What Think Ye Of Christmas: a Book Review

I devour novels. Quick and messy, cannot wait to find out what happens next kind of reading. But some books must be read aloud and savored slowly and shared to be fully appreciated. What Think Ye of Christmas by Ester Rasband with original watercolor paintings by Jana Winters Parkin is such a book.

I should take the time to link to some of the lovely artwork in the book (because they are simply beautiful), but with my current time schedule that's not gonna happen. Instead, here's my experience with the book.

I was lucky enough to win two blog contests offering this book (one of them in multiples!) When I recieved my first copy, not having much time as I slogged through my daily mail on the way to multiple, gotta-get-em-done-today tasks, I opened it and quickly read through the text, taking enough time to spend just a moment on each work of art. My thoughts were along the lines of, "That was very nice," as I hurried back to my to-do list.

The next day, I gathered my children around me and read it to them, taking time to show them the pictures. That experience was on a whole new level over my first perusal. Reading with my children, wanting them to understand in both their hearts and minds what the book was saying, and even, (hope springs eternal!), implement the concept into our holiday season, the book became a beautiful witness of the Saviours birth and even a springboard to a discussion of how our family can remember him better in our Christmas celebration. (What more could you ask for!?)

You can buy the book here, and you won't be sorry. It's a wonderful addition to our Christmas library (btw, does anyone else love, love, love decorating their home with Christmas books? Not only are they beautiful, but decorating with them, puts them around the house where they are more likely to be read and enjoyed all season long. This book is perfect for decorating, because it's small and has that gorgeous angel on the front).

After you get your copy, experience it with someone you love, your spouse, your children, your sister, your visiting teacher, or simply read it aloud to yourself. Your voice will tell you things about the text that your eyes alone will miss. Take the time to enjoy the works of art. You'll be glad you did, and, who knows, it may even lead to a more Christ-centered Christmas celebration in your neck of the woods!

Candy Cane Tutorial!

It's time for a quick break from wedding/Christmas preparations. I've wanted to do a tutorial on homemade candy canes for quite some time. If I don't do it now, it won't be any good until next Christmas season. This will be quick and may have lots of typos.

Eleven Christmases ago we moved to the midwest and a good lady in our ward invited us over to make candy canes with her family. I was perplexed. "You mean you make real candy canes?" She replied that they did. "With stripes and everything?" She assured me that they would even be striped. We enjoyed it so much that we now have a Candy Cane party with friends each year. It's become an important part of our celebration.

NOTE: Don't let the length of the written instructions deter you. I've incorporated all of the hints and tips from my friend into the recipe. It's not as extensive as it looks. I recommend that you have at least eight to twelve-ish people to do this, or you're going to get really tired of rolling them.

The recipe came from my friend's grandma. She was born in the 1880's, lived in Utah all her life and worked in a candy factory as a young girl. This is the recipe from the factory.

6 cups sugar
3 cups water
2/3 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 dram peppermint oil (or less) Available at pharmacies
red food coloring

In a large pot, combine sugar, water, salt and corn syrup. Stir really well, till all sugar crystals are dissolved (if any crystals remain when it starts to boil, the candy will turn amber). Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil (she cooks it on high because it's faster).




Then add the cream of tartar but DO NOT STIR. Put lid on pot to steam for three minutes. Remove lid and, with damp cloth, wipe crystals from sides of pan.


Cook to hard crack stage (300-310 degrees Fahrenheit). Mixture will bubble white over entire surface. According to my friend, the cold water test is the only way to be sure it has cooked long enough. You will actually hear a small crack when the candy is dropped into a cup of cold water.

Immediately removed the pot from the burner. Pour 2/3 onto a buttered cookie sheet to cool. Leave the other 1/3 in the pan to cool (this will be the stripe).

Once it is cool enough to handle, lightly butter hands and pull the candy white (doesn't take very long). While pulling, add flavor. Snip a small amount off with kitchen shears to test for flavor. Next, pull, flavor and color the stripe.

Here are our friends from Kansas who joined us for Thanksgiving pulling the candy white.

Hubders adding the red to the stripe.

Lump the white into a rough ball. Stretch the red into a rough rope and make a ring around the white.

