christmas – Mommy Perfect

Classical Wassail Recipe

Published Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015

classical wassail caroling — (image source: Sir John Gilbert, 1860)

What is Wassail?

Wassail is a hot spiced punch associated with winter celebrations of northern Europe, often connected with Christmas. The word dates back to the Middle Ages (AD 400 through AD 1600, also called the Mediaeval period). Particularly popular in Germanic countries, the name wassail is a contraction of the Old English wæs þu hæl, or “be thou hale!” (i.e., “be in good health”). It’s basically the same as saying “cheers”.

Modern wassail recipes can vary greatly, but usually call for a base of either wine, fruit juice or cider, simmered with mulling spices, possibly fortified with spirits such as sherry or brandy. Essentially a hot spiced punch.

Classical wassail recipes are completely different. In the old days wassail was ale mulled with spices and frothed eggs (yes, eggs), topped with slices of toast. The addition of toast in the drink is the origins of the term “giving a toast”, meaning “a call to drink to someone’s health”. Sugar, ale, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon would be placed in a pot, heated, raw whipped eggs would get folded in, and topped with toast. Today, many microbreweries produce a spiced beer during the winter months that is very similar to classical wassail.

“Wassailing” is the practice of going door-to-door singing Christmas carols and requesting in return a drink of wassail or some other beverage. In other words: go out, get drunk, “toast the town”, and get “punch drunk”. Hence the lyrics to thepopular well-know carol:

Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wand’ring,
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you a wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy new year,
And God send you a happy new year.

Ancient wassail is frankly not very good. It’s very difficult to make because the temperatures need to be monitored closely or else the eggs become cooked — and nobody wants scrambled eggs with chunks of toast floating in their warm beer at a Christmas party. If you really want to try the ancient Olde World version, here is a recipe.

This is my version of a classical wassail recipe. Very easy to make, kid-friendly (if you leave out the optional booze), but with classical spices and fruit flavors. I make this every Christmas eve and for Christmas parties — it’s always a hit.

Truly Delicious Fruitcake

Published Thursday, December 10th, 2015

I hate to break it to you, but you’ve probably never had a truly delicious fruitcake before in your life. There’s a reason that fruitcake is a joke and most people hate it, because what has been passed off as fruitcake for roughly the last 80 years is so awful that it shouldn’t be called fruitcake! That cloyingly sweet dense block of glow-in-the-dark neon frankenfruit would give anybody a sore jaw and a stomach ache. This recipe is not that!

Fruitcake has not always been this way. The honorable fruitcake traces its origins to the Middle Ages when European farmers needed a way to preserve fruits through the winter, so they would sun-dry the fruits and bake them into a bread. Sugar was hard to come by in those days, so the sweetness only came from the fruits themselves, or some honey if available. Alcohol was added due to its ability to preserve the cake. Fruitcake has many variations and many names: plum pudding, Christmas cake, Dundee cake, stollen, winterbrot, barmbrack, keks, to name a few.

What most of us in North America know as fruitcake traces back to some southern bakers who massed-produced mail-order cakes with easy access to cheap nuts (which led to the expression “nutty as a fruitcake”). Their liberal use of sub-par, neon colored glacé fruits & citrus peels, and excessive quantities of sugar and molasses, will give anybody a stomach ache just by looking at it. Like the rest of us, I grew up hating fruitcake.

About ten years ago I began, mostly out of curiosity, to experiment with fruit cakes, digging up old family recipes and archaic British cookbooks. I quickly figured out that those glacé fruits that always pop up at the supermarkets in November needed to be eliminated. Glacé is the French word for glazed, and refers to fruits that are preserved in a sugar syrup and then further glazed or candied with syrup. Horrible stuff. I went back to what our ancestors ate: sun dried fruit.

Nearly 10 years of experimentation and refinement, I am sharing with you my recipe for this truly delicious fruitcake. Unfortunately the word fruitcake has been tainted and its not easy to get new people to try it, but I have systematically converted the most staunch haters of fruitcake to now love this recipe. I’ve even been told that I should sell it mail-order (not that again!).

This isn’t the easiest recipe to make, and its not the cheapest. Quality ingredients are vital, and it takes a bit of time and attention to do it right. We want to use entirely natural ingredients, sun dried fruits, fresh spices, honey for sweetness, and quality spirits (rum and brandy). Although we use alcohol, this truly delicious fruitcake doesn’t have even a hint of “booziness” — all of the alcohol will cook and evaporate off.

