Celebration Appreciation: Secret Subject Swap

 

 

Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This month 5 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

 

 

My subject is: Tell us a Christmas story. Your choice.

It was submitted by: Rena of Wandering Web Designer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find it pretty funny that it seems to be the Jewish girl who keeps getting all of the Christmas themed prompts. It's not like I'm in charge of the subject assignment or anything. 

Well, OK, I actually am. But it's not about picking and choosing, that not only wouldn't be fair, but it would be a whole lot less fun. No, the assignment process is tedious, and is about what's best for everyone based on everything but what the actual prompt is.

 

When the process was completed, last month my prompt ended up being about my holiday decoration schedule. I called the post Holiday Mash Up, and I explained how it turns out that the best decorations aren't the ones that are displayed, they're the ones that arrive.

 

You'd think that not celebrating Christmas would mean I don't have a Christmas story to tell, but I do. It's a story not of Christian beliefs, but of acceptance, appreciation, and community.

 

Let me tell you two things that stand out to me. First, when I was in religious school, we visited area churches. I think it was an early and important lesson about differences not dividing, about accepting and living with each other. I never forgot it.

 

The second thing is that we celebrated Christmas. Sort of. Santa Claus visited our home and filled the living room with gifts on Christmas morning. I think this was because there was no way my mom was going to have her Jewish kids tell the little Christian children that there was no Santa Claus. This practice ended once the other kids knew.

 

But other things continued. Participation in events that continued to foster the concept that religion was not an us-vs-them. We loved traveling the neighborhood and picking out our favorite light display. Each year the neighbor across the street had us over to decorate the tree with her family. I had an aunt who wasn't Jewish and who had a beautiful voice, we attended midnight mass to hear her sing. We, of course, attended Christmas parties and dinners and pot lucks. 

 

Peanut Butter S'more Snacks

 

 

The holiday celebrations, once I had kids, were a different experience. We live in the Midwest. I don't know if you'd call religion an us-vs-them, but it is definitely viewed among many as a right vs wrong. So I had to tread lightly. 

Santa came to our house when the boys were little, as he had to my childhood home, for the same reason. We loved looking at holiday lights and when we found out that one of the houses featured on the Today show was just 1/2 hour from here, we sat in our car for hours in line to see it.

 

We not only attended our friends' and neighbors' holiday celebrations, but I threw a Hanukkah party at our house every year. We were the only Jewish attendees, but it was so satisfying that friends were willing to share not only the celebration of their holiday but ours.

 

And each year that the boys were in elementary school, their teachers would allow me into their classrooms for a Hanukkah presentation. Deliberately, nothing in my visit was religious, just highlighting traditions. I'd bring the kids donuts (sufganiyut are eaten on Hanukkah), read a book about celebrating Hanukkah (which I then donated to the classroom), brought in dreidels and broke the kids up in groups to learn to play the game (using starburst candies instead of pennies). The kids all loved it. Many parents contacted me later asking me if I could give them a dreidel and written instructions on how to play.

But there were also disappointments. Every year the sign at the school said "Merry Christmas," for the month of December. Once the boys could read, I asked if they could change it to say "happy holidays." Apparently not. Rather than display a sentiment for all (there were one or two Muslims at the school too, btw), they took all the lettering down and left a blank sign.

I resented that I was required to pay neighborhood dues, some of which was used as a cash prize to the best Christmas decorated house. When I mentioned it (I believe it's even illegal to use those dues for anything religious), I was told that it did not exclude those of other religions, I was welcome to put up Christmas decorations too. It continues to this day.

 

Shortly after mentioning it to the head of the homeowner's association (a lawyer, btw) I had to turn over a threatening letter I received to the police. Yes, it was that bad.

And the store employees around here say "Merry Christmas." Period. Businesses make it clear that is their corporate policy. Somehow the idea of wishing everyone a happy holiday diminishes Christmas to them. I'm not exactly sure how that could possibly be, then again I'm also not sure there's logic involved. But the pervasive attitude around here is that religion does divide and it should, you are Christian or you are wrong.

