Gardening III - Dirt

Today I decided to get to work on putting my seeds in my pots.

The only trouble is that, like pots, good soil is also hard to come by. Remember that it's dry season, too, so the topsoil is mostly just dust. I mentioned the issue to David, and he said to leave it to him. David is what he calls a bakauye, a villager. His mother farms in the village, and David grew up raising pigeons. So he knows about growing things--plant and animal alike. And he's not afraid of hard work and getting dirty!

We got the wheelbarrow and a shovel, and I followed him over to our neighbours' house. These neighbours--a senior resident and his family--are the keepers of Chickenville. David asked the only person home (the doctor's in-law) if we could have some of their chicken droppings for our garden. Sure, the man said. So David and I crossed the yard and entered Chickenville. While David shoveled up some droppings into the wheelbarrow, Timothy and I peeked into the chicken coops made of tin sheets and chickenwire. There were three different coops. One had a light bulb, and that was full of little chicklings--not actual tiny baby chicks, but definitely young chickens. The second coop had brown and white chickens together, and the third divided the white chickens from the brown ones. I have no idea why, not being a chicken expert myself. But we said hello to the birds, causing quite a ruckus. It smelled bad, too. Whooee! That's the smell that sometimes wafts into our bedroom at night. Lovely aroma. When David had gotten enough droppings, we headed back to our house. David dug a hole in the yard and shoveled the droppings into it to keep them from scattering.

The next step was finding soil good enough for planting. As I said, all the topsoil is dust, so David had to use a hoe and dig deeper to find better dirt. It took a lot of work, since the ground is so firm and dry, but eventually, he got enough for all four pots. In two, he put sand on the bottom, but the other two just had soil all the way down to the bottom. On the top of all four, he shoveled some chicken droppings.

"Now how do I plant the seeds?" I asked him. He said to wait, to put water on the dirt tonight, and then to plant tomorrow. So I doused the dirt in the pots with water. I tried to saturate the soil, but who knows if I succeeded? (I was a little nervous about dipping my hands into chicken droppings to check the moisture.) So the pots are sitting outside, full of [wet, I hope] dirt. And tomorrow we plant!

Gardening II - Pots

My second step in planting my basil and dill was getting planting pots, since I wanted to keep them contained and mobile.

It's not as easy as you might think. I can't just pop over to Menard's, or Home Depot, or even Super Target (or whatever they call the one with the gardening shop). I thought I'd be able to get them in town easily enough, but when I asked my parents' driver/gardener where to get them, he said he had to think about it. Finally, a few weeks later, he told me we'd have to go to the outskirts of town, to a little village called Narraguta. I'd only been out that direction a few times, including a year ago when Mr. Magit took us to a leatherworks there. (That's where David got the shoes made for him and his groomsmen.)

So Friday morning, I got the baby into the carseat, hopped into the car, and Mr. Magit drove us to Narraguta. It's not a long drive, maybe 20 minutes. Some of the highlights along the way were:

• petrol queues and closed-down filling stations
• men pushing wheelbarrows full of sugarcane
• outdoor concrete floors about 8'x8' used as local prayer rooms
• a sign reading, "Say no to CULTISM. It ruins."
• a herd of Fulani cows roaming around a car wash

When we reached the shop (I use the term losely--there were a few hundred pots stacked along the road) in Narraguta, I got out of the car with Timothy and inspected the pots. Immediately, we were surrounded by a swarm of small children. They didn't laugh or talk, and when I said hello in Hausa to one little girl in particular who looked about three and wore the Muslim veil, they just looked at me. We picked out four pots that were a little bigger than I wanted (for a total of $6) because they only had one the right size, and the sellers helped me get them into the car. I smiled at the kids, and they followed me as I got back into the car. As we drove away, I waved, and they actually waved back--the first sign that they recognised me as another person!! My guess is they don't see white people very often.

Mr. Magit unloaded the pots when we got home, and put them by the kitchen door for me to fill with dirt later...

But I didn't get around to it.

Gardening I - Seeds

I'm not a gardener. I grew up in apartments in Los Angeles, so you can imagine how much land we had in which to grow green things (i.e., none at all). Our yard was concrete at most of our apartments. Yeah, not great for gardening.

When I was in seventh grade at Hillcrest, we returned from the States in January, and my classmates were growing gardens for science class. Well, January is the middle of the dry season, and I hadn't been around in the fall to plant anything, so I had to start from scratch. Needless to say, I didn't get an A on my garden.

But I'm an adult now, so I thought I'd give it a go. My sister was successful in growing basil in her condo in Illinois, and it's so yummy to eat. We can't always get it in the market here, so when I noticed that our fruit-seller had a bunch of seed packets hanging from a clothesline in his fruit stall, I asked him if he had seeds for dill or basil. He said he didn't, but that he'd get some for me. I didn't really believe him, but two weeks later, he handed me two little sachets of seeds--dill and basil. Yay!

