Have you ever stopped to wonder what all of the decorations and symbols of Christmas actually mean? Several years ago, I came across a great children’s book that explained the meaning behind each of the decorations that were put on the tree. Although I don’t have the book or even remember the name of it, I was able to remember some of the book and also used some information on Being Saint Joseph. I found it interesting, as I had never really stopped to think about it before reading the story book.
What do the Decorations Mean?
Green is the colour of Life!
Poinsettia: These beautiful flowers are shaped like the Star of Bethlehem and bloom in the Christmas season. The red blooms and green foliage represent the traditional red and green Christmas colours.
Wreaths: A circle has no beginning and no end and thus the wreath represents the eternal nature of God and the never-ending value of love. An evergreen wreath is a true representation of this eternal love and hope, as it contains both the circle and the evergreen branches.
Bells: Bells ring out to guide the lost sheep back to the fold. This also signifies that all are precious in the eyes of the Lord.
Christmas Lights and Candles: Light removes darkness and Jesus came so that there might be light in the world.
Star: The stars that are used to decorate trees, cut into cookies or placed on wreaths are symbolic of the star that guided the Wise Men to where Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Angels: Remind us of the angels that attended the birth of Jesus.
The Christmas Tree: The “evergreen” tree represents eternal life and that fact that there is hope for new life after the long cold winter. It points to heaven and is a reminder that heaven is our ultimate goal.
Bow: Represents family ties and the fact that we should be tied together in bonds of goodwill.
Candy Canes: The candy canes are used to remind us of the Shepherd’s staff, used to guide the sheep. Of course, Jesus is considered to be a shepherd and “people” the sheep that he guides. The white stripe in the candy cane symbolizes the purity of his perfect life and the red for the blood of Jesus. The stripes on the candy cane represent the “stripes” that Jesus suffered for us during the crucifixion.
Red represents the blood of Jesus that was offered as a sacrifice for our sins when Jesus died on the cross.
Holly: The prickles and thorns are not unlike the crown that Jesus wore on his head and the bright red berries are like the drops of blood he shed.
Amongst the presents and the festivities, let’s not lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. Let’s embrace the true spirit of Christmas and take this time to count our blessings and make CHRIST the center of our CHRISTmas!
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Christmas truly engages all of our senses. We are bombarded with sights, sounds, smells, feelings and tastes that are unique to the holiday season.
The Sights of Christmas: Of course, decorating is a huge part of preparing for Christmas. The lights, candles, wreaths and garland all add to the beauty of the season. Our Christmas trees in themselves are often draped in memories from prior Christmas and each seems to have a personality of its own, with no two trees looking alike. Each tree is symbolic and represents the family who displays it. It is the wonderous sights of Christmas that truly bring the season to life.
The Tastes of Christmas: Our homes become filled with fresh baking and delicious meals are served to family and friends. Christmas is a great opportunity to share the flavours of a great new recipe or a reason to pull out the recipes that represent decades of family traditions. I am sure most of us would agree that many of our memories are linked to the traditional foods our families eat each Christmas. My mom passed away several years ago, and yet it is amazing how certain foods and recipes immediately taking me back to memories of her. When she was alive, we always had her homemade mincemeat tarts warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream on top, for dessert on Christmas Eve. They were so delicious and mincemeat always reminds me of her!
This is our traditional Ukranian Christmas meal which we always have on Christmas Eve.
A tin of fresh baking ready to go!
The Sounds of Christmas: Nothing helps to get us into the spirit of Christmas like the holiday tunes that fill the malls and take over the radio stations. I love to sit and wrap gifts or do my baking with Christmas music filling the house. During December, our church is exploding with the spirit of Christmas. I love to go to church every Sunday and sing Christmas carols during Praise and Worship and watch the children’s church groups perform their holiday numbers. There are always special numbers performed and the message is always “bang-on” and food for my spirit.
Eden, Grandpa Bob and Shay cuddling on the couch Christmas Eve 2012.
The Touches of Christmas: The warmth from the fire burning in the fireplace, coupled with the embraces from loved ones. There are of course, the “feelings” that may not be physical at all, but “touch” us all the same. The chance to give away that perfect gift you found for some one special, or maybe being the recipient of a gift or even a kind gesture in the spirit of the season. The opportunity to be a part of making Christmas special for those you love. The feeling of complete joy when your children’s eyes light up on Christmas morning and the smiles and laughter that follows.
The Sweet Smells of Christmas: Don’t you love the smell of Christmas? I find that the smell of cider mulling on the stove, the scent of a fresh tree in the house mixed with the aroma of Christmas goodies all take me back to all of the special memories of Christmases past. I love the smells and to enhance the experience, I have a little recipe that I use throughout the holiday season.
