Advent: St. Nicholas Day

OK, I have to say my all-time, bar-none, favorite holiday movie is NOT "It's a Wonderful Life", "Frosty the Snowman" or "Charlie Brown's Christmas" -- actually, those don't even come close. My all-time, bar-none, favorite holiday movie is Miracle on 34th Street -- the original with Edmund Gwenn as Chris and Natalie Wood giving an amazing performance as a girl who finally believes: "I believe, I believe, it's silly, but I believe". Every year, growing up (this is before videos and dvds, when you had to wait patiently till a TV-station deemed a movie worthy to be shown), "Miracle" was shown on "Dialing for Dollars" on Christmas Eve. It's a classic!

In this all-time, bar-none, favorite holiday movie my all-time, bar-none, favorite scene is when Natalie is slightly off-stage, watching Santa talking to a little Dutch refugee and they begin singing a traditional St. Nicholas song. I love how Natalie Wood's eyes get really big as a man she begins to think may actually be Santa, begins to sing in Dutch.

The tune is also quite catchy. And now I have the words that Edmund Gwenn and the Dutch imigre sing:

Sinterklaasje kapoentje,
Breng wat in mijn shoentje,
Breng wat in mijn laarsje,
Dank je, Sinterklaasje!

Even though the words are in Dutch ... you almost get the sense of the words without the English translation; altho here it is ...

Dear good Sinterklaas,
Put something in my shoe,
Put something in my boot.
Thank you, dear Stinterklaas!

So this is such an appropriate song for our own St. Nicholas Day. We are teaching our kids that Santa Claus is St. Nicholas -- that the Saint who is the patron of children, young men, maidens, seafarers and others, is the Saint who brings gifts to children who have tried to believe and be good. He is the ultimate human symbol of complete self-sacrifice and love for others -- with no looking for what he might "get out of it". I'd love for the kids to try and emulate him a bit more in their own daily lives.

Last night, our family (even mom, dad and 17yod) put their Saint Nick letters in their shoes in the hopes that this morning St. Nick would have taken the notes and left maybe a little something. In our house it's usually a few chocolate coins, a book and maybe a candy cane.

This is such a wonderful tradition for us ... it gets the kids focused on giving to others -- St. Nicholas is such a great role model for that in his willingness to help others, to give to others and keep himself anonymous as much as possible.

We've been reading his story through lovely books:

• Marianna Mayer's The Real Santa Claus: Legends of Saint Nicholas
• Gloria Whelan's The Miracle of Saint Nicholas
• Louise Carus' The Real St. Nicholas: Tales of Generosity and Hope from Around the World

The book by Carus is a book packed with wonderful tales, amazing legends and facts about the 4th Century Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey) who gave of himself for love of God. This is what I want my children to imitate. This is why we spend much school-time during Advent talking about St. Nicholas -- and the other Advent-time saints -- those who gave of themselves, with no thought to self-aggrandizement but only for love of God and God's creation.

For our special treat today we made boterkoek (Dutch Almond Butter Cake) which is a traditional favorite from the Netherlands.

It's easy to make but oh, so good!
This recipe makes one 9x13 pan or three 8- or 9-inch pans.... so go make some now -- you'll love it!

Boterkoek (Dutch Almond Butter Cake or Bars)
(preheat oven to 325 degrees)

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks butter (1 cup) softened
• 1 cup (1/2 pound) almond paste
• 2 cups flour
• sliced almonds (about 2 cups)
• cinnamon sugar mixture

Cream eggs, sugar and margarine, blending well. Slowly add almond paste -- if you cut the paste into small pieces and use a mixer, it will be much easier to incorporate the almond paste throughout the dough. Add flour and beat to all blended. Bake in greased pans (either one 9x13 or 3 8-9-inch rounds); sprinkle top with sliced almonds and cinnamon sugar. Bake till golden and done.

Enjoy!

This was a big hit at a party e went to this afternoon where we watched Navy slaughter the Army at the annual Commander-in-Chief Game (final score 34-0 .... yep, Army scored zilch, zero, nada -- good thing too as all the folks in the room were rooting for Navy!)

ST. NICHOLAS PRAYER

Loving God, we thank you for
the example of St Nicholas,
who fed the hungry,
brought hope to the imprisoned,
gave comfort to the lost,
and taught the truth to all.

May we strive to imitate him
by putting you first in all we do.
Give us the courage, love and strength
of St Nicholas,
so that, like him,
we may serve you
through loving our brothers and sisters. Amen.
—by Amy Welborn

Feast Day: St. Martin of Tours

I love the Catholic Church -- we have such great role-models and feasts to celebrate! My boys particularly love today. Not only is it Veterans' Day here in the U.S., it is also the feast of St. Martin of Tours, a soldier himself!