A brown Christmas

When I think about it, I've hardly had any white Christmases. My first one, I guess, was in 2000 in Delaware, and that was just a small dusting of snow Christmas morning as a fluke. (Apparently, they don't often get snow for Christmas.) Most of my Christmases have been brown and dry, even in the States. I'm not complaining or anything. That's how I grew up, so that's "normal" to me.

This year was no different. We're in the midst of the dry, dusty season, harmattan, here in northern Nigeria. In fact, the few days before Christmas, I was wearing long sleeves because it was chilly!! Not cold, mind you, but lower than 70F. (The dust in the air keeps out direct sunlight, so the temps drop.) On Christmas Eve we attended the annual Christmas Eve Service at Hillcrest Chapel, this year conducted by a pastor in my parents' mission. It was a lovely mixture of readings and music, including an outstanding piano-trumpet duet of "The Coventry Carol" with a spoken introduction. I'd never before heard the carol explained, and the music was so poignant as we all remembered Herod slaughtering the children fo Bethleham. Wow! After the service, we got to connect with a few old friends, including my sister's first boyfriend and one of my classmates, whom I hadn't seen since our high school graduation in June 2000.

Christmas morning dawned bright and cheery. I woke up before the boys and baked my mom's famous cinnamon rolls. Then we drank [precious] earl grey tea and opened presents. (Well, Luke opened presents. We mostly just watched.) Luke was especially enthralled by a book about boats and ships from Mom and Dad. It's a pretty nifty book! Then we watched It's a Wonderful Life and afterward took a nap. I got up to make a bean salad and rolls for dinner... Well, the rolls flopped. I'm a baker, sure, but yeast has never been my strong suit. So I had to make some baking powder biscuits instead. (The rolls did eventually rise, and we baked them and ate them, but it was more than a day later!) Our friends Sara and Sunday came over around five to do video Skype with her family in the States, and at six, we went off to our neighbours' for Christmas dinner. We were joined by other neighbours, the Johnstons from Northern Ireland. They brought traditional Irish potatoes (here, just called "Irish" without "potatoes" at all, as in, "Would you like to buy some Irish?"), pavlova, and Christmas [fruit]cake. Yum! When we got home, we tried to call my family on Skype, but we kept getting disconnected. I guess too many people had the same idea!

But that's not the traditional Nigerian Christmas at all! Here's how it should have been:

We get up early and eat breakfast. We all put on our new outfits. (Everyone who can afford it buys a new outfit for Christmas Day.) We walk to church, where we stay for anywhere from two to five hours. Then we go visiting all our friends and family. OR we entertain guests at our house and feed them jallof rice, meat, and cin-cin. We have rice and chicken for dinner.

So our Christmas wasn't quite Nigerian, but not quite American either. I totally forgot about filling our shoes (the Scandinavian version of stockings). Oh well! Christmas remains the same--a celebration of Christ's birth and a reunion of family and friends. That's what matters, right?

(Music 10) The Gift – A Colours Christmas

It's hard to say whether I like this more or December more, but they are my two favourite Christmas albums. The Gift is an instrumental celebration of Christmas and the perfect music for Christmas morning while eating breakfast or opening presents.

(Recipe 10) Blushing Apple Crescents

¾ c sugar
½ c red hots (cinnamon candies)
1 t whole allspice
½ c white vinegar

Drain liquid from apples into saucepan; stir in sugar, candies, allspice, and vinegar. Heat to boiling and simmer 5 minutes. Add apples; heat to boiling again. Pour into bowl, cool, and refrigerate 24 hours. Makes 4 cups.

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Mom got this recipe from her friend Wanda Farrell back in 1980, before I was even born! We adore it. It's a perfect blend of sweet and sour--with vinegar--and makes a beautiful and tasty side dish to the main meal. You can use fresh apples if you'd prefer; Mom usually does, I think. We can't get red hots here, though, so this is a special treat for us!

(Music 9) Celtic Christmas – Eden’s Bridge

Enjoy the lilt of Christmas carols and original music Celtic style! Both mellow and upbeat, you'll love the bagpipes and tin whistle. If you like Celtic music at all, this is a must-listen-to!

(Recipe 9) Spritz

1 c butter, softened
½ c sugar
2¼ c flour
¼ t salt
1 egg
1 t almond or vanilla extract

Heat oven to 400°F. Cream butter and sugar. Blend in remaining ingredients. Fill cookie press with ¼ of dough at a time. Form desired shapes on ungreased baking sheets. Baket 6 to 9 minutes or until set but not brown. Makes about 5 dozen.