Sweet Smell of Christmas Recipe:
I got this recipe many years ago, and honestly have no idea where it came from. It has become a “Roy Family” tradition and I would love to share this simple recipe with you, so that you too can enjoy the Sweet Smell of Christmas!
Cook this mixture slowly on your stove during the holidays to help make your house smell festive.
3 cinnamon sticks
3 whole bay leaves
1/4 cup whole cloves
2 lemon wedges
Simmer over low heat in 1 quart of water. Mix. It can simmer for days. Add more water as needed.
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If you have been reading my posts over the last six months, you already know how I feel about technology and what it is doing to our kids. As a teacher and a blogger, I am on the computer every day. As a mom, I am using my device to check hockey schedules, look up new recipes and stay in touch with the kid’s school. You really can’t get away from technology, but what gets me is how our children so easily become totally consumed with their iPods and video games. I feel like 90% of the “battles” in our home are over monitoring screen time and arguing over “who’s turn it is “. I just hate that it is always there and seems to be a constant thorn in my side. Check-out this commercial…it is really well done.Okay, did that not soften your heart just a bit, it certainly made me think twice (even if only for a moment)….this Apple commercial reminded me of the benefits of technology and the incredible convenience it has brought to our lives. I can remember just a few years ago, when I had to lug my camcorder to events in order to record movies. I then had to transfer the footage from the mini-tape (don’t remember what it was called) to VHS without any ability to edit the footage. It was lots of work and I think I still have tape that has never been seen. Now everything is just a click away and it seems that no event goes “uncaptured”. Thanks Apple!
Like the teen in the advertisement, Eden loves to make movies on her iPod and does quite a good job of them. Perhaps I need to relax and be more open-minded, after all, the techno savvy account for some of the most successful people in the world today.
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I found this tutorial for a DIY jersey pom-pom posted on Pinterest a few months back. I just love the shabby chic feel and the colour is incredible….one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I don’t have anywhere to use a ball of this shade. I decided to make a few out of an old white t-shirt that was in the “to donate” tub. I figured that if I stuck with white, I could add them to my Christmas tree and it would flow nicely with the “theme” of the tree. The original post on Skip to My Lou is very thorough.
Follow the link to visit Skip to My Lou and check-out the full tutorial.
DIY Pom-Poms:
Materials Needed
old white t-shirt cut into 1/2 inch strips (I just tore mine)
needle
thread
wax linen thread (I just used embroidery thread because I had it on hand and it worked fine)
Run each strip of fabric through your fist to stretch the material. This will actually cause the strip to curl around itself and form a hollow string/tube.
Wrap each string around the cardboard lengthwise. Keep layering one string on top of the other until you have used what you deem to be enough. I am not sure how to gauge this for you as it will depend on the size of your t-shirt and length of your strips. I used an XL t-shirt and ended up with 5 pom-poms. (Make sure to cut the strips horizontally across the body of the t-shirt – you need to cut off any seams as it will break the natural curl of the strip.)
Slide the thread under the pile of strips and tie off one side, securing it as tightly as possible.
Carefully remove the cardboard and then gather the side that is not tied and tie it together with the side you have already secured. You want the entire bunch to be tied as tightly as possible. The wax thread would make this easier as it wouldn’t slip, but I managed without it.
You then begin to cut the loops in half at both ends.
After each end is cut, fluff the material out to make a ball. Trim down any ends that seem too long, fluffing as you go and creating a nice spherical shape.
Add a string to hang it from your tree and a ribbon to spruce it up a bit. (You could add a safety-pin instead of a string and make pin to dress-up a scarf or add a hair-clip, so that it could be pinned on a pony tail. It would also look cute on a hat!)
I used some Christmas scripted fabric and tore it in strips for my ribbon.
Here are my ribbon strips.
My pom pom is plain white and i just added a bow tied from the scripted ribbon.
Here is a shot of the pom pom on our tree.
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Okay, this post is definitely not intended for those of you that dazzle your guests with homemade truffles every holiday season. I am a newbie! I have never even attempted to make truffles before, probably because I was so afraid of failing miserably. I have done a few things with melted chocolate before and I have found my skills to be a bit hit and miss. I hate waste and worried about ruining a whole batch of truffles. However, when I saw this recipe for a cookie dough truffle, I just had to face my fears and give it a try. Traditionally, I usually only bake cookies when I have a desire to fill up on cookie dough. It is rarely about having cookies in the house and more about satisfying my craving for raw dough. So, with that in mind, what could be more amazing than a cookie dough truffle with a hint of salt. I love that whole salty sweet trend that is the rave right now, and these truffles did not disappoint. I am not going to say that these are super easy to make, but they weren’t too difficult either. I was struggling a bit, but figured out a simple solution that made the process much easier and less frustrating. I will share it later in the post.
