Why Do We Celebrate?

I want to wish everyone in Canada and the USA

 a very happy and safe holiday celebration this week! 

I am going to the lake for two days of relaxing and then for Canada Day, this Wednesday, I will be at work from noon to 8 pm. We are having a little Canada Day party in the afternoon. Providing programs and celebrations at a personal care home is extremely challenging right now during this time of quarantine, social distancing, and so many other changes and worries. We are trying to gather people in very small groups, and then we try and position people with some distance between them.

Previously our Canada Day Parties at the personal care home have been huge outdoor events for residents and families complete with a hired musician, food, and decorations and lots of FUN. We always had a huge turnout. This year - What to do? We are setting up the patio and decorating in Red and White, but we are handling it like a mini “come and go” open house style event for the residents so that we only have a few people gathered at a time. It is a significant change and challenges our creativity.

This year our usual ways of celebrating have been so overwhelmingly disrupted.  We all want our social contacts to return to what it was before the pandemic, but in the meantime, we still want to share our lives with each other in some way. 

What I am impressed with is how resilient people have been. We are, indeed, finding new ways to celebrate and mark special events. My niece’s husband secretly contacted her Facebook friends and arranged for everyone to drive past and honk. He even surprised her by decorated their front yard.  She was thrilled with this new version of a birthday celebration.  I was pleased to discover that I could attend live-streamed service from my local church this past Easter from my own home.

We are communicating with others and having events on Skype, Zoom or Facetime. People from all over the world are participating in activities in new ways. Some times these changes have been very positive.

I love celebrations!

 I even love those days when unusual celebrations occur and sometimes I try and incorporate them into my home life and into my work life at the personal care home. Just to give one random example- Did you know that today, June 29th, is the International Day of the Tropics, which is sponsored by the United Nations? It is kind of the perfect day to buy a tropical plant, have a sweet beachy drink. Click to learn a bit about the fascinating biodiversity of the tropics. Why do we set up these differnt kinds of events and what is the point of it?

 

What do we celebrate?

We celebrate or commemorate the important markers of our lives. We celebrate our birthdays and commemorate the passing of loved ones. We remember anniversaries. There are special feelings of pride and acknowledgment of your capibilites on the day you get your driver’s licence on the day you graduate from school or when you get that longed-for job or be a winner in that major sports competition.

We celebrate the community acknowledgment of Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day, Fathers Day and many other days with big events or family gatherings.  We sometimes do a lot of consumer purchasing to get the right décor, clothing and treats and even cards to share. 

Each culture has its unique occasions and ways that they celebrate these days.  It might be hoisting a beer stein for Oktoberfest, or it might be watching a dragon dance for Chinese New Year.  These celebrations reflect the history, culture and beliefs and geography of a place and a people. It is a way that a group defines itself and binds itself together as a group. It is a way to remember the past traditions of their people and to teach its youth to be proud of their heritage and to continue it into the future.

These special days and moments are centred around universal human experiences. We all experience loss, sadness, fear, accomplishment, and we all look for love, peace, joy, and success. When we act to notice and mark these events and moments, we find meaning in what is happening to us. The sorrowful and the joyful can be shared and let us gain validation for what has happened and our feelings about it. As a group, we can offer each other solace in difficult times, and we can provide practical support too. We can even create a force for change by acknowledging the importance of what has happened.

Back to why do we celebrate?

We have fun and excitement, and we make special memories

What is life without a little joy and laughter? Human being’s health and well being are dependent on having a bit of fun and expressing ourselves.

We bond with others and become part of a broader community.

People need a community and a sense of culture and identity. We need to have the physical support of others, but we also need to have people to share in who we are and have things in common with us. 

We discover more about our own identity and learn what is important to us.

When you celebrate a rite of passage, it can change who you are and in a very real way how you see yourself.   My granddaughter just graduated from grade 6 this past week. She was a little kid and a member of her old school. When she returns to school next term, it will be a new school. It will no longer be the elementary school where she played during recess. It will be a junior high with new expectations, and there will be new social and extracurricular groups for her. Retirement is a big change too. We often describe ourselves by our jobs and our workplace. After you celebrate your retirement, you will redefine who you are and look at new possibilities.