I feel sorry for them. I think they totally miss the point. Religion is meant to guide and comfort us, inspire us to live to a higher standard. Honestly, I think I have a greater understanding of some aspects of Christmas than they do.

 

This is the graphic I created for a piece I wrote many years ago called Blasphemy. I talk about how religion is used and manipulated as opposed to followed. I ended my post by saying "religion is a blanket, not a sword."

I'll end this one by saying that religion needs to go back to being a blanket, not a sword. The tenets of all religions require us to look a little deeper into what our beliefs actually are, and how we manifest them in our daily lives. 

Happy holidays, my friends. May you find peace, inspiration, and direction in whatever you celebrate.

Take comfort. And give it.

 

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Wandering Web Designer

Climaxed 

What TF Sarah

Part-time Working Hockey Mom 

Peanut Butter S'more Snacks       

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 bag (7.6 oz) mini Reese's cups

1 bag (16 oz) mini pretzel twists

60 mini marshmallows

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

*Place 60 pretzels in a single layer onto each of the baking sheets.

*Place a mini Reese's cup onto each pretzel on one baking sheet and a mini marshmallow onto each pretzel on the second baking sheet.

*Bake both sheets for 3 minutes, then remove from the oven. Immediately take each Reese's topped pretzel and sandwich them (with both pretzels on the outside) with a marshmallow topped pretzel, and press together gently.

*Allow to cool and set. NOTE: placing them in the refrigerator will allow them to set faster.

Life of a Dreidel: Poetry Monday

Poetry Monday's once a week.

I bet you know which day.

I don't participate every time,

But today I've come out to play.

My friends assign each week a theme,

Hanukkah's what they chose.

Now it's up to all of us,

to put our thoughts into prose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life of a Dreidel

 

Life of a dreidel, it must be

one that's filled with joy.

Work only 8 days a year,

and more than just a toy.

 

Rest with my family all year long,

then for 8 days, on display.

Everyone can hardly wait,

for that Hanukkah game to play. 

Out comes the menorah,

for this festival of lights,

Dinner, of course with latkes,

and special treats on all 8 nights.

 

Candy Cane Crescent Rounds

 

Then grab your pile of pennies,

or you can use chocolate gelt.

How much you end the game with,

your fate, by me, is dealt.

Now it's my turn, all eyes on me.

I alone will tell you all,

what you need to do this turn.

Will you win? Winner takes all.

 

 

Nun means nothing, status quo,

but if I land on shin,

you'll lose a piece of gelt because,

shin means you put one in.

  

Hay's for when I'm generous,

you take half from the pot.

But if I land on gimmel,

take all, you win on the spot!

 

 

Wait! A problem I can see,

with spin and spin and spin.

This may not be the life for me,

I'd be too dizzy to see who'd win! 

 

 

 

Wait!

Read more poetry, 

you're not through.

Some talented writers

are in this crew:

 

On the Border

Messymimi's Meanderings 

Mother Owl 

 

Candy Cane Crescent Rounds       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

4 oz candy canes or starlight mints

1 tube (8oz) refrigerated crescent sheet

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

 

 Directions:
*Crush the candy canes. Set aside.

*Unroll the crescent sheet onto a piece of plastic wrap. Top with a second sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll the crescent sheet out to about a 10 X 15 rectangle, remove the top piece of plastic wrap.

*Sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the crescent sheet, press in gently. Sprinkle the mini chocolate chips over the top.

*Using the long end, rolled the filled crescent sheet up, as tightly as you can to create about a 15 inch tube. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1/2 hour. 

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

*Remove the rolled crescent sheet from the refrigerator, discard the plastic wrap and slice the dough into about 30 rounds. Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on the parchment paper. 

*NOTE: Some of the candy will ooze out while baking. Once the rolls are cooled, you can easily just snap the excess candy off of the edges.

