Christmas at the Stanley, part 2

 I mentioned in my previous post a few favorite Christmas foods, so here are a couple of the recipes!
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Up until a couple weeks ago, I thought it was normal to make your own summer sausage.  Only after Isaac expressed much surprise at the fact that I had actually just made summer sausage did I realize that it must just be something that you do when you live in Brazil and you don’t have summer sausage readily available at the store!  This recipe is what I grew up with and has always been my favorite kind of summer sausage!  I had never made it myself until this year but it is so incredibly easy that anyone can do it!

Summer Sausage
2 lbs. ground hamburger
2 T. Morton’s tender quick (can be found in the grocery store next to regular table salt)
2 t. black pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder or garlic cloves
1 ½ t. liquid smoke
½ t. mustard seeds
¼ c. water
(If the hamburger is exceptionally lean, add 1-2 Tablespoons of lard or shortening.)

Mix together all ingredients until well-mixed.

Form into logs 6 to 8 inches long.  

Wrap each one in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

The next day,  unwrap and place on a broiler pan. If you don’t have a broiler pan, you can place the sausage rolls on a cooling rack placed on top of a cookie sheet—this helps the grease to bake out of the sausage without the sausage sitting in the grease.

Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees.

Pat off grease and refrigerate. 

Makes 4-6 rolls (depending on how large you make them)

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For some reason, my family never got into making sugar cookies.  Instead, the kid-friendly activity was making peppernuts—a small, nut-sized “cookie” with anise flavoring (the same flavoring in black licorice.) Making peppernuts involved rounding up all of the scissors in the house and then cutting the long snakes of peppernut dough onto a cookie sheet.  It was great fun (until we had made 3 or 4 pans full of the bite-sized peppernuts and still had more than half of the dough left to do!)
One gallon of peppernuts (one recipe) usually would last our family from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but occasionally we ended up making another batch before Christmas was over! 

Peppernuts

1 1/2 cups white sugar                        
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening (or any combination of crisco,lard, margarine, or butter)
1 cup cream or half-and-half
1 cup molasses, honey, or Karo syrup
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. black pepper,             
 2 tsp. liquid anise (or more if you want a stronger "black licorice" flavor)
9-11 cups flour 

Mix together all ingredients, except for the flour.  If using a mixer, use a cookie dough attachment.

Add the flour little by little, until the dough is firm like cookie dough.

Refrigerate.

Roll into thin "snakes" about 1/2 inch thick.  Then, with scissors or a small knife, cut into small pieces (also about 1/2 thick.)

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can fill the pan pretty full, as you do not have to allow room for them to spread out.

Bake at 350-375 degrees for 11-13  minutes. They do harden once cooled, so depending on how crunchy you want them, adjust the baking time.

Remove baked peppernuts from the pan and repeat the process!

One recipe makes a gallon of peppernuts.

Cool and store peppernuts in an airtight container—they do not need to be refrigerated or frozen in order to stay fresh and crunchy.

(These are pretty yummy to eat alongside your morning cup of coffee while cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire!)

Christmas at the Stanleys, part 1

(I wrote this post a while before Christmas, but never got around to posting it until now.) 

This is now our second Christmas together since we got married.  Neither of us are die-hard “traditional-ists,” so we are still figuring out what exactly “Celebrating Christmas” looks like for us.
Isaac did not bring any particular Christmas tradition to our marriage. I, on the other hand, do have a few things that I look back on as a part of how we celebrated Christmas growing up:
- Making a big batch of peppernuts soon after Thanksgiving is a must in order for it to “feel” like Christmas!
- Almond toast, Grandma Lehrman’s cheese ball, Christmas punch, and home-made summer sausage also come to mind. 
- My family did do a gift-exchange.  While at times it did feel like it was easy for it to become all about the gifts, I do remember always reading the Christmas story Christmas Eve before ever opening any presents.  Reading the Christmas Story is a must!
- In Brazil, we did not have relatives around to celebrate with, so many times, it became an opportunity to get together with the other missionaries who lived nearby.  They were, and still are, practically family!
- It almost feels like something is lacking without some kind of special service at church—if not on The Day, at least sometime close to Christmas.  Brazilians love having special services at church, so there was always a Christmas program.  Some years it was more elaborate than other years, but there was a program nonetheless.  I think this part of “Celebrating Christmas” is the part where I am the most stuck on “this is how it is supposed to be!” and I realize how how much it is still very much a part of my mentality!
- In the more recent years, I have been struck over and over again during this season of the year, how incredible Christmas really is!

Think about it: God. Became. Man. What?!?!? No religion ever portrays its god to be in equality with those who are in subjection to him. But the One True God did that very thing: Lying there in a manger, helpless and utterly dependent on His earthly parents, the glory of the Father was revealed to mankind in human flesh, Jesus Christ! 

Do we have reason to celebrate Christmas?  You better believe we do!  It really is not about whether or not we get all  of the particular traditions right. If it involves traditions for you though, go right ahead and have fun! I like how one person says, when writing about celebrating Christmas and understanding the balance between traditions, as well as remembering the very reason there is Christmas, something along the lines of “If you godliness does not imprint on fudge, it is not true godliness.”  

Rejoice!  Emmanuel has come!  

Bitter-sweet...

I never dreamed that I would be doing this,at this time, in this way...
yet I cling to the truth that God goodness is real, His faithfulness is enduring, His grace is sustaining.

