Category: Christmas/Advent

Baking can be fun when everything turns out alright, but sometimes I have issues with the consistency of a recipe or it doesn’t get done the way it should.  I blame it on my oven!  For once these pretzel/chocolate/mint treats came out perfect BUT the after effect of cooling off made the chocolate turn slightly white which I think was the air hitting it.  They need time to cool and set before you move them so covering is not an option.  Once I tried hurrying the cooling off process by putting them in the refrigerator to cool and set up, but the same thing happened, and then when I took them out, the pretzel and chocolate didn’t stay together because they didn’t bond properly while they were hot from the oven.  You can find the original recipe here, but I choose to use mini nonpareil candies instead of M&Ms as it gives it a different flavor instead of adding more sweet chocolate to it.

What happens after a conversation or event is dependent on the actions and reactions of those involved.  How we process and respond is the after effect. 

Have you ever quipped to yourself I really didn’t need that… [accident, problem, conversation, or maybe even a gift—since we’re in the Christmas gift-giving season…]?  I’ve caught myself saying that after some incidents, but then a phrase in a song, “Through It All”, comes to my mind.  It is actually written by Andraé Crouch but is mostly known as sung by the Gaithers.

“For if I’d never had a problem
I’d never know God could solve them
I’d never know what faith in God could do…”

written by Andraé Crouch but is mostly known as sung by the Gaithers

When things are going along smoothly and quietly, we think we have peace, and to a degree we do, but it could also be a false peace.  It’s only after a trial or tragedy comes and then ceases that we truly experience the peace of God.

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace
for those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:11

Peace comes after the trial or storm not during it.  So if you’re in the midst of a problem or trying time, don’t expect peace immediately.  Peace can be there, but not if we focus on the bad things that are happening.  Peace comes when we turn our eyes and heart to God rather than the problem.  Just as I switched out the M&Ms for the mini nonpareils, we can switch our focus to experience a different end result which may better suit our palate.

I’ve had my share of car accidents over the years (thankfully none for the last 15-20 years!), and of course when you’re in the midst of an accident with a wrecked car, the emotions and blood pressure initially go through the roof.  Thankfully I’ve never been hurt nor hurt anyone else in any of my accidents.  Did I have peace in the midst of those accidents?  No.  But when I took time to reflect on them, I was always able to take a deep breath and thanked the Lord for watching over me, that it wasn’t worse than it was, and that no one was hurt.  Then the peace flooded in.

God gives us peace when we are His, but it’s not always felt by us immediately.  It sometimes comes as an after effect.  So if you’re not sensing peace in a particular situation or chapter of your life, seek God out and draw close to Him.  The closer you get to Him, the easier it will be to feel His peace permeate your life.  You might have a picture of your special person or pet and looking at it brings you good feelings, but oh how much more the good feelings increase when that person comes in the flesh and sits beside you.  That’s kind of what it’s like with God’s presence.

The after effect of an incident can leave you feeling shook to the core as you relive it in your mind, realizing what happened or what could have happened.  Allow God’s peace to flow through you, calming you and giving you a positive spin on the situation.  Our minds can play tricks on us, especially if we allow them to spin out of control like a car skidding on a patch of ice.  Some of the dreams I have at times can leave a fearful after effect on me until I fully wake up and realize it was just a dream and does not mean what happened in the dream did not really happen nor would it necessarily happen.

What are your after effects like when life throws you a curve ball?  Look to God to fill you with His peace.

 Plants are not exempt from struggling like humans, but they struggle in a different way.  The above pictures are days 1 through 6 of the same individual bloom on my Christmas Cactus as it struggled to open, and then the plant on day 8 for the most part in full bloom with one or two more buds opening every day.  This plant had only produced one or two blooms for the last few years and I was about ready to give up on it.  Then I read on the internet about the lighting they prefer.  Once I moved the plant to a different room with the appropriate amount of natural and filtered light (and minus the artificial light in the evenings), the buds started popping out all over the plant.  I counted over 50 buds at one point and then some more pushed through.  It was a struggle for this plant in its original environment because it wasn’t getting what it needed in terms of light and dark.

“…Our struggle to experience more peace
is really a struggle to know God more intimately.”

Ann Spangler in Becoming a Woman at Peace

I read that statement in my morning devotions in this book and thought how true it is!  The more we experience God intimately involved in our loves and give Him our love, devotion, obedience, and trust, the more at peace we will be.  So in reverse, if we are struggling for more peace in our lives, we need to give [more of] ourselves to God and endeavor to know Him more fully and personally.