With two people, stretch the whole thing out to about a foot or so and twist so the stripe goes around and around.

Place on a wooden board and roll (should be unfinished wood, or the candy cane will slide instead of rolling). Cut with kitchen shears once it gets too long for your two hand spans. Give 1/2 to someone else and both of you continue rolling on wooden boards, cutting and passing to someone new whenever a piece gets to be longer than your hand spans.

Place extra pieces on a buttered cookie sheet in a 170 degreee oven, with the door left open to keep warm till they can be rolled (pieces that get too cold to roll may also be placed in the oven to warm them up again). Continue rolling till desired size.

Shape into canes, or any other shape you desire. Place on waxed paper, making sure that the canes do not touch each other. (I always stock up on shirt boxes at Christmas time. Lined with wax paper, they are ideal for sending the candy canes home with your guests.)

The finished product! Some of the pictures are lousy and you'll notice that some years, the candy canes are whiter than others!

Try it! You'll be glad you did!

The Crocheted Christmas Tree....er, Hat

My three younger children have no memory of their Great-Grandma. We lived in her basement apartment for the first six years of our marriage, and it was a great blessing to us.

She was an expert crocheter (is that a word?). One year she crocheted a beautiful Christmas village out of crochet cotton. She also crocheted for us a Christmas tree. She recommended that we decorate it with mini ornaments and beads and things, which we never did, but we use that tree every year. It sits there amongst our other decorations with a cone underneath to give it structure.

My children's favorite thing to do with the tree is to remove the cone and use it as a hat. We had a big enough break in our family, that for a few years, the tree was only a tree. The younger ones had never experienced the tree-as-hat. And yet, with no prompting and having never seen it done, when they reached a certain age, the tree ended up on their heads just as it had with their older siblings.

Every one of my six children have danced and sung and played in that Christmas tree. Today we decorated and as we opened the totes and were reunited with our favorite Christmasy things, the hat ended up on Girlie-Whirls head, just as it did last year and the year before that. And I spent a sweet moment walking down memory lane with my Grandma.

Christmas!

I listened to Christmas music yesterday. Now I'm all excited for the holidays and so, I gathered my younger children around for a family counsel on Christmas. I asked each of them which Christmas traditions are important to them. We made a list so that we wouldn't get to the end of the holidays and realize we'd missed some of our favorite things.

Here are my three youngests lists.

Bikey-Boy (14 years old) wants to go to that church that has all the Nativities (Creches and Carols), wants to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Nauvoo, hopes to find a nice holiday concert to attend (probably for extra credit in his choir class), and it was important to him that we have pie on Christmas day.

Banana-Girl (11 years old) wants to decorate the Christmas tree while listening to the Amy Grant Christmas CD, go see that house with the amazing amount of lights that blink in time with music playing on their own radio station, do an advent calendar, and watch the movies, It's A Wonderful Life and White Christmas.

Girlie-Whirl (6 years old) wants to make sure that we leave cookies and milk for Santa along with nine carrots for the reindeer (we spent some time over the appropriate number of carrots, wanting to ensure that Rudolph wasn't left out). Make gingerbread girls (not men). She said it's important to her that we have three trees, "The one in the family room, the one in there (pointing to the living room) that we sleep under (a standard Christmas tradition in our home), and the little one upstairs." And lastly, she wanted to do that thing where she dresses up as angel and we act it out. "But this time I kind of want to be Mary."

As we talked we decided that the following traditions were also crucial to our Christmas: making it a month of meaningful service (still working out the details on this one), cutting out lots of snow flakes, reading Christmas Stories and singing Christmas carols (we try to do this every night through December), making homemade gifts for each other, delivering treats to neighbors, and last, but certainly not least, making candy canes with family and friends.

I've barely started Christmas shopping, but who cares? I'm cutting back this year. Oh, we'll still do presents, and probably a bit more than we should, but it's going to be all about the family council list. The challenge will be to resist, resist, resist everytime I want to spend more, make it bigger, pay attention to all of the material stuff that constantly bombards us all, especially this time of year. The focus is going to be, and I'm completely determined about this regardless of how pitiful I've been in the past, the Savior, serving, and family.