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If you know anything about Spritz, you know it's a dough that works with a cookie press. I'm sure there are all sorts of shapes and flavours you could make, but my mom always made green Christmas wreaths and put red hots on for bolly berries. Very festive! I haven't made these as an adult, not having a press, but they're lots of fun! And yummy, too. :)

A visit with Lydia

Lydia came to visit today!

Last January, my mom took in a foster baby girl, straight from the hospital, and we named her Lydia. She was with my parents until June and was adopted by the man in charge of our church's community development program and his wife. She was a real chunk when she left!

Mom had seen Lydia's dad the day before she left, and he'd said that his wife might bring Lydia by sometime while Mom was gone. So this morning, when I asked who was knocking at the gate and heard, "Lydia's parents!" I rushed to get dressed and greet them! Little Lydia (now 11 mos) came in with her mom and uncle, and we had a nice visit. (I was really annoyed that my camera stopped working for no reason I could find!) My friend Sara had come a bit earlier and stuck around long enough to take a few photos.

Lydia is so big! She's standing now, though not walking yet, and she makes lots of fun sounds. She scared poor Zoe out of her wits (I've never heard Zoe growl at someone before!). She crawled around and grabbed anything and everything. I wished we had some one-year-old-appropriate toys!

It was a short visit but happy. I'm glad Lydia is growing (she has 6 teeth!) and is loved. Yay!

Party time!

For the past two weeks, we'd been planning on attending my work party for Joint Project for Sunday School Materials this past Thursday at 5pm. Then about a week ago, I learned that the Evangel Hospital Christmas party would be the same night at 6:30. On Tuesday, I got a text from a coworker at ACTS asking if I could come to the company Christmas party Thursday at 4pm. Crazy! I informed my coworker that we wouldn't be able to come to the ACTS party, that we were already attending two that evening!

So we geared up for an evening of partying--Nigerian style. This means lots of speeches, special numbers, and food! Our Joint Project party started late--to be expected--because our CEO got lost on the way to the venue. We sang some carols, did a craft with the angel's words to the shepherds in Luke, then had introductions of families, and we ate. Mmm yum! There was an assortment of Nigerian and Western food, from pounded yam and moi-moi to roasted potatoes and gravy. And my mom's helper, Sarah, had made us some zobo, a dark red drink made from dried flowers. We had to miss dessert to go home to our next party!

We showed up there around 7:30. The party location was lovely--the front yard of one of our missionary houses, with lights strung up, tables spread out, and candles and oil lamps on the tables. Beautiful! The director of training was making a speech, so we sat and listened. Poor Luke was pretty restless, having had to sit still through much of the last party. Then we sang three carols--almost all the verses--a capella and were dismissed to eat. I didn't even bother going through the food line, having just eaten, but Luke and David went through again, and David got me some fried plantain. Yum! While we were eating, there were a few more speeches. Then the chaplain got up to give an exhortation. By this time it was 8:30, and Luke was supposed to be in bed! So we left quietly and went home, exhausted.

Then yesterday, I'd planned a party of my own for my friend Marc. I was inspired by something friends had done for my friend Linda (Darjean People) and decided to surprise Marc by showing up with Christmas cheer and a few other friends. We brought a 2" fake tree, ornaments, eggnog, sugar cookie dough, cookie cutters, music, sugar plum spice tea, and games. Ruth even wore her Santa hat! We had a lot of fun, and I personally think Marc's tiny house looks better with its tiny Christmas tree! The picture shows Marc and George cookie-cutting (with Luke in background). Both said they'd never ever made Christmas cookies before! Crazy! David had a good time reading Marc's books. *sigh* Terry decorated the sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles all the way from the States. (Apparently, sprinkles are called "hundreds and thousands" in the UK.) He'd never heard of cream cheese frosting. And he and his wife Ruth (pictured with Timothy) had never had eggnog! So it was an evening of firsts.

So we are ALL PARTIED OUT. Exhausted. Fatigued. Socialised to a crisp. No more parties!! (Oh wait, I do have guests coming for lunch tomorrow...And we're having friends bring pizza and a movie tomorrow night...) Help!

(Music 8) December – George Winston

This is a beautiful collection of Christmas piano solos by an amazing musician and pianist, George Winston. I went to see him in concert when I was in college, and I was somewhat surprised when he arrived at the venue in jeans and a nice shirt. Although he may lack a certain crowd-pleasing presence, his music is remarkable. My favourite is "Carol of the Bells." This is a great soothing CD to have on as background music during Christmas dinner or during a relaxed holiday party.