 

 

Autumn Lessons

 

 

 It started about a month ago. Right around Halloween. Autumn was already long here, but before then it had been in name only. Now, it was in temperature as well. After waking rolled up in a ball with my head under the covers three mornings in a row, I finally gave in and turned the heat on in the house. Hubs shut down the sprinkler system and switched prominent garage status from the lawn mower to the snow blower. 

 

The leaves were turning color and falling. And due to a simple decision about a screen, I'd seen something in the yard. Something that compelled me to go out and take a picture. While there, I saw something else, just as noteworthy, and snapped a picture of that as well.

 

I wasn't sure what I'd do with the pictures, but their presence had felt important to me somehow. Embodiment of life lessons type importance. So I did what I always do, just let it be, let it germinate, tell me what I wanted to do with those pictures, to say about them.

 

Just for context, although many of you who read this blog regularly already know, let me just say this:

 

I grew up in New England. Fall is beautiful there. I've been on the Kancamangus Highway, seen the rolling mountains bursting with the colors of the season, reds and yellows and browns and burnt oranges and even greens all decorate both sides of the road.

 

Living in the Midwest, I always laugh when people who've never been anywhere else talk about the beauty of the Fall leaves. They have no idea. This, my friends, is nothing.

 

 

 

My house backs up to woods. Although, when I venture out, there are a few different colored leaves on trees here and there, what I get is just green, yellow and brown. Not that those aren't perfectly fine colors, but they are one-note, and I'm someone who's heard the symphony.

I wrote a blog post right about that time, published just a couple of days ago, called I Can See Clearly Now. I talked about the difference when we took the screen out of our kitchen window, the sharpness of the view. I credit that new clarity for, while working on a recipe, thinking that I had caught something out of the corner of my eye. 

Sweet Potato Mix Rolls

 

It was just a quick glimpse. The wind was gently blowing and leaves were falling. The lawn was not yet dormant, but was covered in a brown and yellow carpet. But when that wind blew, did I see a variation along the woods line? A deviation from the norm?

Truth is, had I not been so used to my monochromatic view, I would never have paid attention to the flash of color, even seen it, perhaps, let alone gone out to investigate. I wouldn't have been treated to the lesson embodied by nature, nonconformity is noteworthy. There is beauty in difference. Highlighted, no doubt by the juxtaposition of that difference among all that conformity.

There it is. Can you see it? Way over on the far left? Red. Hanging out there, just being red.

 

And had I not been out in the back yard acknowledging, documenting, that difference, I never would have taken that second picture. 

 

 

There among the dead leaves and half dormant, wilting plants, stood one Daylilly. On one single stock, one single hearty, fully formed flower that, despite the odds, was determined to have its one single day in the sun. 

 

Perseverance, determination, they can pay off. You can't know unless you try. That's what I got from that little yellow flower.

 

But for me, the main lesson, one we desperately need to acknowledge in this country, is what those red leaves so beautifully personified, just by being the only thing they could be. There is beauty in diversity.

 

Sweet Potato Mix Rolls       

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 package (5.6 oz) Betty Crocker Homestyle Sweet Potato Mix

1 1/4 cup milk

1 cup hot water

4 TBSP butter, divided

2 1/4 cups flour, divided

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp allspice

 

Directions:

*NOTE: this recipe calls for a package of sweet potato mix, this recipe does not use the entire prepared mix.
*Prepare the packaged potato mix with the milk, hot water, and 3 TBSP of the butter in the microwave according to package instructions. Set aside, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

*Cover a kneading area with 1/4 cup flour. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 cups of flour with the baking powder, salt, and allspice.

*Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

*Add 2 cups of the potato mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated, then, on the floured kneading area, knead for just 1 minute.

*Form the dough into 12 balls, place on the baking sheet and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the remaining 1 TBSP butter and brush onto the tops of the rolls.

*Bake for 20 minutes.