It reflects our growth as people and our changing lives.

Our personal journey is marked by baby showers, births, baptisms, weddings, educational completion and all those other life events. Eventually, there will come the time of our death and commemoration of who we were and of our beliefs.  

Through our lives, we define what kind of person we are, we look at our roles in our communities and families, and where we belong and where we can make a difference. Our special days and events let us mark and confirm what these events mean to us as individuals and as a society.

Lets make this Summer's celebrations fun, thoughtful and meaningful despite the challenges we are facing in our world today.

Have a wonderful Canada Day and a fantastic Fourth of July.

Make some great memories!

Enjoying Knut's Day

Our family celebrates Knut's Day. -- because it is fun!

Knut's Day is a holiday celebrated in Sweden, Finland and Norway on the 20th day after Christmas and marks the final day of the Christmas Holiday season. It was more popular in the past but we still love the idea.

Taking down the tree is kind of a sad ending to a happy season. I knew of the tradition of Knut's Day from my Swedish father. I don't think he ever celebrated it himself but he certainly was aware of the holiday. Mainly my Dad was all about the music so I think he learned the traditional song for Knut's Day.

When the kids were little we had a few New Years when we took down the tree and it turned into kind of a sad day for the kids and me too. We talked about waiting to take the tree down on 12th night or Epiphany but we decided to embrace the Swedish Holiday Season of starting with Lucia Day and ending with Knut's Day on January 13th.

Basically this holiday is the day when Christmas is to be removed from the house. In Sweden the tree would have been covered with a bunch of edible decorations and on this day the children get to plunder the tree and eat the goodies and smash the gingerbread houses. They might even visit neighbours looking for treats, kind of like Halloween. The Christmas alcohol was to be consumed and Christmas baking and other Christmas foods were to be eaten in a bit of a party.  The family would sing a traditional song and dance around the tree. In one strange but happy action the tree was carried and thrown out the window!

In a few parts of Sweden the evening came and neighbours carried the old trees to a central area for a community bonfire. Music and fun brings the Christmas Season to an end.

My little version is to take off most of the breakable ornaments from our tree and replace them with some candy and edible ornaments like candy canes and foil covered chocolate ornaments. My Grandkids can go at it! We also enjoy a somewhat Swedish meal--- Thank-you IKEA for your meatballs! lol

The last of the decorations are taken off and the lights are removed and then we do indeed throw the tree out -- but we use our door.  In a couple days we haul it off to a community recycling depot where people can trade their trees for woodchips. The trees are ground up and used for landscaping and making trails in our city's parks.

 Christmas season is over and we are left with many great memories. The last verse of the old traditional song for Knut's Day kind of says it all. The tree and other symbols of Christmas leave our homes but we know that Christmas will come again next year.

Christmas has come to an end,
And the tree must go.
But next year once again
We shall see our dear old friend,
For he has promised us so.

Click here for more of the Swedish and English lyrics

Gingerbread Houses and Grandkids

My son called me up last week to tell me that the grandkids were complaining about missing out on building Gingerbread Houses at Grandma's house. We have done houses together most if not every year but I somehow missed that it was a tradition for the kids.

We had the kids over this past Sunday and their Mommy and Daddy got a much needed chance to go on a date to a movie. Making gingerbread houses seemed like an appropriate  way so spend Ukrainian Christmas.

We had a nice dinner and then quickly cleared the table so that we had lots of rooms for gingerbread houses, 4 kids and extra candies! Grandpa had gone to the store and purchased a wide assortment of extras but there was one very special bag with assorted jujubes. We had raspberries, coke bottles and most special of all we had Christmas Sharks.

When my kids were little I used to make the dough and chill it, make sticky royal icing and make cardboard trial versions to use as patterns. It was time consuming and took days really but it was worth the effort. I even made gingerbread houses and gingerbread men with children at my kids schools. It was lots of fun but due to time and minimal kitchen resources we did graham cracker houses based on milk cartons. When we did Gingerbread men with older kids I was amazed how a cookie cutter man and lady suddenly could be dogs, aliens with multiple limbs and funny head shapes and some cookies would be holding hands as BBF.