I suggest that you make this a few weeks before you intend to eat it. By aging it for a couple of weeks the flavors will enhance considerably. Spritzing it with brandy or wrapping in a brandy soaked linen will preserve it for years. (Note: A fruitcake baked in 1878 is being kept by a family in Michigan and is still edible.) I have aged this fruitcake for as much as a year and it was magnificent. If you give this as a gift, be sure to explain to the recipient how lucky they are.

Some fun Holiday Traditions which you may want to incorporate into the making of the fruitcake, which goes back to Jolly Olde England:

when you are mixing the batter, everybody in the family must grab a hold of the wooden spoon and give it a stir together; brings luck to the family for the coming year.
put a silver coin* in the batter; whoever finds it gets good luck in the coming year. If you chose to do this custom I would urge you to visit a rare coin shop for a solid silver coin, as modern coins are not made with silver and may not bake well (or be food safe).
put a silver thimble* in the batter; if a bachelorette finds it she will remain a bachelorette for the coming year. As with the dime above, use a pure silver thimble.
put a silver button* in the batter; if a bachelor find it he will remain a bachelor for the coming year. As above, use a silver button.

*Legal disclaimer: baking metal objects into your cakes may not be safe, may be a choking hazard, and you do so at your own risk. Mommy Perfect and its associates are not responsible for any health consequences that may arise from use of these ancient holiday traditions. These are included here for entertainment and informational purposes only. Use at your own risk.

Skinny Egg Nog

Published Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015

Every December I need to have my egg nog. I love the stuff! However I find that the store bought is just too thick and sweet, I would always have to “water it down” with milk, but even then it’s still loaded with sugar and fat, which is fine once in a while, but not every day. So being that I enjoy creating recipes, I began to play with egg nog recipes. I soon realized that I could concoct a skinny egg nog to help keep off the holiday bulge and that way I could drink as much as I wanted without worry or guilt. Bonus: it even has a lot of protein (after all, it is EGG nog). It’s practically a meal replacement! Perfect for people on a diet or fitness program or those who just want to drink as much as they want, whenever they want it.

I bundled this recipe, along with other skinny holiday recipes and diet strategies in my eBook Holiday Dieting Handbook ($2.99 at Amazon).

Mix this up in a large pitcher, then pour into an old gallon milk jug using a funnel. Drink as much as you want, guilt-free. Enjoy!

10 Fun Facts About Charlie Brown and Peanuts

Published Tuesday, December 1st, 2015

Good grief! This year (2015) marks 50 years since “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was first released, and 65 years of the “Peanuts” comic strip.

Here are 10 fun facts about Charlie Brown and Peanuts that you may not have known:

Peanuts was first called L’il Folks. In 1947 Charles Schultz first published his comic L’il Folks in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. L’il Folks is where Charlie Brown first appeared, and an unnamed dog resembling Snoopy.
L’il Folks began as a single-frame comic. Schultz didn’t change the format to be a four-panel strip until two years later when he quit the St. Paul Pioneer Press. That is when he submitted the Peanuts strip to United Feature Syndicate, and they signed him.
The first Peanuts strip, October 2, 1950. Left to right: Charlie Brown, Shermy, and original Patty.
Schultz disliked the name Peanuts. The Syndicate already had two other similar comic names: Li’l Abner and Little Folks, so they changed the name of Schultz’s strip to Peanuts. Schultz disliked the name Peanuts; in an interview he said about the name: “It’s totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity—and I think my humor has dignity.” Of all the Peanuts TV specials, movies, and paperback collections of strips, that were produced while Schultz was alive, none were ever titled “Peanuts” because Schultz hated the name so much.
The little red-haired girl is never shown in the comic strip. She does appear in the TV special “Its Your First Kiss Charlie Brown”.
Charlie Brown’s parents are never shown. Neither are any other adults. His father is a barber. His mother is a housewife. Adults are occasionally heard from, but always off-panel.
Schultz won five Emmy’s for his various Charlie Brown TV specials. Most notably, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown“.
Charlie Brown never kicked the football. In a 1999 interview prior to his death, Schulz recounted when he finished the final Peanuts strip, “All of a sudden I thought, ‘You know, that poor, poor kid, he never even got to kick the football. What a dirty trick — he never had a chance to kick the football!'”
Charlie Brown is not bald. Although he is only shown as having a small curl of hair on the front and back of his head, Schultz explained that Charlie Brown’s hair was so light, and cut so short, that it could not be seen very easily.
Charles Schultz invented the Christmas TV special. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was the first 30-minute TV Christmas special; all others were inspired by this. Christmas staples such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Frosty The Snowman” for example, all came after this.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas” killed the aluminum Christmas tree. Aluminum Christmas trees were a popular fad from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Within just two years of the Charlie Brown special first being on the air (December 9, 1965), aluminum Christmas trees were no longer manufactured.

