Posts from — December 2009

It’s back to tradition today, with Vince Gill’s rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful, from his Breath of Heaven CD:

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

As we head into the final stretch of the countdown, I find myself returning to the three CDs in my collection that I love the most: Amy Grant’s A Christmas to Remember, Vince Gill’s Breath of Heaven and Michael W. Smith’s Christmastime. Today’s selection is from the Amy Grant CD, but it doesn’t feature her vocals at all. It’s an instrumental piece titled Gabriel’s Oboe—performed, as nearly as I can tell, by musicians in the Nashville Studio Orchestra, who accompany many of the songs on this CD. The music does, indeed, sound angelic and brings to mind the accounts of angelic encounters surrounding the birth of Christ—first by Mary, as she’s told by Gabriel that she has been chosen to carry Jesus, then by Joseph in a dream, and finally by the Bethlehem shepherds who are called to the manger after the baby is born. I hope you enjoy its sweet strains as much as I do!

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

Shawn, as we listened yesterday to this song—There’s a New Kid in Town, performed by Kathy Mattea: “I really like this one.”
Me, in reply: “Is that a request for the carol countdown?” (I took his smile and shrug as a “Yes.”)

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As I listen to today’s countdown selection—Tchaikovsky’s March of the Toys from Babes in Toyland—I find myself wishing that the holiday gifts hidden in various locations around our house would somehow magically march themselves into some wrapping paper and underneath the Christmas tree!

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

I had promised Kennah on her fourth birthday (Nov. 12) that we would plan a Girl Day, when she and I would spend the day together doing things that are fun for us but that don’t even remotely interest her dad or her brothers. We had a hard time pinning down an actual day to do it, but she never forgot about it. “When are we going to have Girl Day?” she’d ask. To which I’d answered, “Soon, I promise,” so many times that I think she could hardly believe it yesterday when I announced that today would be the day. “Do you mean after this day, when we wake up, it’ll be Girl Day?” she queried, scarcely daring to hope that the time was so near at hand. “Yep, that’s right,” I found myself repeatedly reassuring her.

Clearly, Kennah craves time alone with me—a fact that I’m reminded of nearly every night as she waits up for me to finish reading to her older brothers and taking care of numerous pre-bedtime tasks. “Are you finished with all of your chores yet?” she’ll ask between yawns, having set up her Disney Princess Old Maid card game or her Strawberry Shortcake Strawberryland board game for us to play after all of the boys are in bed. And when she does, I can hardly bear to tell her that the chores are never finished. So I don’t. Instead, I play a game with her and help her afterward to fall asleep—hoping that I can stay awake to tackle a few more chores before I, too, must close my eyes. I know these times are precious, and I hope they’ll always be as important to her as they are right now. A friend of mine with four daughters—all much older than Kennah, including two on the brink of the teen years—assures me that they will. Each of her girls “will take as much as I can give them,” she says.

And so today I think we’ve begun a tradition of sorts—one that I hope to repeat at least semi-annually, although I reserve the right to call a Girl Day whenever the budget will allow it and we’re in need of one. Following are a few photos from the first Girl Day, during which we each got our hair cut and styled (by our friend and fabulous stylist Renee Bau), enjoyed pedicures (a first for us both!) and had lunch at a tearoom (the Urban Tea Loft).

Newly trimmed tresses.

Premiere pedicure.

Pretty in pink.

Tip-top toes.

Icing on the cake.

Of all the music I’ve included in the countdown so far—and that I plan to include in the next week—this is my favorite. And not so much because of the music itself, but because the performer is my 9-year-old son, Kellen, who absolutely nailed his first-ever piano recital last night! To hear it, you’ll have to endure my rather low-tech recording of the event on iTalk using my iPod Touch, which I simply placed on the stage as he was ready to walk out. (You’ll hear a lot of random shuffling noises and some silence before his teacher, Eunice Elie, introduces him. Also, Kellen’s squirmy 2-year-old brother, Keillor, adds a few vocalizations of his own here and there. And then there are some muffled coughs from someone in the audience, as well as a few distracting camera clicks from—ahem—someone else in the audience.)