A generation later the supermarkets have a good selection of ready made kids. Premade gingerbread, bags of icing and a nice start to the candy decorations. The grandkids are aged 11 to 2 so it is just easier to set everyone up and go for it. The house above is what the 7 year old boy did. The shark is edging around the corner to surprise the gummy bear. lol

The older kids were much more detail orientated this year for example look at all the icicles. Next year I want to try and get the two older ones over to make cookies from scratch and plan the style of house they want to build. They would love doing that. Then we could add the other two kids the following day and still all decorate the houses together.

The almost 3 year old was so funny. Her shark tried to eat me and swam all over the plate and the table and jumped over the houses. She also had a moment when she started to cry because of her mucky hands but then aunty told her to stop fussing and just lick them. Well my goodness! Icing is edible, the candy was edible but not sure she figured out the gingerbread was yummy but she kept licking it. It is so funny to be almost 3.

We had a special visit from Batman,  to check out the Gingerbread. He approved!

The Nutcracker Ballet

My 9 year old granddaughter had a wonderful opportunity. She is a recreational student at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and this year she had the opportunity to be one of the children performing in the ballet's professional troop performance of the Nutcracker.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is famous as one of the world's premier dance companies. Not only is it the oldest dance company in Canada, it is the oldest continuously operating company in North America! 

The Ballet has a top cast of fantastic dancers for this annual Canadian version of the Nutcracker. They have a lot of touches that bring humor and interest and catch the attention of the families and children that attend the performances. We see everything from hockey playing at the beginning to a huge goofy dancing bear and fantastic props. The recreation kids are able to audition in the fall to have a part in the Nutcracker. They have 2 sets of kids on altering nights, including parts as children at the party, reindeer, mice, polar bears and little angels. The difficulty level is quite varied for the different roles so little dancers of different ages get a true taste of what it is like to be part of a professional production.

My Granddaughter auditioned last year and was chosen to be one of the baby polar bears in a scene. This year she was cast as one of the adorable little angels. The young dancers had many extra rehearsal days, fittings with a real wardrobe department and fun learning  to be part of a professional show with an audience of over 2000 per night for all of their 8 night run. What a thrill as grandma to see our little girl up on the stage.

Here is a video I found from 2015 to give you a little taste of the Nutcracker, Royal Winnipeg Ballet style!

Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Nutcracker, 2015 from Royal Winnipeg Ballet on Vimeo.

Christmas Sheep

My workplace has a part time person responsible for spiritual care. Chaplains can be a part of the Recreation team or perhaps of a Spiritual Care Department, They leads ecumenical services, arrange for churches of different faiths to regularly send priests or ministers to lead services. They will counsel and visit with our residents and their families and be part of the team that provides palliative care and will do memorial services within our facility. The role of a Spiritual Care person in a Personal Care Home is very important and not enough facilities have someone trained for this task. It takes advanced learning and it also requires someone who is able to be respectful, support our residents in their emotional needs and be knowledgeable of a wide range of spiritual belief systems.

Our Chaplain did a more unique Christmas service this year. She did a service where she told the Christmas Story and mixed in related hymns as the story unfolded. She made a lot of props so that the residents could be directly included in the story. There was a group of the residents that wore garland halos and acted as our angels, there were little gold wrapped blocks for our group of Wise Men to hold and there were adorable little "knit with love" sheep for our Shepherd residents to cuddle. It was indeed a special and memorable way to tell the story of Christ's birth.

Christmas Eve Dinner

My Mother's family came from Poland and I grew up with a lot of Polish holiday and food customs.
I only recall having a full out Polish Christmas Eve dinner a couple of times growing up but it seemed magical to me and even as a young girl I appreciated that sense of a deep connection with ancient times and a rich sense of the Holy Night we were celebrating.

When our children were little Bob and I decided to have as much of a Polish traditional Christmas Eve dinner as we could arrange and we celebrated a morning breakfast with my father in Swedish fashion to honor his heritage. Christmas dinner was celebrated at Bob's parents on alternate years.

Christmas Eve dinner 2017

Polish Christmas Eve dinner is an elaborate affair called Wigilia. We really could not do a true, traditional celebration so we used a lot of creativity to make it our own. The dinner itself consists of 12 separate dishes, one for each month of the year but my Grandmother taught me that is was one dish for each of the Apostles. The dishes are supposed to be meat free but fish is allowed. The fish part is a problem for our family with seafood and fish allergies so we just ignore the main fish course and the herring and make it be any 12 meat free courses we can work out.

The evening meal starts with the children watching for the appearance of the first star of the sky. The star of Bethlehem guiding the wise men to Jesus. We then share the greeting Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia! We listen carefully because the ancient story is that the animals are able to talk on this night of the year as a reward for being there to welcome the baby Jesus at his birth. There should be straw or wheat at the table to make us remember the manger that Jesus was laid in. It was a very ancient belief that the grains needed to me brought in for the celebration of the winter solstice and that those grains would be the promise that the grain would grow again in the spring and the days would once again grow longer. Another important belief was that there should be an empty chair at the table. There is a saying that a guest in the home is God in the home. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40, 45) We leave a welcoming spot for a stranger or someone in need.  We also leave that spot to welcome the spirit of our deceased loved ones to be with us and in our minds and our hearts.

wheat berry, poppy seed and honey first course.

The meal itself has many meaningful elements to it.  The first dish is a kind of grain pudding called Kutia which has wheat grains to sustain us, honey to bring us sweetness of life and the poppy seed to bring us spice into our life. Next we serve Borscht which is a beet soup made with a vegetable broth and vegetables.  We have pierogis which we make with several fillings, cheese, sauerkraut and a fruit kind. We have a sauce made of mushrooms and onions we use on the perogies but really it could be a little thicker and served as a second soup or a little thicker as a mushroom stew.We have cheeses, pickles, breads, pickled beets, fried sauerkraut and sometimes a poppy seed cake.

There are songs to sing and gifts to open.   I try to head to Christmas Eve Mass which is called the Shepard's Mass. Midnight Mass is another option but sometimes it is better to get a good sleep and go to church in the morning. When I was a child we would have the big meatless dinner with my Polish uncle and aunt and other relatives and then I could open a package which was always pajamas. We went to Midnight Mass and then Jesus was born and it was Christmas Day! People would come back to our house even though it was one in the morning and my Mother would start all over again with putting out a meal. There was cold meat, breads, cabbage rolls and much more. The adults toasted the day and wished blessings and joy for the New Year. ... and even though I could now open the rest of my presents...  I usually fell asleep.

Wesołych Świąt i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Lot of room for presents!

Jasper Greetings

Jasper loves Christmas trees.  When he saw the car drive up and the tree get carried in he was so excited! The first year we had Jasper we thought he was going to be ummm hard on the tree. It turns out it is more like napping in the forest. He slept under it and he tried to drink water from the tree stand and  ran in circles under it.  When we started to decorate the tree and hang the ornaments he got in on the process much to our shock. He went to his toy basket and got one of his squeaky toys and balanced them on the branches then went and did it again.  Jasper is an outdoor winter type dog and he appreciates our seasonal attempts to bring the outdoors in. 

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

We have a really nice light near our city each December. It is called the Canad Inn  Winter Wonderland.

I have gone many times with family and friends and as well we usually take a small bus from the Personal Care Home I work at. It is a winter traditions for many Winnipeggers. The exhibitions consist of over a million lights and is arranged into 26 different theme areas along a winding 2.5 km road with plenty of places to stop and get out of your vehicle for a photo opportunity. The exhibit has several sponsors but most important is that the money raised by this huge undertaking supports  two important programs in Manitoba – Last year it was KidSport Manitoba and the Riverview Health Centre.

You can see the lights glowing from a distance as you approach the park.  It is only a couple miles outside of the city and located where we have an exhibition area, sports complex and the race track. As you reach the entrance to the park you pass through the gate where you can purchase your ticket, price based on type of vehicle or give your ticket that you purchase at a slight discount ahead of time.  Kids receive a coloring sheet that they can enter for a big prize packet to be drawn in January.. 

I small bit further you find a concession area where you can buy some food - a big favorite is bucket of hot cinnamon sugar mini donuts. You can tune your radio to their channel and listen to Christmas music or  put on your own favorite Christmas tunes. There are fantastic skating areas and a warm up shed, or perhaps you would like to go on a horse drawn carriage ride!

We like it as an outing for our seniors because they get on the bus right by the door of our building and then they can see all the lights of the city during our drive out and then the fantastic displays of the park and they don't have to worry about getting off the bus at any time until we are home again. It is easy on aching bodies and more relaxing for people with dementia who might become anxious if they were walking around unfamiliar territory.

When we go with our Grandkids we are sure to get enough of the coloring sheets and after our trip we go home to turn on the lights of our Christmas tree, put on a Christmas movie, make some hot cocoa and color our contest entries. It feels like Christmas is almost here!

 

Bob Carved a Santa

Bob went to a workshop session at Lee Valley Tools to learn how to carve a Woodland Santa.
He went two days in a row and finished one little Santa and got a bigger one roughed out in that time. It is made out of something called Cottonwood that is readily available. I think this little guy is adorable.

I look forward to seeing what other things Bob might carve now that he has tried it out. He has ordered a few carving books over the internet and is pouring over them getting new ideas.
 Bob still needs to put a little picture hanger on the back of the woodland santa so we can hang him somewhere special this Christmas.

I do think he looks pretty happy as a tree ornament Santa!

Electric Museum at Christmas Time

Our Girl Guide Unit- Pathfinders went to an interesting museum for our Holiday Party Windup. The Girls ran around the museum doing a trivia challenge in order to win a little prize and they learned a few things about electricity in the process. Afterward we went out for treats at a nearby restaurant and the girls filled up on steaming hot cocoa and yummy desserts.

The Electric Museum is part of an old electrical substation that is sill functioning and is a nice little museum for people to visit. Touring the museum is free and run by volunteers. This time of year something kind of magical happens. They have an annual exhibit called "All that Glows: Then and Now". It show a glimpse into the evolution of holiday lighting through the years.



I took some pictures that I am sure you will find interesting, What kind of tree and lighting do you remember from you childhood? What kind of lighting would you enjoy having in your home now?
I love that whole kitchen scene. It is some odd spot between what I loved when I was little and we have a lot of similar things to what you see in the picture at our cottage. The other fun part is the outside lighting is fairly extensive with a giant tree and some of it is coordinated with music on a radio station you can tune your car radio or devices on to.

Nativity Sets and Angels

I hope you enjoy these pictures of the Nativity Set collection and other items that we have in our living room display case. They are quite a variety of styles and ages, each with their own treasured stories. I have taken them, plus others in my collection to the Personal Care home where I work. I used them for a discussion group and they sure do bring back memories of their own to our residents too.

My Grandma Lisowski's miniature plastic Nativity scene. Only 4 and a half inches by 3 inches

My Grandma Lisowski's Statues of the Holy Family

Sweet little Angels

Some of our Willow Tree Angels

This lovely little carved egg was a gift from my daughter. It has such  fantastic details of the Nativity within.

Bob's Grandmother Cooper and Aunt Irene were in Egypt when Bob was only 7.  His grandmother bought him the fur toy camel. Sadly Bob's Grandmother died in a car accident in Egypt on this trip and we are glad to have this mementoes of her.

The metal camel was a prized possession of Aunty Irene, that she gifted to him when she moved into a retirement home.

Our 3 pewter Wise Men were purchased on a Christmas to the Max convention trip to California a few years ago.

Jim Shore collectable called "Landscape Sleeps".

Cooking Latkes for Chanukah

This year the Hebrew holiday of Chanukah begin yesterday evening, December 12th and ends on December 20th.

We will also enjoy Latkes for dinner. They are potato pancakes and are traditionally made during the 8 days of the Hanukah season by most of my Jewish friends. These things are delicious! My Polish Grandma and my mom made potato pancakes fairly often. Mom usually prepared these on those colder winter days when you wanted sometime warm and filling but don't have time to cook for hours.

Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime “festival of lights,” and the word itself means dedication. Menorahs, candle holders, are lit each evening, adding an additional candle each the eight nights and special prayers, songs and fried foods are shared together. A favorite game called Dreidel is played and sometimes gifts are exchanged.

The holiday commemorates an event in the second century BCE when a small group of Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee defended the old temple in Jerusalem during an invasion of the Holy Land. When the Maccabees and reclaimed the temple went to light the holy light in the temple they found only enough oil to last one day. Miraculously that tiny amount of oil lasted for 8 full days until new oil could be prepared.

The foods cooked are often deep fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil lasting in the temple. Jelly donuts and the fried potato pancakes are favorites.

There is a lot of info about making Latkes on the internet and everyone seems to think the way their own Grandma made it is the right way and isn't that perfect? That is how traditions are handed down through the generations.

Latkes

Ingredients:
5 pounds of potatoes
2 eggs
1 onion
Approximately 3 tablespoons flour  or fine breadcrumbs or matzo meal
generous amount of oil - 1/2 to an inch deep in the pan
salt
pepper

To be served with:
apple sauce
sour cream
fancy parties can involve toppings that range from capers to caviar with a sprinkle of green onion.

Supplies you will need include:

bowls
potato peeler
grater
stirring spoons
frying pan
sieve
Paper towels
tea towels.

Directions:

• Peel and grate the potatoes. You can put it in water to keep it from browning but the starch from the potatoes helps with binding the pancakes together so I tend to just work fast.
• Put the grated potato into a sieve or a tea towel and try and force some of the potatoes  liquid out of  it but not to the point of it being really dry.
• Grate an onion and add to your potato.
• Next beat the eggs lightly and add to your mixture
• Add flour or matzo meal. Start lightly and add a bit more if needed. Too much flour can make it kind of gluey.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper . Remember you can always add more seasoning to taste later.
• Heat a vegetable oil in a pan, I like using an electric frying pan.
• Add a large spoon of your mixture to the oil. You should see small bubbles forming around your pancakes. It should not too thick so it cooks through. Flip and brown the other side.
• Remove the latkes from the oil and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain. 
• Keep warm and serve with choice of toppings. I think sour cream on top is perfect and my daughter requires applesauce.

The following videos can give you more information and let you see what the latkes should look like but really, this is simple homemade traditional food and we should not overthink it. We should enjoy it! The first is nice and quick intro. The second is Martha, always great products, always interesting but I would never work that hard to make a pancake.

Santa Bob

Santa volunteered at the Sam (Stroke Recovery Association of Manitoba) Christmas Dinner yesterday, carefully listening to so many wishes and reassuring people that they are indeed on the Nice list, at least for the moment. 😊. Santa passed out oranges and candy canes and posed for about a 100 pictures.

Ho Ho Ho

Santa Bob will be at several events around Winnipeg this season and this is going to be one busy week! Tomorrow he will be doing pictures at one Personal Care Home and on Thursday will be at another for the morning as a special guest for a holiday party.  He is brightening the lives of many seniors this week.

The Nativity Scene

We have a display cabinet in our living room that we like to change seasonally. During December we set up our collection of Nativity sets in it plus some angels, snow men and other wintery items. I do like that the cabinet is lit from the top and it has glass shelves. This gives a nice shade and ambiance, but  perhaps not the sharpest for pictures.

My mother-in-law made beautiful ceramics as a hobby in her later years and produced many lovely, beautifully painted pieces but my favorite by far is this little nativity set that she displayed in the dining area of her kitchen. My kids remember it from grandmas and now my grandchildren get to see it too.

Grandma Cooper's Nativity Set

We Three Kings

Shepard's await in Fields by Night

Oh Come, O Come Emmanuel! 