(Recipe 8) Christmas Meringue Cookies

Dough:
Blend well:

• 2 egg yolks
• 2-1/2 c flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2/3 c shortening
• 1/4 c milk
• 1 t vanilla
  

Chill dough while making meringue.

Meringue:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/2 t vinegar
• 6 oz chocolate chips
• 1 c crushed candy canes
  

Beat egg whites and salt until soft mounds form. Gradually add sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in other ingredients.

Shape dough in balls on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten balls with glass dipped in sugar. Top with meringue. Bake at 325F for 20 to 25 minutes.

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My mom got this recipe from our friend Sheri Edwards in Christmas 1993. That was the Christmas Mom and Dad returned to the States (from Nigeria) quite suddenly because Dad was diagnosed with cancer. They left us kids with missionary friends here and stayed in Los Angeles for a month with Sheri's mom and dad, good friends of ours from church. Mom made these cookies the next year, when we were all together in Los Angeles, and we fell in love with them, too!

(Music 7) Veni, Veni, Emmanuel – Carols from Cambridge

Dad bought me this CD two years ago, and it's brought me much Christmas joy! Maybe it's unusual for someone my age to enjoy choral music, but I sure do. (Still not sure about opera, though.) I grew up listening to Nine Lessons & Carols from King's College, and that paved the way for enjoying this wonderful album!

(Recipe 7) Swedish Shortbread

1 c butter, softened
½ c plus 2 T sugar
2-2½ c flour
1/3 c raspberry jam
1 c powdered sugar
1 t almond extract
2-3 t water

Blend butter and sugar, add flour and mix well. Divide dough into 6 parts. On ungreased sheets, roll or pat each part into a strip about 1½”x12”. Using knife handle, make slight indentation lengthwise down center of each strip (not too deep or cookies will break). Fill indentation with jam. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. In small bowl, mix powdered sugar, almond and water to make thin glaze. While still warm, drizzle glaze across strips and cut diagonally into 1” slices. Makes 60 cookies.

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This recipe makes thin buttery cookies, and we especially love the almond flavouring. Truth be told, you can use any kind of jam, not just raspberry. Our other favourite is apricot. These cookies are great to take to parties or give as gifts because they look and taste really nice.

(Music 6) Christmastime – Michael W. Smith

I really wish Alex hadn't borrowed this CD from me about five months ago and not returned it yet! I'm a huge fan of MWS anyway, so if you like his pop-style Christian music, you'll love this Christmas CD from a few years ago.

(Recipe 6) Peanut Blossoms

½ c butter
½ c peanut butter
½ c sugar
½ c brown sugar
Add:
1 egg
1 t vanilla
Blend in:
1¾ c flour
1 t soda
½ t salt

Shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place on ungreased sheet. Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes. Remove from oven. Place chocolate kisses firmly in center. Bake 2-5 minutes longer.

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Chocolate Kisses are one of my favourite candies, so these cookies, that combine peanut butter and chocolate, are just divine. Of course, I'm the weird kind of person who usually eats the Kiss off before eating the rest of the cookie. Oh well! They're simple cookies and taste great (unless you have peanut allergies). I just wish we could get Kisses here so they were easier to make!

(Music 5) An Old World Christmas – Holiday Favorites from Europe

I grew up listening to this CD at Christmas. It has a wonderful "classical" feel with mostly choral music, and some old carols that you hardly hear anymore. Yes, okay, so most of our CDs are ancient--almost as old as CDs can be! But this album is a true gem, especially if you like carols sung in languages other than English.

(Recipe 5) Snowballs

1 c butter
2 c flour
½ c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
chocolate chips and/or chopped walnuts

Roll dough into little balls and place on ungreased sheet. Bake at 300°F about 30 minutes.

Cool and roll in granulated or powdered sugar.

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These are my personal favourites. I love them so much that my mom started making them for me even when it wasn't Christmas! My second care package in college (all the way from Nigeria!) was a Tupperware container of snowballs. Yum yum! They're just a basic shortbread, but they taste phenomenal, and I particularly love 'em with chocolate chips. (I'm not a fan of walnuts anyway.) We roll them in powdered sugar, and they do look like snowballs! They've also been called "Russian Tea Cakes." They're great!

(Recipe 4) Pfeffernüse

½ c shortening
¾ c brown sugar (packed)
1 egg
½ c molasses
2 t anise extract
3-1/3 c flour
½ t soda
½ t white pepper
½ t nutmeg
½ t allspice
½ t cloves
1 t cinnamon
1/3 t cardamom
1½ T grated lemon peel (about 2 lemons)

Heat oven to 350°F. Mix thoroughly shortening, sugar, egg, molasses, anise. Blend in remaining ingredients. Knead dough until of right consistency for molding.

