The Eleventh Day of Christmas

After yesterday, you may have thought that my store of embarrassing moments was dwindling.  You might have suspected that I'd shared them all.

My friends, I have only skimmed the surface.  I have not yet played my Germany Card.  Until now.

Innocents Abroad

For anyone new to this blog, I lived in Germany for a year.  Shortly after Endeavor was born, the Bionic Man's company sent us over to Munich, Germany for a year long work assignment.  While the Bionic Man was at work during the day, Baby Endeavor and I had fabulous and sometimes frightening adventures every time we stepped out of our apartment.  At home, Endeavor stayed busy running Motherhood Bootcamp, while I tried to keep up.  We also watched a lot of Teletubbies and Little House on the Prairie, dubbed into German for television.  

Oktoberfest

Superkid's Version: Away in a Manger

We still have some of our Nativity sets on display.  I collect Nativity sets.  I like to display them for as long as possible.  The Bionic Man likes to display our Christmas Tree for as long as possible.  It, too, is still on display.  What can I say.....we are very festive.

But back to the Nativity sets.  This is one of my favorites, a tiny Nativity that was given to us by my brother-in-law and his brother, after they visited us while we were living in Germany.  They bought it in Oberammergau, the home of the famous Passion Play.

But wait, what's this?  There is something a little strange about this Nativity.

Who has joined Mary and Joseph at the Manger?  Let's zoom in and take a closer look.

Hmmm.....that looks an awful lot like a Polly Pocket I know.  That's strange, I'm pretty sure Polly Pocket is not from Bethlehem.  Or Oberammergau.

This looks like the work of Superkid.

"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

- Matthew 18:4

Gingerbread Love

I took a blogging sabbatical over the holidays.  


Wait, according to Wikipedia, it might not have been a sabbatical, so to speak.

A sabbatical is a prolonged hiatus, typically one year, in the career of an otherwise successful individual taken in order to fulfill some dream, e.g. writing a book or traveling extensively.


I mean, if we are going to be picky with definitions, I wasn't exactly fulfilling a dream....and I didn't write a book or travel extensively.  But I did read quite a few books (13, to be exact) and I sat extensively on the couch with a heating pad (that's a dreamy thing to do on a cold winter day) and I  researched a number of other blogs while I was on my own blogging sabbatical.


One of the things I discovered during the blog research segment of my blogging sabbatical was that all the mommy bloggers out there with pretty pictures on their blogs made gingerbread houses with their families over the holidays.  


We didn't do that.  After all, I was on sabbatical and my superpowers were at a diminished capacity.


But I'm not going to despair.  And you shouldn't either, if you didn't include gingerbread as part of your Christmas celebration.  Because gingerbread isn't a one time of year, oh-no-Christmas-passed-us-by kind of thing, and I'm going to prove it.  In fact, you could say that I've come away from my sabbatical with a gingerbread thesis.  

Gingerbread:  It's Not Just for Christmas. 

This is one of our family's favorite books.

I LOVE reading anything Jan Brett illustrates to my children.  There is just so much to look at and discover on each page.  And this book is proof that gingerbread can be for enjoying after you have run around outside in the cold or while you are snuggled up next to your mommy enjoying a good book.  Gingerbread houses are also a fun way to keep the kiddoes occupied during some of those random winter holidays....Martin Luther King Day, for example.

Take a look at these non-Christmasy gingerbread creations:

Candy rocks!  (No, I'm not cheering for candy, I'm pointing out what they used to decorate this darling gingerbread house with....those candy rocks.)

Hmm.  There appears to be a Santa on the roof of this house.  But still, it is very cool.  Take down the Christmas decorations, and you have quite a work of architectural art!  Gingerbread is nothing if not versatile.

Further proof of gingerbread's versatility, and of the fact that you need not be a whiz in the kitchen or an architectural genius to be able to enjoy it:

It can keep you warm on cold winter nights!  This quilt is too, too cute.  If I were a quilter...which I most definitely am not....I would make this very quilt in blues and browns so I could display it all through January and February.

Which months I hereby declare "The Gingerbread Months"!

I happen to know that Germans really love their gingerbread, and they love it practically year-round.  They love their gingerbread so much that they call it "lebkuchen," which literally means "little love cakes."

Little love cakes!