The actual Christmas carol, Joy to the World, comes at the end of Kellen’s performance. (His first piece is a medley of children’s songs: London Bridge, Mary Had a Little Lamb and French Children Sing.) The carol is a special finishing touch because he almost didn’t get to play it for the recital. Two weeks ago at his piano lesson, he was struggling with the song, and his teacher decided he wasn’t quite ready to perform it. But instead of just letting it go, Kellen worked really hard to master the piece, and his teacher decided two days ago that he’d gotten it up to par. Whew!

Without further ado, here is Kellen in concert:

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Simply put, this song just makes me happy. Whenever I hear it—Skating, performed by George Winston on the Winter Solstice on Ice CD—I think of snow falling, childhood and, of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which features the song prominently. I’m more of a rollerblader than an ice-skater, and snow is NEVER in our local weather forecast. So maybe I can afford to be more nostalgic about those winter elements than someone for whom they figure into the normal routine of the season. Whatever it looks like outside your window—and regardless of whether you glide around on wheels or blades—I hope this song brings a bit of winter cheer your way.

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

By this time, I’ve made a fair amount of progress in decorating the house for Christmas. Our main tree (a noble fir from Oregon) is up, with lights and ornaments in place. A smaller advent tree (our “Jesus and Me Tree,” which I’ll write about soon) is under way. The nativity scene is displayed on atop the piano. And a big red felt ribbon adorns our front door. But there’s plenty left to do, and I sense I am running out of time! Must hang the stockings soon—and, if I can manage it, actually make Keillor’s stocking. (Having just turned 2, I think he might notice this year if there isn’t one for him!) So the song I’ve selected for today—Deck the Halls from the CD Swingin’ Christmas, featuring Rex Allen’s Swing Express—is intended to get me moving on what remains to be done. Hope it helps you tackle the rest of your holiday tasks, too!

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And because my Irish is definitely up today and needs to be calmed a bit, here’s yet another favorite—Sìor-Uaine (Evergreen), from Windham Hill’s Celtic Christmas IV. Hope it soothes you, too!

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

I’ve been experimenting with soaking and dehydrating nuts lately and enjoying the results in desserts—such as pecan pie at Thanksgiving—and as a snacks—such as the cashews with a hint of cinnamon I’m featuring here. You might be wondering why I would soak the nuts and dehydrate them, so I thought I’d share my inspiration, which comes from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon:

“… nuts are best soaked or partially sprouted before eaten. This is because nuts contain numerous enzyme inhibitors that can put a real strain on the digestive mechanism if consumed in excess. Nuts are easier to digest, and their nutrients more readily available, if they are first soaked in salt water overnight, then dried in a warm oven … [or] a dehydrator. This method imitates the Aztec practice of soaking pumpkin or squash seeds in brine and then letting them dry in the sun before eating them whole or grinding them into meal. Salt in soaking water activates enzymes that neutralize enzyme inhibitors.”

Nourishing Traditions and other real-food cookbooks recommend soaking most nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans and walnuts) overnight or for 7 hours in salted water before drying them. But cashews are a little different. Because they “become slimy and develop a disagreeable taste” if they soak for too long, cashews can be soaked for as little as three hours—and no more than six hours—before dehydrating.

I found myself with about 2 cups of leftover cashews (I had used them as a base to make a dairy-free, gluten-free gravy at Thanksgiving), which I soaked for a few hours (in enough water to cover them, plus 1 tablespoon sea salt) and then tossed with about a tablespoon each of Rapadura and cinnamon before spreading them on a cookie sheet and drying in the oven for several hours. They make a great snack as is, but next time I want to try grinding them (along with coconut oil, honey and sea salt) into cashew butter. I’d try it with this batch, but they’re almost all gone!

This post is part of the Tuesday Twister blog carnival hosted by www.gnowfglins.com. To link to today’s Tuesday Twister on that site, click here.