Shape dough by level teaspoons into bals. Place one inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden brown on bottom. Cool. Glaze. Makes about 6 dozen.

Glaze: Combine:
1 egg white
2 t honey
¼ t ground anise
Add 1½ c powdered sugar.Beat until smooth. Put 12 cookies in a bowl. Drizzle with 2 T glaze. Toss with fork to coat. Dry on rack or waxed paper.

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This recipe, for "Pepper nuts," makes cookies that resemble ginger snaps. They're spicy good! They're even good without the glaze. (My sister and I made them last year that way because we didn't want to buy ground anise just for the cookies...cheapskates!) They also taste fine if you use black pepper instead of white pepper. My mom's been baking these for as long as I can remember, but in our family, they're strictly a Christmas cookie.

(Music 4) Home for Christmas – Amy Grant

I remember hearing this once in high school and deciding I needed to own it. When I was a senior, I sang the song "Emmanuel, God With Us" at our Christmas closing chapel--and forgot the words! It was pretty funny. And every time I hear Amy sing "Breath of Heaven," I just want to cry. Another favourite is "Grown Up Christmas List." Amy Grant has been a family favourite since her debut before I was born, and I will continue to listen to her music, no matter what some Christians say about her lifestyle's morality!

Two things

One is that my computer crashed...Again.

I'd been using David's for the past oh six months, I guess. But his power supply died, and Dad had miraculously resurrected my own computer, so I'd switched back over. And now it's died again. If you've ever seen the movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams, it's like that. We truly thought it was cured, but actually... Well anyway, here I am using my dad's computer. If this crashes or somehow becomes incapacitated, I'm down to Luke's computer!! Ironic that my dad, the computer guru, isn't here until February, either! This means I have to start from scratch with my Christmas recipes and music lists, too. Aargh.

The second thing is my complaint about something I heard in church yesterday. Let me preface it by saying that I think the chaplain is wonderful, and he really seems to be a godly man. I have nothing against him at all. No, my complaint is against Western Christianity, or at least American Christianity. You know what? I don't think even that is accurate. I'll tell you my complaint, and then you can analyse and tell me who it is propagating the idea, okay?

Why is leadership such a big deal? Why does everyone seem to think that if you're not a leader, you're a nobody? If there weren't followers, there would be no leaders! It's just as important to be an obedient (in the Christian context) follower as it is to be a leader! Why is such emphasis put on leadership skills? Isn't it as crucial to be able to follow directions and directives? If we were all leaders, where would we be? Shouldn't we be humble servants? Where in the Bible does Jesus say we need to be leaders? I just don't get it. Granted, that's probably because I've never had any desire to be a leader. I may have a few leadership qualities, but if I do, they're hidden from me. And I've never in my life wanted to be in leadership. Sometimes I found myself there anyway, but I'd much rather be in the background, doing support, than in the forefront. And people think my position is pathetic, sad. Well, hello! I'm proud of being a good follower! So all you people obsessed with leadership can just get off your high horses and acknowledge that you'd be nowhere without people like me!!

Phew. Okay. I feel better now.

A weekend of visitors

It's been a busy weekend! Luke went on Friday to stay the weekend next-door at the Lemanskis' house, so David and I were left alone with Timothy for two nights. It was a nice relief, but somehow we feel more exhausted than ever!

Saturday late afternoon, one of David's best friends came to visit with his new wife. (We attended their wedding in Kaduna in May. I was miserable and made David miserable, so I didn't blog about it.) We hadn't seen them since the wedding, and I'd only met her once before that, so I had no expectations for what the evening would be like! It ended up being comfortable and nice. We went out to dinner at The Net Cafe in town and had some nice discussions. (And I got berated for 1. not dressing the baby warmly enough, 2. not drinking something hot, and 3. not bathing the baby every day.)

Then today, David's family came--all three of his brothers, plus his sister-in-law's elder brother, who was the co-photographer at our wedding. It was quite a crowd! We didn't have enough living room chairs for everyone! After some chitchat, including discussion on Timothy and on delivery in general (David's sister-in-law is just about term with her pregnancy), we went out to lunch. The restaurant we went to, Bevelyn's, used to have a mural on one wall that was a blown-up photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. The only trouble was that they had gotten the panels of the photo wrong, and the bridge was floating off into space at one end, continued (in the next panel) at least 20" lower on the wall! I guess they figured with earthquakes and everything, that's how the bridge actually looks! My family always called it the "Broken Bridge Restaurant." Now the walls are covered in mirrors. Not very flattering, if you ask me!