In celebration of 50 years since “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was first released, ABC will be running a full two-hour special hosted by Kristen Bell, this Christmas Eve, 2015 at 8:00 pm (check your local listings for show times).

Disclaimer: this article may contain affiliate links.

How to Keep Your Christmas Tree Fresh

Published Monday, November 30th, 2015

Now that Thanksgiving has passed it’s time to setup the Christmas tree. Of course a freshly cut fir tree is the only way to go — artificial trees are simply no comparison in my book. The smell of a fresh Christmas tree in your living room is one of the most pleasant things about the Christmas season. However, Christmas trees do require proper care. I have a friend who owns a Christmas tree farm and several lots, and he agreed to share his knowledge with my readers.

Here are the expert tips for how to keep your Christmas tree fresh until New Years:

Pick a fresh one: Grab a stem, pull your hand towards you along the branch, if needles fall off don’t buy it. When deciding between trees of similar size and shape, chose the heavier one as it contains more moisture, thus will last longer. Most tree were cut many weeks ago. You can ask the clerk when this batch of trees was cut, but they lie or simply don’t know when the trees were cut — they all say “these are fresh cut”. If you really want a fresh one, ask the lot manager when the next shipment arrives and tell him you’ll come back at that time. I’ve done this several times myself so I know it can work. But you’ll need to be persistent, check back daily with the Christmas tree lot manager, and plan to be there when the truck arrives so that you can know for sure that your tree came from the fresh batch. If you choose this method, plan to wait around a while for them to unload the truck — they typically won’t let you choose a tree while they are in the middle of unloading it. Of course if you live in a place where you can cut down your own, do that.
Saw off half an inch: When you get your tree home, right before you’re ready to stand it up, saw off half an inch of trunk from the bottom. When fir trees are cut, sap oozes out and seals the end, which prevents the tree from being able to drink water. By sawing off a fresh base, the tree will be able to absorb water. Many tree lots will saw the bottom for you, just be sure to get it in water within a couple hours. If its going to take you longer than a couple hours to get it into water, then consider cutting the base yourself when you’re ready using a chainsaw or hand pruning saw. Also, some tree lots like to drill a hole up the center of the tree — this does NOT help your Christmas tree to drink, so ask them not to drill.
Large water basin tree stand: Fresh Christmas trees can drink a gallon of water per day. If you’re gone all day, and the tree drinks it’s basin dry, the sap cap will develop and then you’ll be trying to saw another 1/2″ off the base of a fully decorated Christmas tree (which I’ve done, and it looks as silly as it sounds). Buy a stand with the largest basin available.
Water twice a day: Fresh trees will drink a lot, and the last thing you want is to allow that sap cap to form too early. Always check the water level morning and night, and keep it topped off. If you want to get really picky, keep a log book of how much water your tree drank and when you topped it off. Or… see #5…
Automatic watering device: Devices like Tree Nanny simplify the process and helps to keep the water from getting too low.
Only use water: Just tap water, plain and simple. Don’t add anything else. Not sugar, aspirin, bleach, fertilizer, Viagra — nothing. Not only do those things not work, they make the tree lose its needles faster. The Discovery Channel Show Myth Busters tested all these various additives and found that none were effective. Pure water is best.
Keep away from heat: The warmer the tree gets, the faster it will dry out. Keep away from heat vents, fireplace/hearth, and radiators. The cooler it is, the longer it will last.

Now you know how to keep your Christmas tree fresh until New Years or beyond.

P.S. When its dry, remove it: Dried fir trees are a major fire hazard. When your Christmas tree is visibly dry (run your fingers along a branch as in #1), remove it from your home. And never burn any part of a Christmas tree in a wood stove or fireplace.

Merry Christmas!

How to Keep Your Christmas Tree Fresh 1920s — (Image source: Shorpy.com — Christmas 1920s)

Disclaimer: this article may contain affiliate links.