Cookie Dough Truffles with Sea Salt
Anne Thorton shared this delicious recipe on the Food Network and I followed it exactly. If you get all worked up over raw eggs then this recipe is not for you. Over the years I have eaten more than my share of raw cookie dough (with raw eggs in it) and have never gotten sick. Anne posted a warning at the end of the recipe and I have included in my post as well, but if you are concerned don’t bother making these. However, you need to know you are passing up one incredibly scrumptious treat.
Ingredients:
1/2 recipe Chocolate Chip Blondies (I think you could use your standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but I did use the recipe that follows at the end)
2 bags semi-sweet chocolate chipits (about 3 cups), melted over double boiler for dipping (I melted mine in the microwave, but you need to do so in short spurts and stir in between. My microwave actually has a “melt chocolate setting”, so it is easy to do and less to clean-up after)
Fleur de sel, for decoration (coarse sea salt) toothpicks for dipping
Anne suggests several other options for decorating instead of dipping the balls in chocolate, but I stuck with the dipping and sea salt and they turned out well. Being my first attempt, I really wanted to keep it simple and knew I would like the salty/sweet contrast.
Directions:
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out 1 heaping teaspoon of chocolate Chip Blondie mixture and roll it into a ball. Place onto the parchment paper and repeat with the remaining batter. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the freezer for at least 2 hours and up to 1 week. (Keep the cookie dough balls in the freezer until needed prior to dipping in the chocolate, otherwise they will melt into the chocolate when they are dipped.)
Remove 1 baking sheet of truffles from the freezer and skewer your toothpick into the truffle ball and dip into the melted chocolate. Use a spatula to paint the chocolate onto the toothpick and place the truffle back onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Remove the toothpick and cover up the hole. Sprinkle the truffle with some fleur de sel. Finish dipping all the truffles and garnish with desired toppings. Place them into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the chocolate to set up. They will keep for 1 week in refrigerator.
Cindy’s Tip: I was a little frustrated trying to dip the ball nicely and found that the end of the ball opposite the toothpick looked nice, but the “bottom” of the ball around the toothpick ended up not looking as nice. I really wanted this to be the bottom of the truffle, but couldn’t slip the toothpick off and get the less pretty part sitting on the bottom. But alas…I figured out a solution (the pros can ignore this as I am sure you have your own little system). I set my parchment paper on my wire cooling rack which sits about 6 inches off the counter. With the toothpick pointing down and the ball on top, I carefully poked the toothpick through the wax paper and the bottom of the cooling rack. I then pulled the toothpick from beneath the rack and right out of the ball. It allowed me to have the toothpick hole on the bottom and the nice smooth surface on the top. Once I figured this out, I was able to work much faster and they turned out better. I didn’t even bother filling in the toothpick hole on the bottom of the truffle.
You can see my rack has legs that raise it several inches off the stove.
Here is a shot of the truffle, just dipped and the toothpick poking through the parchment paper and cooling rack.
Chocolate Chip Blondies:
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch fine sea salt
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method:
Beat your butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown and granulated sugars a little bit at a time, pouring them in on the side of the bowl. While you’re adding your sugars, stop the mixer occasionally and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything is fully mixed. Cream the butter and sugar mixture until it is light and fluffy, about 8 minutes. (Creaming creates air pockets in the dough, and therefore these Blondies have a light and delicate texture.)
Whisk your flour, baking soda and sea salt in a bowl. Add your eggs 1 at a time, adding the second only after the first is fully incorporated. Once the second egg is fully incorporated, add your vanilla. Turn your mixer down to low-speed and slowly add the flour/baking soda/sea salt mixture. Once the dry ingredients are fully incorporated into the wet ingredients, add in all those chocolate chips. Your machine will seem to be struggling to mix in the chocolate chips because there are so many of them, but don’t turn it up, leave it on low and allow it to fully mix the chips in.
* Raw Egg Warning: There is a slight risk of salmonella or other food-borne illness when consuming raw eggs. To reduce this risk, it is recommended that you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell. For recipes that call for eggs that are raw or undercooked when the dish is served, use shell eggs that have been treated to destroy salmonella, by pasteurization or another approved method.