We had great Nigerian food ("I'd like gari and vegetable soup." "I'm sorry, sir, the vegetable soup has finished." "Okay, give me gari and egusi." "I'm sorry, sir, the gari has finished..."), and then everyone came back to our house (well, my parents' house, seeing as we're house-sitting) for a little while before they headed off again. It was quite a day, quite a weekend! When David's family left, we just sat on the couch in silence, too tired to even go to our bed and lie down!! I know it's an introvert thing, but boy, can hosting be tiring!

But it was fun to see our guests and to find out that our sister-in-law is expecting. (People don't announce their pregnancies here like they do in the States, so often people don't find out until you deliver, at least if you don't live in the same town.) At the same time, we feel like our weekend disappeared, and our "rest" without Luke was virtually nonexistent. Ah well! C'est la vie!

(Recipe 3) Julekage

1 pkg yeast
¼ c warm water
¾ c lukewarm milk
¼ c sugar
½ t salt
½ t ground cardamom
1 egg
¼ c shortening
½ c raisins
1/3 c cut-up citron or mixed candied fruit
3¼ to 3½ c flour

Dissolve yeast in water. Add other ingredients and 2 c flour. Blend. Beat 2 minutes. Add remaining flour. Knead 4 minutes. Rise in bowl 1 to 1½ hours. Punch down. Shape into ball. Place in greased 9” cake pan; brush with butter. Let rise 45 minutes. Bake at 350F for 35 to 45 minutes until golden. Brush with butter. Glaze. Cool.

Glaze: Mix 1 c powdered sugar and 1 to 2 T water.

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This is a traditional Scandinavian Christmas bread. "Julekage" means "Christmas bread." It makes a yummy Christmas breakfast, especially warm and spread with real butter. Another of my mom's Christmas breakfast breads is Stollen, a German bread, but I can't find her recipe for it!

(Music 3) A Holiday Celebration – Peter, Paul and Mary

We actually had a video of this performance (taped from TV in ~1988) that we used to watch every year while decorating the tree, along with taped recordings of the 1988(?) St. Olaf Christmas Festival, a King's Singers Christmas concert, and The Nutcracker. One of our favourite tracks is actually a Hanukkah song, "Light One Candle." The nice thing about this CD is that it's not Christian per se, but it has Christian carols as well as a few secular Christmas songs and one or two Hanukkah tracks, too. A great mix and lots of fun!

For a list of tracks and lyrics, click here.

(Music 2) A Fresh Aire Christmas – Mannheim Steamroller

This will always be one of my favourite albums. It's certainly not a new CD (1988), but in our family, it's a classic. My brother even learned the Latin words to "O Come O Come Emmanuel" ("Veni Veni"). It's a great blend of jazzy electronic and somber choral tracks. Check it out!

(Recipe 2) Frosted Cinnamon Icebox Rolls

2 packages active dry yeast
½ c warm water (105F to 115F)
2 c lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil or shortening
3 t baking powder
2 t salt
1 egg
3 c Gold Medal® whole wheat flour
3 c Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
4 T butter or margarine, softened
½ c sugar
1 T plus 1 t cinnamon
Browned Butter Frosting (below)

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in milk, 1/3 c sugar, the oil, baking powder, salt, egg, and 1½ cups of each flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough of the remaining flours to make dough easy to handle.

2. Turn dough onto well-floured board; knead until smooth and esastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1½ hours. (Dough is read if an indentation remains when touched.)

3. Grease 2 oblong pans, 13”x9”x2”. Punch down dough; divide into halves. Roll 1 half into rectangle, 12”x10”. Spread with half of the butter. Mix ½ cup sugar and the cinnamon; sprinkle half the sugar-cinnamon mixture over rectangle. Roll up, beginning a wide side. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Stretch roll to make even.

4. Cut roll into 12 slices. Place slightly apart in 1 pan. Wrap pan tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil. Repeat with remaining dough. Refrigerate at least 12 hours bu tno longer than 48 hours. (To bake immediately, do not wrap. Let rise in warm place until double, about 30 minutes. Bake as directed below.)

5. Heat oven to 350F. Remove foil from pans. Bake until golden, 30 to 35 minutes. Frost with Browned Butter Frosting while warn. Makes 24 rolls.

Browned Butter Frosting: Heat 3 T butter or margarine over medium heat until delicate brown. Stir in 1½ cups powdered sugar, 1 T milk, and ¾ t vanilla. Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Frosts 1 pan of rolls.

(Note: If larger rolls are desired, roll dough into rectangle, 10”x9”. Cut each roll into 9 slices. Place in greased baking pans, 9”x9”x2”. Makes 18 rolls.

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Okay, I admit: These aren't strictly a holiday tradition in my family. Mom makes them reasonably often. But they're a year-round favourite, and she likes to make favourites at Christmas, so they often make it onto the breakfast table this time of year. They are simply to die for - the best home-made cinnamon rolls I've ever had in my life. They're right up there with Cinnabon!!