The Importance of Holiday Traditions

Published Sunday, November 22nd, 2015

I want to encourage you to understand and embrace the importance of holiday traditions. Tradition is remarkably important, especially for children. Some people may scoff or roll their eyes at traditional activities — teens and college kids especially — but I would say that view is shallow and should be disregarded as naïveté. Some traditions may seem silly, and in fact some may be legitimately silly, but to focus on their “silliness” is to miss the whole point of doing the activity.

What Are Traditions?
Simply put, traditions are activities or rituals that are done routinely and for a long enough time that they become a set norm. Without ritual, holidays lose their meaning. Not “ritualistic” like a coven killing small animals on midsummer nights eve — just anything simple or complex, that becomes part of a pattern. Fireworks on Independence Day, turkey on Thanksgiving, stockings at Christmas, to name a few common ones.

A Family Is More Than Your Genes
When I was a young girl I had neighbor, a sweet old lady named Margaret, who was born before the Great Depression. She was abandoned by her biological family when she was very young — this was common during the Depression because parents simply could not support their children. She had no memories of her biological family, but was raised by adoptive parents. All of the customs and traditions that she knew came from her adoptive family; her sense of connectedness and belonging, the very essence of what made Margaret a part of her new family, came from the activities they did together. A family is a social group, not a shared gene pool.

Like the grooves worn into Roman stone roads, traditions endure for generations. Margaret inherited her genes from her biological parents, but her traditions came from her adoptive ones, and that is what she passed on to her children. Family traditions are a social link to those who came before you. Some traditions, especially religious ones, have been practiced the same way for thousands of years. When you engage in those activities, you acknowledge and connect to those people who are with you today, those who have come before you — it’s truly a link to the past.

Embrace Tradition
Activities that are done together as a familial group, especially on holidays, become ingrained in the minds of children (and adults too) and create a sense of enduring solidarity. Even angst-filled teenagers, with more sense of independence than wits, will look back fondly at family traditions when they are mature enough to appreciate them.

All cultures develop their own traditions over time, evolving much like genes, incorporating new traits from outside influences or generating newly from whole cloth. Most holiday traditions in North America have roots in Europe, but many developed newly right here. Trick-or-treating has its origins in Ireland, but America took that custom and made it an entirely new thing. Mailing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts in colorful paper, and eating cranberry sauce at holiday feasts, are a few traditions that were invented right here in America. So too can individual families evolve or even develop their own holiday traditions.

Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees
Perhaps you’ve gotten away from traditional activities; try thinking back to when you were young and ask yourself what things you used to do on certain special occasions. Maybe every News Years Eve your family used to get Chinese food, or perhaps there’s a religious observance that you used to practice when you were young. I must emphasize that participating in religious traditions do not require that you have faith or belief in them. The purpose here is to embrace and connect with family, past and present. An atheist or agnostic can joyfully sing Christmas carols without having to extol the Christ Child and without sarcastically chiding his relations that Jesus most likely was not born on December 25.

My family has a Scottish tradition on New Years Day called “First-Foot“, where the first person to enter your home on the new year must be bearing gifts of bread, salt, and whiskey. It’s for good luck. We are not superstitious, we don’t believe in luck, but its fun! It’s been done by my family for a thousand years or more. We gather up some bread, salt, and scotch, and go visit relatives on New Years morning. We gain far more benefit from practicing this ancient (and somewhat silly) tradition than from any insignificantly minor offense from my lack of sincere belief in the custom. As the old saw goes, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees.”

Traditions New and Old
Twenty-five years ago my husband began running in a local Thanksgiving Day 5K “fun run”. When I married him, this was entirely new to me, but now I’ve embraced it. We wake up at 5:30am on Thanksgiving morning, drive to the next town over, and run a 5K race at dawn in the freezing cold air with thousands of strangers. It sounds like lunacy, but I love it. When the kids were younger I pushed them in a stroller, now they run along with us. Its become a tradition.

We’re all familiar with traditional holiday foods, like turkey and pumpkin pie, but my family has a traditional holiday dish from Scotland called bread sauce which we always eat with turkey, and now my husband and my kids know it as tradition too. Embrace older traditional dishes and incorporate new ones too.