Knowing the lighting my Christmas Cactus needed was a necessary part of its environment and growth.  We need to inspect our environment to see if it is good for us as Christians or if we need to make a change.  Some people think they can continue to indulge in certain practices or go to questionable places and it won’t affect them.  Nothing is farther from the truth.  Where we go and what we do is absolutely essential to the Christian life.  We need places of peace, encouragement, nurturing, and growth if we want to experience the Christian life in its fullest.  If the places you go and the things you participate in do not reflect that, it will be hard to maintain a personal relationship with the Lord…just like it was hard for my cactus to produce buds when it was getting too much of the wrong type of light.

Proper nutrition is also an important part of growth.  I think we all like our snack foods and drinks, but we can’t live on them.  We have to eat the good stuff like vegetables, meat, and fruits, too.  We can have our snacks, but our body begs us to limit them so it can survive.  If you don’t give a plant enough water, it’s going to shrivel up and die.  If you want it to bloom, you need to give it the proper nutrients it needs by fertilizing the soil.  But nutrition isn’t just about what we feed our physical bodies.  Nutrition also involves what we feed our minds.  I don’t exclusively read the Bible.  I read other books and articles.  But we need to review those books and articles for appropriate content that does not contain things that will draw us away from the Lord.

Timing is essential to plants as well as humans.  Certain plants like a cactus or Poinsettia need more hours of darkness, sometimes beyond the natural light and dark of day.  Originally I had my cactus in the living room where it had additional hours of artificial light in the evenings until I went to bed.  When I moved the cactus to a room that I don’t use in the evening, its leaves and buds improved because it needed more darkness and less artificial light.  There’s two things I’m learning from that.  The first is that sometimes we need more down time to rest or reflect on the day.  The other is that sometimes things that we think are good, like artificial light, may not be the best for us.  Make sure to get plenty of The Light, not substitute light.

Are you struggling in your Christian walk today?  Check your environment (where you hang out), your eating habits (how much of the Word you’re consuming), and your timing (Is your day too cluttered or inhibited to hear His voice?).  If you don’t have as much peace as you’d like, if you’re struggling, how well do you know God?  He wants us to come to Him with all our concerns, everything that’s going on in our lives.  He is our safe place, our strength, our hiding place at all times, but especially in times of trouble because in times of trouble, we can go to Him in full assurance that He will not leave us—no struggling there!

“God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.”
Psalm 46:1-2, NLT

 Many years ago I heard and read about the 12 voices of Christmas from different sources.  When I pulled out this Christmas decoration my Mom made many years ago, it reminded me of the voices of Christmas.  There are 12 different people/groups of people who saw and heard the miraculous things surrounding Jesus’ birth and they tell “in their own words” what they saw and heard.  The one I like the best is this audio version by Back to the Bible Broadcast where each of the voices tell about themselves and their perspective of the Christmas story.  You can find all 12 free at this YouTube link for your listening pleasure.  They range from 7 to 12 minutes each.  If you prefer reading about them, you can purchase a paperback book version.

I thought about writing a devotional for each day in Advent, but that’s not going to happen this year—maybe next year if the Lord doesn’t return before then.  Besides, I know many people are too busy to read blogs at this time of year.  So instead of writing, I thought I’d just share these 12 voices with you that you can listen to all at once, one a day, or two a week from now until Christmas.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and still do.  They aren’t very long so it would be good for family devotions and give you a springboard for discussion after you listen (or read) about each voice.  In the image below is a glimpse of the 12 voices and what each person expresses with their voice.  It gave me a better perspective of what each person might have been thinking and feeling as the events of the birth of our Savior became a reality.  I pray it will bless you as you listen or read.

This is my second fun project to get ready for Christmas, though it can be a project for any time of year.

First, save all your little candles and ends of candles that are too small to safely burn. It doesn’t matter what color or scent.  If you don’t have any saved, start saving them now for next year.  Use an old coffee tin (not plastic) to save your candle pieces in because you will need the tin when you’re ready to start the project.  I always keep a tin in my closet to deposit broken and ends of candles that couldn’t be burned any further.  If you use a tin, you can pour the hot wax into it when a candle burns down, and just keep adding to it.

Second, gather pine cones. The big ones work better, but you can also use some of the tiny Hemlock pine cones as well.  Take a bag or basket with you when you go on a walk so you’re ready when you find pine cones on the ground.  They might be sticky from the tree’s sap so you might want to wear disposable gloves for this task.