St. Martin was this really cool guy back in the 4th Century in Hungary who converted to Christianity (despite his parents' objection) and ended up becoming the Bishop of Tours. On the way to his bishopric, legend tells us that he sacrificed half his military cloak -- which would have been a sign of his rank -- to a freezing man on the side of the road. Later, he dreamt about this man who, in his dream, was Jesus.

The boys eat this stuff up!

Today, we not only celebrated Veterans' Day and St. Martin's Day, we celebrated a visit from one of dh's fellow teachers for dinner! This is always fun for the kids as they can spout college football stats, practice joke-telling, and generally entertain an unsuspecting audience. This is particularly fun when the faculty member is a, single or b, married but childless!

Tonight we had a nice Italian man from Orange County so we served spaghetti and meatballs, spinach salad and St. Martin's Horseshoe cookies (a recipe we got from Catholic Culture -- see below).

Although St. Martin's life was austere and sober, his day was always celebrated in the Old World manner, with feasting, merriment, and thanksgiving for harvest foods. In Poland rich cookies shaped like horseshoes were baked for St. Martin's snow-white horse, on which he "comes riding through the snow" when one least expects him.

ST. MARTIN HORSESHOE COOKIES
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup confectioners' (powdered) sugar·
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned oats, uncooked
DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 325. While pre-heating oven, toast the oats in a pyrex pan. Cream butter or margarine; add sugar gradually while continuing to cream; beat until fluffy. Stir in vanilla, flour, and salt. Blend in toasted oats. Taking a hefty tablespoon of dough in floured hands, quickly roll into a "cigar" shape and then curve into a horseshoe. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.Bake at 325° for 20 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove carefully, as cookies are very rich and break easily. (about 1-1/2 doz horseshoes)

A GREAT time was had by all!

St. Martin of Tours, pray for us!

Recipe: Mary's Ginger Bends

One of the best parts of moving alot (we've moved SEVEN times in the past 11 years!) is you become friends with some really cool folks. Added to that are the tools available nowadays: the Internet, email and unlimited long distance on cell phones. This all equals the recipe below.

I had posted on an internet forum that I wanted to make cookies today and was uninspired with my usual recipes. It's an overcast, rainy day here and I just felt like doing some cooking math and baking something that would make the house smell good, put smiles on my littles' faces and generally taste really good!

Good friend from Colorado, Our Domestic Church, immediately posted that she always makes ginger-snaps on dreary days. Sounded perfect, so I got out the cell phone and called my dear Coloradan. Here's her recipe for ginger bends (they bend rather than snap!).

Mary's Ginger Bends
(preheat oven to 375)

¾ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2-1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves

Cream first four ingredients than add dry and blend well. Roll into balls and than roll in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 10 minutes -- till baked but still soft.

Don't they look luscious? And they completely answered my needs -- the house smells of lovely, warm spices; the kids are smiling and feeling good about life in general; and the cookies are SENSATIONAL!

Thanks, Mare!

Feast Day: Conversion of St. Paul

Today is another feast day (don't you just love living the Liturgical Year?). Today is the feast that celebrates Saul's conversion. This is the time described in Acts 9, where God knocks Saul off his horse, he goes blind, spends the next three days fasting and praying and then Ananias comes and helps him to see -- both literally and figuratively. From then on, Paul evangelizes to the Gentiles and fulfills the Lord's words to Ananias -- that Paul is destined to preach Jesus' name "before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."

So this is a big deal feast!

Even more so here as Bam-Bam has St. Paul as one of his patron saints. And, boy have we been having fun today. First, we worked out a skit that we'll perform tonight for Granmere, Dad and Kotch with Bam-Bam playing St. Paul and the other two having multiple roles (and I get to be narrator). In the photo to the left, String Bean is dressed as a law-breaking Jew, Bam-Bam is a smiling, Christian persecuting Saul, and Lego Maniac is getting ready to help Saul find Damascus after his meeting with God.

Then we built a tent in the living room (Paul made his living as a tent-maker) so that we could learn in there today -- we did reading and geography and science all in the comfort of our jerry-rigged tent.

To finish the celebration, we made two different kind of Jewish cookies to have with a movie tonight. The cookies, Mandel Brot (biscotti-like cookie with chopped up almonds) and another one that is like a 3-layer bar (a cocoa cake-like bottom, coconut and sweetened condensed milk middle, and bittersweet chocolate "frosting"), will go really well with our movie feature. Tonight in honor of JP2, we watched The Jeweller's Shop. This is a great movie -- I must confess I haven't yet read the original -- but the movie is fabulous with Ben Cross, Olivia Hussey and Burt Lancaster as some of the main stars. It really is a good view of how marriage is and that you never give up. I had to get my copy through ILL -- all the way from Fort Smith, Arkansas!

St. Paul the Apostle, pray for us!