

It’s coming up on the holidays again, and my annual reminder to pay attention and listen to your kids and get to know who they are. Not who you think they should be or how you want them to be, who they are.

This was always glaringly obvious to me during the holidays. I felt ignored and never felt heard throughout the year, but it was amplified on Christmas morning. Because as I opened gifts, I realized none of them seemed to belong to me. They weren’t things I liked or had interest in. It was like my mom was buying gifts for someone else and accidentally wrote my name on the package. Occasionally, they would be what I’d asked for, but the cheapest knock off version possible. But this wasn’t because I asked for expensive gifts or they had no money.

This was displayed best the year I asked everyone to not buy me anything. I was very interested in photography and I wanted a good camera but couldn’t afford one. So I asked everyone to contribute to my savings for a camera and photoshop. Not buy me a camera, just add to my savings for one. My parents response to this was to not tell any of my siblings what I’d said, buy themselves a new camera and gift me their old one. And then gave me several other gifts I don’t even recall.

Or when I asked for an iHome to go with my fancy iPod touch I’d purchased with my own money, they bought me a set of $15 speakers.

When my brother gave me a bottle of sweet red wine from a local winery because he gathered from conversation what kind of wine I liked, my mother gave me a pair of blowout clearance (she proudly told me later) leopard print shoes, because she didn’t know how much I HATE animal print.

It never is the gift itself per se, it’s the underlying knowledge that she didn’t know enough about my likes and dislikes to know how much I hate animal print. Or that I felt like they didn’t think I was worth spending the extra to buy me an actual iHome, or a solid colored pair of shoes that weren’t as clearanced.

This is definitely layered on top of year round emotion and was not limited to Christmas morning. I didn’t feel heard when I tried to talk about a manager I felt like was out to get me because halfway through I was interrupted to be asked what I did wrong. I didn’t feel emotionally safe to express my feelings any time of year because every time I tried to open up I was attacked. I couldn’t ever voice a complaint because I’d be told how good I had it and my mom had it so much worse. But Christmas seems to just amp up the emotion and magnify the problem like you are an ant burning in a sunbeam.

If you are wanting to give an experience, you should know what your child is into doing, and do it with them. Because the time spent with you is the most precious thing. If you are trying to be creative and save some money, maybe can’t afford the thing they asked for, take notice of the other things they show interest in. Or be honest and explain it’s too expensive and ask what else they’d like, and listen to their ideas. Sometimes money really is the problem. Your kid wants a new video game and you can’t afford to drop $60 on it. I get that struggle, trust me, we’ve been there. Then you really need to know your kid, know their personality, likes, who they are. Listen. You’re children may surprise you with ideas.

Listen to them. Listen all the time. Don’t interrupt them. Don’t belittle their experiences or the feelings they have about them. Don’t ignore the parts of them you’ve decided don’t fit your perfect picture you have painted for their life. In fact, don’t paint that picture.

Just. Listen.

family

Cranberry salad

Andi

With Thanksgiving here and all the December holidays just around the corner, everyone will be cooking. But what if you aren’t great at cooking? You could just go grab some rolls or a fruit tray from the store and call it a day, or you could mix up the easiest cranberry salad ever made. So if you want to bring a homemade dish to the family gathering but aren’t super successful with cooking, I’ve got the solution for you.

Calling this a salad is a bit of stretch because it is anything but. However, it’s been Cranberry Salad as long as I can remember, so that’s what I’m calling it. My mother used to put this all in a blender and then stick it in the fridge for a day so it came out more like a jelly, but I kind of like the chunks of fruit in it. I open all the ingredients and add all of them to a large bowl.

1 Can Jellied Cranberry Sauce

1 Can Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

1 Can Fruit Cocktail

1 4oz package Walnuts

1/2 tub of Whipped Topping

Marshmallows (optional)

As I said, my mother would blend this all together but I don’t. It mixes just fine with a spoon. But, and I cannot stress this enough, use a plenty big bowl. If you want to use the pretty bowl that matches the other dishes, mix it in a big bowl and transfer to the pretty bowl when you are finished.

Now, my husband insists it has marshmallows on top. I never remember there being marshmallows and I’m pretty positive he’s thinking of something different, but this sugary bowl can’t get worse with more sugar, so I topped my bowl of “salad” with Marshmallows.

If you’d like to, make a day ahead and leave in the fridge, covered, for 24 hours. It isn’t mandatory, but it does firm up a tiny bit and may be easier to dish out.

This takes a grand total of about 10 minutes from start to finish, and will most likely be a big hit with every child at your dinner. Just be prepared for the sugar rush that’s sure to follow.