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This is one of my favourite gift wrapping ideas. I am not sure where the original idea came from, but I found it on the internet a long time ago. This idea involves the constant collection of pull-tab cans. Whenever we purchase canned food that comes with a pull tab (such as Eagle Brand Milk or individual Ravioli tins), we don’t use the tab to open it. Simply turn the can upside down and use a can opener to open the can and save the tab for a special gift! (Don’t forget to save both the base and the tin….simply wash and store for the perfect occasion.)
Turn can upside down and open with a can opener.
Here’s a shot of the tab top and the cut off bottom.
Fill the tin with the gift (from the open bottom). Hot glue the bottom back on the base.
Hot glue the felt on the base of the tin to cover the glue used to put the tin bottom back on.
Choose some items to embellish your gift. I have red paper covered wire, red ribbon, red raffia, bells, buttons and some white curly ribbon.
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I haven’t made my Santa cookies yet this year, but have made them for the last few years. I use my basic brown sugar recipe and a heart cookie cutter. These sugar cookies are super moist and chewy, so it is my “go to ” recipe for cookie decorating. The down side is that you do have to be a bit careful with the cookies so they don’t break. When I decorate cookies that require more time, I generally will not do a full batch. I will make a few dozen and add one or two to a baking tray, or if I am sending them to school, I will make a class set. They take quite a bit of time to make and some times the fun is lost when you have already decorated 4 dozen and still have 24 cookies left to do. I find that I do a better job when I decorate the cookies in a variety of ways. I get bored easily and like to switch it up, so will often used a few different cutters within the same batch of cookies.
icing (I often use a buttercream icing, but you could use the Royal Icing recipe as well)
red coloured sugar crystals (Bulk Barn)
red and brown mini M & M’s (I buy these at Bulk Barn and carefully pick through to get mostly brown and red with the scoop – no fingers, of course!)
red candy sprinkles
Method:
Cover the tip of the heart with icing and then add the red sugar sprinkles to cover it completely.
Pipe on the fur on the hat, pom pom and the beard around the two round parts of the heart.
Carefully set in two of the red candy sprinkles to create a mouth for your Santa.
Use Royal Icing or melted chocolate to glue the M & M’s on for eyes and a nose.
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Sorry, late start today! I left work yesterday, stopped and picked up a few gifts and then met the family at the Christmas tree lot for 5. I remember how Christmas tree shopping used to be an all day affair. We (I) would look over the trees at the first lot and when I couldn’t find the perfect tree, we would move on to the next lot and then another one after that. After several lots (and hours), I would decide that I liked the tree we saw at the first lot. It was a true test of Tim’s patience, but we always got a beautiful tree. Over the years, I have learned to let a few things go. Shopping for the “perfect” tree is one of them. I can still be a bit indecisive and it can take some time to make a final decision, but rarely do we go to more than one lot. We have found this little gem that always has beautiful trees that are well priced. I seriously should have won some kind of an award last night! We (mostly me) picked out the tree in warp speed. I hate to say it, but being warm far out weighs getting the perfect tree. We have been in a severe temperature cold snap over the past few weeks (or at least it seems that long) and I hate the cold. We zoomed up those tree isles, pointed out the one we liked and then left Tim out in the cold to tie it on the roof of the van. (I love that man!) I think we were at the lot about 10 minutes. I was so impressed with our efficiency that I decided to do a bit of shopping before heading home. The family headed home and got the tree in the stand to begin thawing and I knocked off about a dozen gifts on my list. (It was a gift in itself to miss the actual “standing” of the tree. For Tim and I it is a bit like putting up wall paper. Somehow we tend to lose the spirit of Christmas during this task. I was happy that Shay took over the task of holding the tree while his dad secured it in the stand.) The stores were amazingly quiet and I wanted to avoid weekend shopping at all costs. I am not done, but feel so much better and have lots that I can wrap over the weekend. Hence the late start….I was totally exhausted after a very busy week and was out cold by 9:30 and slept in until after 8. By that time, I had to wait my turn to get on the computer.
Homemade Snowman Kit:
Last year, I made up a few snowman kits to give as “hostess gifts” and to a few families with young children. I picked up the “felt” hats at the dollar store during the Halloween season, with this project in mind. The hats are cheaply made, but perfect to leave outdoors on your snowman. I think these were $2 each. I used some of the wire ribbon that I had bought on clearance at Michael’s and added a little “branch” embellishment to the hat.
Hat
Embellished Hat
I also picked up a few Old Navy fleece blankets that were being cleared out for $4 each. You could purchase the fleece at a fabric store, but I loved the colours and design of the Old Navy blankets and they were very reasonably priced. I cut the blankets into strips and slit the ends to make a fringe.