In fact, Germans use lebkuchen to share messages of love.  They give away cookies decorated with loving notes and symbols  on special holidays like Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Oktoberfest.  (Seriously, Oktoberfest is all about the love!  Betcha didn't know that the first Oktoberfest was a royal wedding celebration!)

Now, is that better than a card, or what?

Little love cakes!

Now, as you may have learned, no blog post of mine would be--well--a blog post of mine, without a story.  Here it is.

The Bionic Man and I were married during our last year of college, over Christmas break.  December 30th, to be exact.  I had a heavy load of classes during the semester before the wedding, and had to let my parents handle much of the planning and preparation.  

During one of our early planning sessions, I was asked if I wanted a wedding cake.  For some reason, I half-jokingly suggested that since it was a Christmas wedding, there should be a gingerbread house instead of a cake.  After I said that, I really started to think it was an amusing idea....you know, imagining the possibilities of replicating my fiancee' and I in gingerbread next to the house, using gumdrops in shades of our reception colors (navy blue and green, hahahaha), etc., etc.  At some point, feeling really hilarious, I giggled out the suggestion, "Hey, what would be really cool is if we had a gingerbread replica of the Logan Temple!"   (The wedding ceremony was going to take place in the Logan Temple.)  After laughing uproariously over this with my mother, I went back to planning and agreed that yes, the roses should be white.

At this point in the story, I think I should show you a picture of the Logan Temple.  

Side note:  Beautiful, isn't it?  See those mountains?  Those were in my backyard.  This is why I can never quite feel at home in the Midwest.  No mountains.  Lots of nice people, lots of beautiful farms.....but no mountains.  

I was so busy with school that semester that I hardly had time to wonder why my newly-retired father had suddenly taken an interest in baking.  Over Thanksgiving, I was startled to discover that Dad was intent on creating the perfect formula for.....royal icing.  When I pressed my mother for details, she sighed with exasperation and confessed, "Oh, he's just playing around with gingerbread.  That's all he does now, is experiment with gingerbread.  And icing.  He says he's making your wedding cake."

My wedding cake?!?!?!?

Further inspection proved that my 65 year old father--formerly an engineer and physics teacher--was indeed, making my wedding "cake":  A gingerbread replica of the Logan Temple.  

Perhaps the word "replica" isn't descriptive enough, however.  It was a scale model.  Being a historic building, it was difficult to find any information on dimensions (engineers need numbers when they work with gingerbread), so my father found a historic document that mentioned Brigham Young (yes, Brigham Young) had paced out the area when he gave instructions for the construction of the building.  Using a complex mathematical formula based on the  approximate length of Brigham Young's legs, Dad came up with the dimensions for his scale model.  (If you don't believe me about engineers, then you need to visit the website Cooking for Engineers.  An engineer in the kitchen can be a dangerous thing.)

The end result was startlingly impressive.  In fact, I think there are more pictures of the gingerbread Temple at my wedding reception that there are of me!    

How many other brides have a father who works that hard to give his daughter exactly what she asked for?  (Even though she was totally kidding when she made the request.)

Except for the gingerbread bride and groom.  There was no gingerbread bride and groom.

Now, my father being a former engineer, the gingerbread replica was designed to withstand flames, water, windspeeds up to 75 mph, and pressures of up to 150 kg/cm.  (I jest.)  It was not, however, designed to be eaten.  So, when the wedding was over, my dad carried his masterpiece home.  He put it on top of a shelf in the living room, out of reach of the grandchildren.  And there it has sat, for twelve years now, though it occasionally ventures out to win a prize or two.  

A few weeks after our wedding, my sister saw an advertisement for a nearby town that was hosting a Winterfest, complete with a gingerbread competition.  Dad placed his Logan Temple replica on the judging table, next to the little houses made of graham crackers, gumdrops, and candy canes.  He won a trip for two to San Diego!

Like I said, Gingerbread:  It's Not Just for Christmas.  It's for weddings and cold winter days and fun and good books and especially for saying "I love you."

Because nothing quite compares to the warm, loving comfort of gingerbread cookies on a cold, wintry day.

Now, if that isn't enough to convince you of the validity of my thesis, go try this recipe for yummy, soft gingerbread cookies.  It comes from the historic bakery in Nauvoo, Illinois where my ancestors used to buy their baked goods.