Mom tried to make these Christmas '99 when we were in the States for my sister's wedding. We were staying for two weeks in an unused apartment in a neighbourhood or retired missionaries. There was yeast in the fridge, so Mom used that for the rolls. They didn't rise at all! We had teeny tiny rolls that year, but they still tasted fine!

(Music 1) The Messiah - G.F. Handel

BUY ME (If this link doesn't work, go to the Wheaton College Bookstore website and search for "Messiah.")

What can I say? I'm a huge fan of this work in general, but to be honest, I'm in this recording. I started singing in The Messiah when I was in eighth grade. Every year, the Hillcrest community puts together a choir of between 100 and 300 members who meet weekly to rehearse for an early December performance. There is always a huge turnout. When I was young, they performed in the chapel, but the crowd outgrew the seating capacity (and standing capacity), and for awhile the choir was too large for the stage, so we sang on the bleachers of the school's basketball courts. That way there was plenty of space for people to bring their own chairs to augment the chairs from the chapel, picnic tables, and additional bleachers. In 2001, when there were riots throughout Jos the weekend before 9/11 and curfews were in place all fall, they postponed the concert until Easter and concentrated more on the Easter numbers than the Christmas ones.

I missed singing in The Messiah this year because of Timothy's arrival. I had a pretty dimished lung capacity by the time rehearsals started in August, and it would have been difficult to sing in the performance with a three-week-old needing to eat somewhere between "All We Like Sheep" and "Lift Up Your Heads."

My senior year in college, I found out that the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music would be performing The Messiah with a guest conductor, Maestro John Nelson...the year after I graduated. As it turned out, I still lived in the area that next year and was a part of the community choir, the West Suburban Choral Union, which joined in the performance. Yes! So I got to sing this amazing piece of music under an equally amazing conductor. How cool is that?! And now I'll forever be spoiled; no performance of the Jos Community Choir will ever quite compare!

This is the ultimate CD for the Christmas season!

(Recipe 1) Makeover Eggnog

1¾ c sugar
¼ c flour
½ t salt
6 eggs, lightly beaten
3 t vanilla
2 t rum extract
4 c half-and-half
½ t nutmeg
2 qts milk (2%)

In large heavy saucepan, combine sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually whisk in milk and eggs until smooth. Cook and stir over low heat to 160F, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add extracts. Cover and chill 2 hours. Just before serving, strain eggnog. Add half-and-half and nutmeg. Makes about 3 quarts.

From Guideposts, December 2003.

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We can't get eggnog in Nigeria, so Mom has often made her own. Sometimes she uses a mix from the States, but sometimes she makes it from scratch. I'm not sure what recipe she uses, but I found this one in her recipe file, so I thought I'd throw it in. Christmas just isn't Christmas without eggnog!

Christmas goodies for the tummy

I don't know about you, but I'm a food person. When I think about most holidays, the first things that come to mind are food items. Try me.

New Year's? Sparkling cider!
Valentine's Day? Chocolate, hopefully truffles.
Easter? Mom's butter lamb. (She moulds butter into the shape of a little sheep.)
My birthday? CAKE, yeah!
Fourth of July? Hot dogs & burgers.
Halloween? Baked pumpkin seeds and candy!
Thanksgiving? Mom's mince pie with sour cream topping

And now, of course, there's Christmas. When I think about Christmas, I think of two things: Music and Food. Oh sure, I'm as excited as anyone to receive gifts, and they're usually pretty fun to give, too. And of course behind all the commercialism is the Reason for the Season, the GOD-baby himself. Call me a heathen, but honestly, I think of music and food before I think of the Christ child. I'm with my dad in the camp that we should celebrate Christ's birth separately, just make up our own holy day instead of complaining that Christmas is so secularised.

So along the lines of Christmas food, I'm going to put up ten recipes for things my mother makes that I think of when I think "Christmas." They'll appear both here and on my mom's recipe blog, Mama's Choice Chop. And here, I think I'll add my top ten Christmas songs or albums--all over the next two weeks before Christmas. Enjoy!

The saga of Luke's haircut

Luke has always been afraid of haircuts, for as long as he's been in the Blyth household. And I mean a real phobia, not just that he doesn't like it. When he was littler, he used to throw tantrums whenever the scissors came out--screaming, crying, even throwing up. My parents joked about trying to sedate him in order to cut his hair; in fact, they might have even tried it, but I don't think it worked.

And then my dad discovered that Luke has a real love for personifying items. For example--in this case--Scissors. Yes, I meant to use a capital "S." You see, Scissors is Luke's friend. They talk together and have nice chats about hair-cutting and other things. Now that Scissors exists, it's possible to cut Luke's hair because it's a friendly operation.