Old Navy Blankets
old Navy Blanket Scarves
For the other elements, I used a combination of odds and ends. I found a little plastic set of face pieces that were meant to be added to a pumpkin at Halloween. There were googly eyes, funny noses and silly smiles. On their own, these were a bit cheap and tacky looking, but I added them to some of the other items to make a cute little kit with several options. I had found some small fruit ornaments on clearance at Michael’s and used some oversized buttons from my collection. I then bagged-up the items, labelled them and made a little sign for the hat that said “Just Add Snow”.
You can see a little fabric bag sitting in the hat….this was a little sachet of spices for making homemade apple cider. Just an extra little something to add.
I actually don’t have a photo with all of the little baggies inside the hat, but everything was just set into the hat and delivered without any wrapping. These were fun to make and cost very little, but it does take some insight to shop around for just the right items to put in your snowman kit. You could always include a fresh carrot for the nose. This doesn’t have to be given during the Christmas season, it could be given as a birthday gift for someone on your list with a winter birthday! Watch for those ornaments and embellishments that clear-out just before and after Christmas and plan ahead for next year. Have fun!
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I had cut this recipe out of Chatelaine about two decades ago…seriously, I haven’t had a subscription since I first started teaching. (Too bad I am old enough to actually count back in decades…UGH!) Anyways, have never made it, not once. I often make something called Almond Roca. I had totally planned to make it again this year (and may still), but came across this recipe and thought I might try something new. It was super easy to make and turned out to be very tasty. Although it is not the same as Almond Roca, it somehow seems similar to me. I think the recipe might have originated from Hershey’s, but I couldn’t seem to find it to post the link.
Cashew Pecan Almond Chocolate Crunch
Ingredients:
1 350g package of semi-sweet chocolate chipits
3/4 cup coarsely chopped cashews (I used pecans because I had them on hand)
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons corn syrup
Method:
Line 9″ square pan with foil, extending over the edges. Grease foil. Cover the bottom of the pan with the chocolate chipits. *You may want to reserve a few to sprinkle on top at the end.
Combine remaining ingredients in large frying pan. Cook the mixture on low, stirring until butter has melted. Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly until mixture comes together and turns light golden in colour.
Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate chips. Spread evenly. (I sprinkled the top with a few extra almonds and chocolate chips.) Cool until chocolate is firm. Remove from pan. Peel off foil. Cut or break into pieces. Store in a cool, dry place.
Makes about 1 1/2 pounds of candy. I am not sure, but I think this might be impossible to mess up. It was so easy to make and very yummy alternative to the Almond Roca that we usually make.
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I committed to dropping off a tray of baking in appreciation for all of the hard-working teachers at my children’s school, but haven’t had time to get my baking done yet ~ so a marathon it is! I picked up supplies on the way home from work last night, whipped up some left over burgers from the night before and began a baking blitz around 6:45 p.m. I made a couple of our favourites….Chocolate Fudge and Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares. I also tried a few new recipes…Red Velvet Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing, Cashew Almond Chocolate Crunch and Cookie Dough Truffles. (I will let you know how they turn-out as I haven’t sampled anything yet!) I had already made my Brown Sugar Cookies, Stained Glass Cookies and Shortbread, but still needed to decorate them. For the sake of time, I only decorated a few of the Brown Sugar Cookies for the platter I will be sending to the school today. (Thank goodness it is my day off).
The Finishing Touches:
Once you have created a nice smooth surface using the Royal Icing recipe I shared yesterday, you want to let your cookies set. I popped mine in the freezer until I was ready to add the decorating details. You are now ready to do the fun part ~ decorate! My husband thinks I am crazy, but I really love to decorate and cookies are no exception. I can literally spend hours completing a batch. Unfortunately, in order to get this platter ready, I don’t have that kind of time. It took me about 15 minutes to decorate these cookies. I used my Pampered Chef Icing Set with a Wilton Round Tip #2. I only had a small amount of Royal Icing left from when I completed the surfaces of the cookies and it was already in the tube and ready to go (the recipe makes a large batch, but we had used it for making gingerbread houses, so it was just what was left over). I stored the left over icing in the actual tube in the fridge, but wrapped it in cellophane so that the icing would not dry out through the tip. It did not harden at all and worked well. I don’t like much colour on my Christmas cookies. I tend to keep things fairly neutral with a splash of colour here and there. When you stick to a simple colour scheme, decorating is super easy. This year, I chose to do white on white. I piped random markings on each of the cookies with no set plan. I just had fun and tried different ideas. Some look better than others, but you can see how the simple scheme helps to hide my mistakes as well. The only other embellishments I added were those tiny silver/pink candy balls and a bit of clear decorating sugar.
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