Holiday Traditions

By Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs of Mommy on a Shoestring

The holiday season brings back memories of old when we’d bake cookies with mom for family and friends.  Inevitably, something would go wrong, the cookies would turn out terribly and we’d hit Marshall Fields for wrapped boxes of Frango Mints.  In honor of this holiday season, I wanted to share some no-fail recipes for cookies and treats that are perfect for your family and friends!

Sushi Cookies

These are my go-to treats of the 2010 holiday season because no only are they SUPER easy to make, they look great and are different than your average reindeer (sorry Rudolph).  This recipe comes from my friend Amanda Heaston whose blog www.gourmetmomonthego.com is simply brilliant!

You need:

Crisped Rice Cereal Treats

Gummy Fish

Red Swedish Berries

Green Fruit leather

Directions:

• Cut crisped rice cereal treats into long ovals and small circles.
• Add gunny fish to the top of each oval and “wrap” with a thin piece of green fruit leather (to look like seaweed).
• Add a red Swedish berry on top of each small circle treat (to resemble red fish roe) and “wrap” thick piece of green fruit leather around each circle.
• Serve with chopsticks and enjoy!

White Chocolate & Peppermint Pizza Bark

You need:

White Chocolate Chips

Crushed Peppermint Candies

Waxed Paper

Pizza Box

Directions:

• Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave at 30-second intervals.
• Mix melted chocolate and crushed peppermint pieces (leave a few to sprinkle on the top).
• Cover a round cake pan with waxed paper and then pour in mixture.
• Top with extra peppermint pieces.
• Place in fridge for at least 45 minutes to an hour until the bark has hardened.
• Remove from pan and place in a pizza box to wrap and give as a gift!

That’s Amore!

Cookie Mobiles

A sweet surprise for families!  You will need:

• Sugar cookie dough (store bought or homemade)
• Wooden dowel or wooden spoon
• Ribbon
• Glue or tape

Directions:

1. Prepare cookies as directed, but as soon as you take them out of the oven to cool, poke a hole at the top with a butter knife. Make sure the hole is large enough to accommodate your ribbon.
2. Wrap colorful ribbon around your dowel or wooden spoon and secure with glue or tape.
3. Hang cookies by tying one end of the ribbon to the cookie and the other to the decorated dowel.

Jenna Riggs and Beth Engelman are the creative talents and owners of Mommy on a Shoestring, a website and weekly radio show chock full of ideas on how families can live creatively and large on a small budget.

Writing a Family Christmas Letter

Quick tip: Family Christmas letters are a great way to reflect and remember all of the fun and memorable things your family did during the past year, so if you write one to include in your holiday cards, be sure to save a copy for a scrapbook or for your family journal.

A Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,

I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at
the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam’,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S.service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq.