The Gift of Gifts

The Gift of Gifts

O Source of All Good,

What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,

thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,

my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,

his self-empyting incomprehensible,

his infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:

he came below to raise me above,

was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;

when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,

to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;

when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart

he united them in indissoluble unity,

the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom;

when I was undone, with no will to return to him,

and no intellect to devise recovery,

he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,

as man to die my death,

to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,

to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherd, and enlarge my mind;

let me hear good tidings of great joy,

and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,

my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,

to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,

and in him account myself delivered from sin;

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,

embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much

that heaven can give no more.

*from The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Merry Christmas to All! My prayer for all of you is that you have better places to be on this Holiday than in front of the computer.

If you share a faith in Christ, then I also pray that in the midst of all of the busyness our celebrations often bring, you will find time to contemplate on the WORD made flesh.

Favorite Things

These are a few of our Favorite Things at Christmas time:

• Nativities--wherever we can see them
• Music--Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, St. Olaf, Mannheim Steamroller, New Irish Hymns #3
• Candles--just not making them
• Lehnertz Avenue--This is a street in Aurora, IL where each house puts up part of the Christmas story, Scripture on one side and characters all moving toward the huge nativity in the park on the other, and you drive past the whole thing. There is music playing and if it happens to be snowing a little; well, it doesn't get much more perfect than that. When you get to the circle at the far end, there is a Charlie Brown story. They have been doing this since before my parents were born.
• Being up to our eyeballs in Family
  
• Fuzzy PJs
• Special sweet treats (but you knew that already, didn't you?)
• Snowflakes--as long as we don't have to go anywhere
• Snuggling by the fireplace and reading together
  
• The grace given to us in the form of Immanuel

Christmas Caramels (last recipe this year, I promise)

Candy Thermometer
1 c. butter
2 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
dash salt
15 oz can sweetened condensed milk (not fat free!)
1 t. vanilla

In a heavy saucepan over medium low heat, melt butter. Then add brown sugar, syrup, and salt and stir until well combined. Slowly add sweetened condensed milk. Stirring constantly (a heat resistant utensil with a flat edge that will be flush against the bottom of the pan works best), cook until mixture reaches 245*. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan, cover and cool over night. When cool, cut into small squares and wrap each square in wax paper. Store in air tight container.
*This recipe is not hard, but requires patience. It should take about 20 minutes to reach the right temp and you cannot stop stirring or it will burn. Please be mindful of the high temps you are working at as well.

Slacker Gingerbread House

Being a self proclaimed Slacker Extraordinaire, I thought I'd share my Gingerbread House instructions with you.

1. Make a pot of strong coffee to sustain you through the process.
2. Wander around the house looking for cardboard, scissors, tape, exacto knife, ruler and cutting mat.
3. Put on Christmas music for inspiration.
   
4. Clear off the breakfast table so you have a place to work.
5. Eat a Snickerdoodle.
6. Trim all but two flaps opposite each other from a nice sized priority mail box. (fig 1)
   
7. Answer the phone.
8. Mark the center of the two remaining flaps and draw a diagonal line from the center down to each corner of the flaps and trim off the resulting triangle. These will form the peaks of your roof at the front and back of the house.
9. Measure the distance between front and back of the house as well at one of the sloped sides of the peak. These will be the height and width of the two panels you need to cut to finish the roof.
10. Cut remaining roof panels.
11. Eat a Chocolate Snowball.
12. Use masking tape to secure the additional roof pieces in place.
    
13. Eat another Chocolate Snowball.
14. Cut four long, narrow strips of cardboard, slightly taller than your house and tape them together to form a chimney.
15. Secure the chimney to the side of the house.
16. Let the dog out.
17. Let the dog in.
18. Cut a large rectangle out of strong cardboard for your base.
19. Use masking tape to secure the house to the base on all sides. (fig 2)
    
20. Eat a Thumbprint cookie.
21. Gather all of your decorative candies, unwrap them and arrange them in separate bowls.
22. Sample each kind of candy for quality control.
23. Mix up one batch of ornamental icing at a time (4 c. powdered sugar, 3 T. meringue powder, 1/3 c warm water--whip until stiff peaks form).
24. Taste icing.
25. Find soda to get rid of icing taste.
26. Apply icing to one panel of the house at a time and stick your candies on in the desired patterns.
27. Stop after two panels to make lunch for the kids.
28. While you're eating lunch, take a look at Ryan's Gingerbread Barn (hereafter to be known as the RGB).
29. Decide that your project is a poor cousin to the RGB, but hey, you've got three little girls helping you and by gum, you're going to finish anyway.
30. Console yourself with the fact that yours will be done in a matter hours, whereas the RGB has taken days.
    
31. Make new batch of icing to replace icing that has hardened in the bowl.
32. Give child instruction to hide the jelly bellies from you before you eat them all.
33. Frost and decorate 1 1/2 panels.
34. Answer door and sign for last package you needed for presents.
35. Frost and decorate remaining panels.
36. You are 18 gumdrops short of finishing even though you swear you didn't eat any of those.
    
37. Call husband to have him pick up more gum drops on his way home.
38. Save glob of icing to finish gumdrop border later.
39. Pass out on living room floor in Sugar Coma.
40. Blog about it.

M's idea was to build a new piece each year until we have a village. Needing to save them from year to year is part of the reason we used cardboard instead of gingerbread. I'm also working with kids who don't have the patience or delicacy to work with real gingerbread. My college roommate and I made gingerbread houses in our dorm room without the aid of any kitchen facilities using the cardboard method. I have been sold on it ever since.

fig. 1

fig. 2

The gingerbread boy and girl have been part of our decorations for years. They fit perfectly.
My rosemary trees are pretty pathetic. At least I had the presence of mind to install short straw sockets for them before I frosted the base so I can replace them easily.

Christmas Cookies

Your house is probably much like mine around the holidays. There are just certain activities, recipes and other traditions that make the season for your family and friends. Without them, it just doesn't feel right.
I'm guessing that cookies are probably one of those traditions. For us, there are four must-make recipes. Any others are welcome, but just nice extras. The Thumbprints, Almond Butter Cookies, Chocolate Snowballs and Maple Walnut bars are not optional.


Thumbprints

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. softened butter
2 eggs, separated
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 /2 t. salt
1-1 1/2 c finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium bowl, whisk flour and salt. In a large mixer bowl, cream shortening, butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until foamy but not stiff. Roll dough into walnut sized ball, dip in egg white and roll in nuts*. Place 1" apart on a greased cookie sheet. Make a depression in center of each ball with your thumb. Bake 17-20 minutes, or until they begin to brown. Cool completely and fill the centers with buttercream icing.
*I'm going to share my trade secret for not making a complete mess at this stage. Get your materials closely lined up: egg white near your right hand, dough in front of you, nuts near your left hand and cookie sheet at your left side (or reverse it if you want). Use just your palms to roll the dough balls and drop them about four at a time into the egg. Then use only your right finger tips to coat them with the egg and drop them into the nut bowl. Then use only your left finger tips to roll them in the nuts and place them on the cookie sheet. By assigning a specific task to each part of your hands, you will keep from polluting each step with the others. You'll be able to finish quickly and not spend half the time washing your hands.

Buttercream Icing

5 1/3 T. softened butter
1/4 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
dash salt
4 c. powdered sugar
food coloring paste (made by Wilton-liquid FC works, but you will need much more to get the desired color. Pink is for Valentine's Day.)

In a small mixer bowl, beat butter, milk, vanilla, salt and food coloring until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar until icing reaches desired consistency. You will want it to be a little stiff. After you fill the thumbprints, let the cookies sit out until just the surface of the icing dries so that it won't stick to your plastic wrap.

Almond Butter Cookies

3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
1 T. light corn syrup
1 t. almond extract
1/2 t. salt
3 1/3 c. flour*

Cream sugar, butter, shortening, egg, syrup and extract. Gradually add salt and flour and mix until just combined.
Now you have options. You know those clay cookie molds like the Brown Bag Cookie Molds? This dough works really well with them. Follow the mold instructions. Bake at 350* until the edges just begin to show a hint of browning.
You can also roll this dough out and make cut out cookies. Or you can use it in a cookie press. *If you use a cookie press, cut the flour down by about 1/2 cup so that the dough is soft enough to use with the press. I'm partial to the cookie press. What slacker wouldn't be?

Chocolate Snowballs

3 c. flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 c. softened butter
2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and cocoa. In a large mixer bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Slowly add flour mixture and blend until dry and crumbly. With your hands, work the dough until a ball forms and the sides of the bowl come clean. Roll the dough into small balls and place 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. You should get 4 1/2-5 dozen cookies. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until outside of dough is dry but inside is still soft. Cool on pan. While just barely still warm, roll the cookies in powdered sugar. Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Maple Walnut Bars (These are DH's personal favorites.)

2 c. flour
1/2 t. soda
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. softened butter
1 c. real maple syrup
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and soda. In large mixer bowl, cream together sugars, syrup, egg and vanilla. Add flour and blend until just combined. Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan and bake 45-50 minutes, or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool completely and then frost. Store in fridge.

Maple Frosting

1/2 c softened butter
2 oz. softened cream cheese
1 T. brown sugar
3 T. maple syrup
6 T. powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients in a small mixer bowl and frost bars.

Snickerdoodles

1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

4 T. sugar
2 t. cinnamon

In a mixer bowl cream together shortening, sugar, and eggs. In separate bowl, whisk flour soda, salt and cream of tartar. Don't make the mistake of thinking the cream of tartar is optional unless you want nice little concrete circles on your cookie tray. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend well. The dough will be crumbly. With your hands, work the dough until it forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are clean. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so. When chilled, form walnut sized balls of dough and roll them in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place 1 1/2 " apart on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400* 8-10 minutes. You do not want them to brown.