But Luke's hair is the kind that ideally should be cut with electric clippers. For years, though, he's been terrified of the clippers, refusing to even let them near him. So Daddy recently created Clip, the friendly clippers. And it's worked! Luke actually used the clippers on himself right before Mom and Dad left. (He called it a "miracle.")

Luke's hair is pretty straggly, however. Dad only ever cuts a little bit at a time to keep Luke from going nuts, so it's always been pretty uneven. Well, David decided to give the whole head a makeover. He got out Scissors and Clip, and they did a fabulous job (though Clip is different from what David's used to and didn't do as close a cut as he wanted). Luke made it through--with a few tears and lots of complaining, and now his hair is evenly cut. Yay!

Surviving

It's Sunday night, but I know I won't be able to write much now. I think it's about bedtime! (Yeah, so what if it's only 9:10?) We're exhausted from a very busy weekend--at least it felt busy--and are crashing. But a note to the world that we're alive and have survived almost six days taking care of Luke. Yay! Hopefully my darling Timothy will let me put him down long enough tomorrow for me to write a real post. Until then, keep praying!

Baby Abigail's visit

You might remember that Mom and I went to the hospital on August 1 to pick up a baby girl less than an hour old. Mom has been a foster parent with the hospital's crisis pregnancy centre, ProLife, since its inception a few years ago. We named the baby Abigail, and she was with my parents until the end of September. At that time, she was adopted by a university professor and his wife, an educated and well-off couple who had been childless throughout their 13-year marriage.
---------I saw Baby Abigail at the well-baby clinic a month ago when I took Timothy to get his BCG and Hep B injections, and she was huge! Her parents had renamed her Ruth, and she was just adorable. Granted, I didn't spend much time talking to them because I was busy and because I was rather out of sorts, still sore and exhausted from delivery. But it was nice to see the little one.

----------Today, Abigail/Ruth's mother showed up with the baby--now four months old--to visit my parents. I sadly told her she'd missed them, that they left yesterday. But I took two photos to post so my parents can see how big Abigail is!

---------This is the kind of progress we love about fostering!!

The first day

It's been just over 24 hours since my parents left, and we're all still alive! Somehow we made it through the first day, and so I know we can make it through the whole month.

Oh sure, Luke's been trying to sneak things by me--like taking toys outside, which he knows is forbidden, and drinking cold water from the fridge, which Mom won't let him do because he either leaves the fridge open or forgets to put the water back in. And he alternates between saying he hates me and likes me...but that's nothing new! No, all in all, I think we'll do okay.

I actually think my biggest hurdle will be readjusting to cooking! I've got a meal plan for next week, so hopefully I can get everything I need on Friday's shopping trip. It's a good thing Luke's not a terribly picky eater, 'cause I'm going for simple and yummy--unlike my mom, who goes for exotic and absolutely scrumptious. Ah well. We can't all be my mom.

Please KEEP PRAYING for us!! I need more sleep, which I'm not going to get with Luke in the house, and that's frustrating. Thank God, though, he has a tutor who takes up most of his day time!

Also please pray for my parents, who are--as I type--in the air over the Atlantic Ocean and will arrive in Charlotte, NC, at about 9:30 tonight our time (3:30pm ET). They'll be in Charlotte for two days, I think, and then drive up to Lexington, VA, on Friday or Saturday--in time to attend my sister's Christmas concert. Yay!

Boy, I miss them already.

December with Luke

The final word is in from the Smiths, and they've decided not to take Luke.

-------This is sad because it means my parents will not be able to spend their whole six-month furlough in the States. (They're entitled to a year of rest, but they'd shortened it to six months when they realised there was no way they could take Luke with them.) So they plan to spend about eight weeks instead, all of December and January, and return in early February. They won't get all the rest they need, and they won't get to visit their supporting churches.

--------But they will get to see my siblings and their kids, and probably my dad's family in California.

--------And I'm selfishly glad they're returning so soon because I will miss my parents like crazy while they're gone. (And no, not just for my mom's cooking! How dare you even think it?!)

--------So that leaves David and me watching Luke for December, and another gracious family watching him for January. It should be an interesting month...

Chicken's end

Well, we decided not to keep the chicken. We thought it would be easier to just give it away than to go about the process of slaughtering, plucking, cleaning, and butchering it. So David drove the chicken to his sister's house and left it with a neighbour. (Hannatu was in Abuja.)

So that's the end of our chicken. We had a short but delightful acquaintance. We realise the immensity of the gift but are grateful for a clean way of disposing of it that's culturally acceptable, too.

Farewell, kazar Timothy!