Place all your candle pieces in an old coffee tin (preferably one with a removable wrapper and one wide enough to dip pine cones in). Take a cooking pan larger than the can (such as a Dutch oven), fill half way with water and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, carefully lower the tin into the water, careful to not get any water inside the tin. Let the tin in the hot water on a hot burner, but turn the burner off. The candles will melt into wax. You can stir the candles/wax with a stick (like a paint stick) or an old spoon. Be careful you don’t burn your fingers on the hot wax!  It doesn’t matter if there is a metal piece or wick in the tin—it will either sink or float and you can extract it.

When the candles have all turned to liquid wax, carefully remove the tin from the water. If you have to, turn the burner back on to heat it up more so that the candles melt.  (Electric ranges hold the heat longer than gas, so if you’re using a gas range, you will most likely have to turn the burner on periodically throughout the project.

Take a pine cone and gently grip it with old tongues. Lower it into the wax for less than 5 seconds. Let the excess wax drip off. Then move pine cone to wax paper or newspaper. Let the pine cones dry for several hours, and when they feel dry enough on the top, turn them over gently.  You will need a place where the pine cones can dry without being moved.

When pine cones are completely dry to the touch, you can place them in bags or boxes to store, but it would be better to use them immediately. Put the pine cones in decorated or plain baskets. Wrap basket and all in colored plastic see-through wrap. Gather the ends to the top and wrap with decorative ribbon or yarn. Now you have an inexpensive gift to give to a teacher, co-worker, friend, or as a hostess gift.

The pine cones may be tossed one at a time into a fireplace periodically, but not all at once because the candle wax will coat the chimney. The fragrance will permeate your home while making these gifts and when the recipient opens them, sets them out, and/or tosses them into the fireplace.

ENJOY!

While your pine cones are drying,
here is a 2-minute video I found online
that is interesting and explains
the life cycle of pine cones.

I thought I’d take a break from talking about peace and share a fun project that makes the home smell so good and helps to decorate for Christmas, too.  If your schedule gets full after Thanksgiving, you can make these now and store in an air-tight container in a dry place.  Be careful because they are fragile and break easily.  These ornaments will be completely edible so they will not harm children or pets, but they are not meant to be cookies and therefore would not palatable.  There are many variations of the recipe out there on the internet, but I don’t remember where I got this one years ago.

In a one-cup measuring cup place:

1 tablespoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Then fill up the rest of the measuring cup with ground cinnamon.

Dump into a medium-size bowl and stir together. Add 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. applesauce and mix together to form a stiff dough.  Put in the freezer for 10 minutes before rolling out.

Do NOT use flour to coat your roller or cutters, or the ornaments will turn white instead of staying cinnamon-colored.

Roll dough to 1/4″ thickness. Cut with Christmas cookie cutters.

Let cookies lay on wax paper. Take a toothpick and make a hole at the top of the tree, star, or other shape. Take care to not make the hole too close to the top so that it doesn’t break the ornament. It has to be big enough to get yarn through. Let ornaments cool on rack to dry for 1-2 days or until thoroughly dry, turning occasionally.  I recommend NOT decorating them because it will affect the texture of the ornament and possibly the scent as well.

After they are dry, put yarn or other decorative thread through the hole for hanging. Ribbon or natural raffia can also be used, but you must make the hole bigger.  I used a needle with a BIG eye and a needle threader (see picture) to insert the yarn or ribbon into the cookie.  Be careful to not pull too hard when knotting the yarn or it will break out the hole.

This batch makes 12-15 ornaments. If more are desired, double the ingredients, but you must have enough rack space to dry them, so consider making a second batch another time if you need more.

(If the mixture doesn’t get thick enough, you can add a tablespoon of white Elmer’s glue, but then they are not edible if you are concerned about children or pets.)

Put each ornament in a Ziploc bag and include it in a Christmas card OR write a Christmas note to attach to the bag and give it in place of a card.  It’s a great way of saving money and making your Christmas greetings personal as well as fragrant.  Everyone I’ve given them to loved them.  They found their way to cubicles at work, in cars, on trees, hung by the fireplace mantel or near an air vent to circulate the scent. 

When Christmas is over or if you find yourself with some broken ornaments, place them in a small dish, add a tablespoon of water, and place them on a candle warmer.

“But let it be the hidden man of the heart,
in that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price.”
1 Peter 3:4, KJV

We usually think of ornaments as something to put on a tree or hang for decoration, but Peter mentions a meek and quiet spirit as being an ornament.  Quiet spirits definitely are a part of a peaceful heart and life!  May you experience a meek and quiet spirit as you work on this project and share the ornaments with others.