**Just in case you're wondering, these are all handwritten recipes in my very own personal stash, and therefore fair game. ;)

Snow Machine

The Slacker in me loves to decorate with snowflakes. Sure they're pretty and festive, but they are also easy to store and you don't have to take them down until some time in March or April.
A number of years ago I stumbled across Dave's Snowflakes, bought the disk and have been cutting snowflakes ever since.
They cover our tree, hang from a huge mobile in our two story foyer (which the girls think is funny because it's a snowmobile) and are sprinkled throughout the rest of the house. When we're done with them, the whole stack stores easily in a manila envelope.
Another benefit is that the project is easily transported. I have a ziploc with a stack of pre-printed patterns and some scissors handy and can take it with when I know I'm going to be sitting in the dentist's office or riding in the car. Just fold and snip away, dropping your scraps into the bag.
Every year I try to add a couple dozen new flakes to the mix. It's fun to curl up in front of the fireplace and make snowflakes with the girls will we listen to books on tape or watch favorite holiday movies. And the best part? If you make a mistake, it's only paper.

Candlemaking for Dummies

After the not so successful attempt with the wax earlier this week, we decided that we needed to find a project that we could do. Ta-Da! Button Candles:

This project was also in the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books (book 3, p. 39) and I am happy to report that they were easy and fun.
What you need:

• Pillar candles
• buttons
• glue dots (the book recommends hot glue, but neither I nor my 7yo are allowed to use a hot glue gun)
• wire cutters

We already had a jar of buttons that we found at an antique store a while back. That jar has provided hours of entertainment for us. It is so fun to sift through them and make up stories about where they might have come from and the people that could have worn them. I highly recommend trolling the antique stores for collections of old buttons. They have so much more character than the newer ones.
The rest is simple. Put glue dot on button and then put button on candle in a random unpattern. M made the green and red one without any help from me.
Some of the buttons had a raised loop or hook on the back. I used a pair of jewelry wire cutters to clip that off so that they would be flat. If you do this, please be careful and take the proper precautions. I don't want to hear about anybody shooting their eye out with a ricocheting button.


**Wake up call**
On a personal note, the GBP comment yesterday made me curious and so I did some digging via Google Analytics, etc. I made a startling discovery too. People do read this blog. And I'm not just talking about my mother and a couple of letterboxing friends. While I'm not sure why, a surprising number of people are paying attention.
That is both thrilling and terrifying. No author writes in public and prays that no one ever reads it. This humbling realization means that I need to be more responsible though. So this is me...being responsible. Over the holidays I have posted a number of recipes that were not mine to post. For that I apologize. I have removed a number of posts and will be more careful in the future. The last thing I want to do is go to jail for an appetizer.

For those of you who really wanted those recipes, but didn't write them down in time, all I can say is "Buy the Gooseberry Patch books. They are completely worth it!" I have been disappointed occasionally, but it is almost always my own fault.

How NOT to Make Candles

Yesterday I mentioned that we made the tags in the middle of another adventure. That was our first attempt at candle making. I think I have recovered sufficiently enough to be able to talk about the experience.
What didn't work:

• Buying the 10# glacier of paraffin at Hobby Lobby. My attempts to break it into manageable chunks with a chisel and hammer would have given Martha Stewart heart palpitations. I was considering the reciprocal saw at one point.
  
• Using the wax dye to color the paraffin.
  
• Using a pyrex bowl to melt the wax in since we didn't have a metal coffee can. (Do they even sell coffee in metal cans anymore?) Pyrex bowls don't pour very well. In fact, Pyrex bowls pour just about everywhere except where you want them to.
  

What did work (or would probably work):

• Buying the smaller packages of Gulf Wax. It would likely cost more, but be much easier to work with and involve less bruising.
  
• Lots more dye.
• The metal coffee can. Crimping a pour spout in the rim first would be a great idea too.
• The pine needle essential oil smells great. In fact, my kitchen floor will smell good for a long time to come.
• Allowing about four times longer for the project then you think it will take.
• Buying your candles from Pier One.
  

Our first project was Pinecone Firestarters. Tie a wick on a pine cone and dip it in melted wax several times. How hard could that be?
No comment.

These were the pinecones we made.

These were the pinecones in the Gooseberry Patch Christmas book. I'm going to go out a limb and guess that I don't have much of a future in candlemaking. It remains to be seen if they will start a fire or not. And will the wax leave residue in the fireplace?
My biggest question however involves the warnings on the paraffin. They went to great lengths to inform you that you should not, under any circumstances, not ever, no we mean it, never use the paraffin near an open flame (which we didn't). And yet the product is labeled for use in making candles; which by their very nature involve open flames.

I think I'm going to stick to sharp, pointy objects from now on.