Yes, it is Christmas--the most celebrated time of the year in which Christ's birth should be at the center of the cause for rejoicing--yet is it not the very fact of Christ's birth a part of the very reason we have hope in death? 1 Corinthians 15 makes clear the hope of the believer in Christ.

One person illustrated death as a ship leaving one port to arrive and be welcomed at another. Grandma said goodbye to those of us here on earth, but she was met and greeted by Another.

I love the words to the song "Finally Home" in which the author of it attempts to describe what it will be like to finally arrive in heaven:

"But just think of stepping on shore, and finding it Heaven!
Of touching a hand, and finding it God's!
Of breathing new air, and finding it celestial!
Of waking up in glory, and finding it home!"

Memories...

Merry Christmas! I hope you all are having a wonderful time together with family as you celebrate the incredible birth of Jesus Christ!

I started the following while I was still at school, but I never got around to posting it, so I thought I would do so now... =)

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I was listening to some Christmas music the other day [this was the middle of November]…You know, all of those traditional carols such as Hark the Harold Angels Sing, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, The First Noel, and so on. As I sat listening to them, I was taken back in time…I was no longer sitting in the school library, attempting to work on my reading assignment that was due the next day. Rather, a dozen memories flooded through my mind: all of the sights, feelings, and sounds of Christmas rushed back to me. Suddenly, I was back in Brazil.

Suddenly, I could just about taste those pepper nuts that were still hot and fresh out of the oven. I was sitting around the table with my family, eating pepper nuts and sipping hot cocoa. We had just finished setting up the tree. All of the overhead lights were off…in their place twinkled the Christmas lights that had been in storage since the last Christmas. Yes, it was 90+ degrees outside and the fan was on its highest setting, but oh, those pepper nuts and hot chocolate sure tasted good, and the special time with family, just sitting there and reminiscing together as a family, more than made up for it.

Suddenly, I was walking around the neighborhood with my sisters, enjoying the evening breeze. The three of us: Patrice, Melissa, and I. We had fun just being sisters.

Suddenly, I was in Fortaleza, at the mall. The decorations were so beautiful. There were even English songs playing! To go gift-shopping as a family was so much fun, even though more often than not, we saw what store so and so had just emerged from...

Suddenly, we were in a frenzy to get ready for the Christmas Eve program at church. Last-minute preparations were being made: the costumes were ready for the live nativity, the food for the all-church potluck that usually followed the program was fixed….The little kids sang Away in a Manger, active little boys ran around in angel or shepherd outfits… We got to see various friends who were visiting their family…And oh! The amazing beans and rice and Brazilian BBQ--it all added to the atmosphere of the celebration!

Suddenly, I had just finished eating an amazing meal of an all-from scratch chicken fajitas, along with some of the most amazing Christmas punch ever. I was in the living room, the lights were dim, some kind of music was playing, I was surrounded with the family that I love (yes, even the dog and cat were nearby.) Dad opened the Bible to Luke 2 and began to read: “And it came to pass, in those days…”

Suddenly, it was Christmas Morning--that meant that the family activity for the morning was making food. Sometimes it would get a little stressful, but it was worth it because our extended family in Brazil--the other missionaries in our area--came over to celebrate the new-born King!

Then, just as suddenly…I was back at CBI, in Hot Springs, SD. It may be a while before I get to physically celebrate Christmas in Brazil again, but I don't think even the longest time spent in the United States could ever erase all of the Christmas-time memories that took place in Brazil-- my land, my home--with my family.

With just a few days until Christmas, here are some words to a very familiar and well-known Christmas carol--Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. These words have taken on a new meaning for me after studying about the incarnation of Christ and His coming to earth as a human being this past semester:

Verse 2:

"Christ, by highest Heav'n adored

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time behold Him come,

Offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the God-head see,

Hail the incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus Our Immanuel!

Hark! the herald angels sing,

'Glory to the new-born King!'"

Christmas sometimes becomes so busy and filled with fun times and traditions that we get to do only once a year that it is easy to forget to just stop and think about how truly wonderful and amazing the event was that took place that day so long ago:

God became a human!

Christmas break is almost here...not even 24 hours left until it begins! wooohoo! :) For about three amazing weeks, there will be no more reading (only if I want to), no more assignments due, and no more late nights with early mornings a few hours later(only if that is what I so wish to do). No more intakes of coffee that are double what I usually drink . No more dorm cleaning. It has been a great semester, but I am soo looking forward to Christmas break!

California, here I come! :)

Hmmm..."It's the most wonderful time of time of the year."

Is it wonderful because of all the gifts that are given? The amazingly scrumptious food that we consume around this time of year (by the way, did you know that, according to a newspaper article, the average American gains 1-2 pounds during the Christmas season?) Is it the time spent with family? Is it the weather (be it hot or cold, depending on where you've grown up) that makes it seem like Christmas? Is it the brief break from schoolwork?

Here at school, we've been studying about Christ and various aspects of His Person, including His incarnation. The timing could not have been better: as Christmas approaches, to learn in more detail what was involved in order for Christ to come to earth is incredible. Just think: Christ--the Creator of all things!--came to earth in the form of a helpless, human baby, dependent on His human mother! One of the names given to Him in the Bible is Emmanuel, which means "God with us." He became no less God when He came to earth--He was fully God, yet He walked among men and lived among them (John 1:14). He humbled Himself by adding humanity to His undiminished deity.

Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year.

" For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11