The top two shelves of the cabinet.

I hope to share pictures of some of the other Nativity sets in the near future.

First Amaryllis Bloom

The Beauty of Our First Bloom

Simple Fudge

Chocolate Fudge and Mini Oreo Fudge

I like to do a variety of activities with the grandkids. I also like to make them seasonal and interactive and this past week the plan was fudge.

I have taken on the job of supporting my oldest grandchild in learning school skills so I do a lot of things like double the amounts in a recipe, or half them, and then we can basically show an applied use for our math skills. We are covering organization skills and what order steps should be taken and I often get him to type out the recipe, preferably in his own words, but I take what I can get. Next I try to get him to take pictures or I take pics of him and we insert it into the document.
We eat or send home treats or meals and we try and do a critical discussion about what was good about making it, best about eating it and if we would ever make that again.

Sometimes we try out things that I want to do at Work or at the Stroke Recovery Association because I am much more comfortable having previously done an activity myself. I feel more confident that I have everything I need and I can review were there might be problems before I find myself disappointing a group of people. This was one occasion where I am really glad we did our test run.

Emily, the boys and I used a recipe for chocolate fudge off of Pinterest and it never set hard enough to cut. It actually seemed more like a pretty good filling for something like truffles. We figured out what we did wrong. The recipe called for fewer than usual chocolate chips plus sweetened condensed milk and the kind we bought was LOW FAT sweetened condensed mild. We did not even notice until we started to figure out what went wrong. The kids and I will try it out again this weekend.

Wednesday was Fudge Day at Stroke Recovery Association and I was smarter this time, played it safe and used the recipe right on the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk label. We had nothing but fun and success with lots of added in candy, sprinkles.



1-2-3 Fudge

3 cups chocolate chips.
1 can Evaporated Condensed Milk
1 tsp vanilla.
 around a cup of fun things to add in.

• Prepare a pan by greasing the sides and ideally put a lining of parchments paper to make it easier to lift out later.

• Measure the chocolate chips into a large glass measuring bowl and still in the condensed milk.

• Heat in a microwave,  stir and make sure it is smooth.

• Remove from the microwave and add vanilla

• Now is the time to stir in your add ins. They can be chopped up candies, glazed cherries, mini marshmallows dried fruits. nuts, cereals. You should avoid wet ingredients but other than that be creative and make it your own. 

• Pour your warm fudge into the prepared pans. A spatula makes this easier to transfer and smooth your surface. you might want to add a few more of the fun things to be a decorative topping. 

• Cool for a couple hours, then check for firmness, cut into pieces and enjoy.

Choir Concert Prize Draws

Bob and I have not been singing in the Scandinavian Choir this year.

The biggest problem is that choir is every Monday evening and I work every second Monday. Now that sounds like there was no time conflict but there sure was an energy conflict. The fact is that I really have to try and manage my energy. I do really well but one of the problems left over from my brain injury is still some ongoing fatigue. I really have to watch how I use my time and how much I do and that is not always easy. Now that I am having a lot of arthritis problems one of the things I am being told is to watch how I use my energy and to do things like use assistive devices.so here we go again! I am hoping to get better pain management soon and be able to keep on doing the things I love. Maybe we will be singing again in a month or next fall but I am not able to commit right now.

We went to the Scandinavian Choir's Christmas concert on Monday. It was a fun evening with our choir friends, enjoying some singing, dressing up a bit, food to eat and there were chance draws for prizes that the members donated.

We put tickets into every draw bag and were shocked when we won three of the draws! 

The first prize was a nice looking poinsettia plant.

Next I had my eye on an angel garden sculpture and sure enough we won that one too. I want to do more gardening both at home and at the lake so this little guy can be an inspiration. That draw also included  garden note cards and a small heart shaped picture frame.

The third prize pack include a red napkin holder, napkins, an Aloe Vera plant,  and a very pretty little necklace.
There was also a very nice set of Christmas towels for the bathroom but I am not so sure which gift pack it came with.

I love everything!