Scovil Bakery Gingerbread

1 c. sugar

1 c. molasses (I like to use Brer Rabbit brand)

1 c. oil

1 c. hot water

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/3 c. whole-wheat flour

6-7 c. white flour

Combine sugar, molasses, oil, and water.  Add eggs and mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Combine wet and dry ingredients until they form a well mixed dough.  Refrigerate dough several hours or overnight.  Roll out and cut shapes with a cookie cutter.  Bake cookies on parchment or a greased baking sheet for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  After cooling, you may decorate with icing.

Little love cakes!

TRADITION!

I was in two productions of Fiddler on the Roof in eighteen months.  

The first time was during my senior year of high school, 

in my high school's production.  

The second time was during my freshman year of college, 

when I was in my university's production.  

In both productions, I got to be one of Tevye's daughters.....

just not the same one each time, 

so I had to learn new songs and lines.  

In the high school production, I played Chava, 

the middle daughter who marries a Gentile and is disowned.  

Very dramatic.  

In the university production, I played Hodel, 

the daughter who follows her husband to Siberia 

and has that very touching scene at the train station with her father.  

Also dramatic.  

Loved singing that song.  

Loved, loved, loved, LOVED 

every single moment of being in those two shows.

Bet you had no idea that I was a theater geek.  

That's how great my acting skills are.

But I digress. The point is: Fiddler on the Roof is my musical.  

So, whenever I think of the word "tradition", I think of it this way:

{sorry, there was a video here. Unfortunately, it had to be removed.}

Ahh, I love that song! I'm doing the dance, right now. Tradition!

Since the Bionic Man and I were married almost 12 years ago, 
we've only spent one Christmas back at home with our families.  
Not that we don't love them, 
but distance and life have often prevented us from making the holiday trek.  
For the first couple of years this was depressing for me.

Actually, I take that back.  
For the first year, that was depressing to me.  
The second year, we were living in Munich, Germany.  
We're talking the place to spend Christmas.

We got to shop here:

Translation: Munich's Christchild Market

See this:

And taste these:

Stollen

Bienenstich

Dampfnudel.  It is what everyone eats while shopping at the outdoor Christmas markets.  They defy description.  Oh vanilla sauce, how I love thee!

We began some of our family Christmas traditions while we were living in Munich.  We made more during the following years, when the pregnancies and heart surgeries and mortgages and little things like that made it difficult for us to fly home for Christmas.  

These are some of my favorites:

1.  Decorating the Christmas Tree.  We use the tiny wooden toy ornaments that we were given by a family we met in Munich.  We began with hundreds, but they break easily.  I think that calls for another trip to Munich.

2.  Letting the children decorate little trees for their bedrooms.  They mostly make their own ornaments, but over the years have collected a few that suit their personal tastes.

3.  Bethlehem Dinner.  On Christmas Eve, I make a buffet of foods that may (or may not) have been available in biblical Bethlehem.  Our selection of food is certainly not accurate....but it is very different from our normal fare.  And there is no ham--that at least is authentic.  We push the table against the wall, and eat on blankets that we spread on the floor.  While we eat, we talk about the story of Jesus' birth, and what it must have been like to live then.

4.  Christmas Pajamas.  We always have new pajamas to wear, so that we'll look spiffy in the Christmas morning videos.

5.  Christmas Eve gifts.  After our Bethlehem dinner, we let the children open the gifts that came from their extended family members.  We feel they are able to express more appreciation and enjoyment of these gifts when they aren't lost in the paper frenzy of Christmas morning.

Four years ago, the stars and planets were aligned in such a way, that we could actually make the trip to Utah for Christmas.  We were glad we did.  Our children, however, have since informed us that they would prefer to spend Christmas at home, but they are more than happy to go see their cousins and do some skiing in Utah after Christmas.  

Tradition!

So, I'm curious.  What are some of the traditions you keep to celebrate Christmas?  What are some of your favorites?  Do you have any traditions that are unique to your family?  What have you done to blend traditions from your extended familes?

Since I've been talking about living far away from my family and my former days as a stage diva (I'm totally kidding.  I was anti-diva.) I feel it is only fitting to leave you with these parting thoughts, in song.  

{again, another video that had to be removed. sorry.}

"Yet, there with my love.....I'm home!"