Here is a list of traditions, old and new, to consider for the major holidays.
Easter: color eggs with the kids; hide the eggs for the kids to find; leave a basket of candies or chocolate bunny by their bed overnight from the Easter Bunny; buy an Easter lily for your home; have a family Easter feast.
Independence Day: Barbecue; party games; do a July 4th ritual; fireworks (safely)
Halloween: make or buy a costume; visit a pumpkin patch; carve jack-o-lanterns; host a Halloween party; trick-or-treating; watch Halloween specials.
Thanksgiving: run in a local race; watch Macy’s Parade; watch football; read aloud William Bradford’s original Thanksgiving Day prayer or George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation; family feast; watch the first Christmas special of the year after dinner.
Christmas: Advent calendar starting Dec 1; send Christmas cards to friends and relatives; pictures with Santa; decorate Christmas tree; decorate the outside of your house; sing Christmas carols; bake cookies and fruitcakes; hang mistletoe; Christmas Eve service at a local church; read “The Night Before Christmas” before bed on Christmas Eve; stocking hung up on Christmas Eve; leave cookies and milk for Santa; Santa always leaves a tangerine in the stockings; prepare a special Christmas breakfast; Christmas crackers at the feast; make wassail. Here is also a list of family Christmas outings to do throughout December.
New Years Eve/Day: go out to dinner; stay up until midnight; shoot fireworks at midnight; first-foot; resolutions; watch Rose Parade on TV; polar bear swim (jump into a frozen body of water); family feast.

If you haven’t already given it thought, I would urge you to consider without prejudice what traditions you want to adopt, practice, and pass along to your kids. Disregard the insignificant social stigma this may elicit from your peers or associates for participating in “old-fashioned” or “archaic” rituals. Your family will be better off if you start now, and your children will appreciate it.

Why You Need iRobot Roomba

Published Friday, November 20th, 2015

Fact Of Life #1,276: Floors get dirty. We all know this. But if you have kids, or a dog, or a cat, or husband, they get dirty fast. We have a strict “No Shoes In The House” policy (take them off at the door please), yet the floors are constantly dirty. Which is appropriate in a sense: a home is not a hospital, kids ought to be playing outside and soil will follow them in; same goes for the dog. Nevertheless, dirty floors annoy me. The shedding hair from pets alone can get out of control very quickly. I don’t like climbing into bed at night with soil and dog hair stuck to the bottom of my feet — yuck!

When I first learned about the original Swiffer (15 years ago, or so), that was a giant leap forward, but you still had to use a broom for the big stuff. Then the Swiffer Vacuum came out, which replaced the need for a broom and dustpan almost entirely. (If you don’t have one, I urge you to pick one up — they are handy.) But even with the Swiffer Vac I would be doing the wood floors once or twice a day.

I had heard about the iRobot Roomba when they first came out, but they’re pricey, and I was suspicious about their effectiveness. Well last Christmas my husband got one for me. Yes, I recognize the cliche of a husband buying his wife a vacuum for Christmas, and we did laugh about that. At least it’s a vacuum that I don’t have to use.

The first time I turned it on it went under the entertainment center and got itself stuck. Super — so much for that great idea! Then my husband read the manual and showed me that it has these nifty things called “Virtual Walls”; devices that you place on the floor and they tell the Roomba not to go there. This would be appropriate to put at the top of a set of stairs, for example. I placed one under the entertainment center and surprise it never went back under there. Great! Time to let it loose on the whole house.

The Roomba runs in this apparently random pattern, zig-zagging back and forth around the room. At first I thought that ours was “mentally challenged” — it appears to wander randomly about. But apparently it follows some algorithm to ensure that it gets everywhere in the room. You do have to keep the house tidy though — you don’t want to have clothes and toys all over when the Roomba is trying to clean, which isn’t a bad thing as it encourages everybody to pick up after themselves.

For the first few days I would turn it on, follow it around, and watch what it did. It’s quite interesting and it actually got all the soil and hair. Quite thorough. When it is finished, or when the battery is running low, it takes itself back to the charging station and parks itself. It has a timer which you can schedule so that it will get to work automatically every day. I prefer not to use that feature in case the kids left something on the floor, so I’ll do a quick walk-through, then turn the Roomba on. For the most part it can manage to get around most of the obstacles in the house, but it can get snagged on a cord or a sock if it’s left out.

Occasionally it will lodge itself into a tight spot that it can’t extricate itself from. One time it went missing for a few days. I looked everywhere for it. I began to think my kids were hiding it as a practical joke. I finally found it days later stuck in a spot I hadn’t thought to check — wedged in a corner behind some curtains. Fortunately this is rare.

Although I don’t have carpets in my home, the Roomba will work equally well on pretty much all surfaces: carpets, tiles, or wood. It automatically adjusts its height to the surface. It can navigate over slight elevation changes, like where carpets meet tile, but obviously it can’t go up and down stairs. It has a small bin where it catches the dirt which I change every couple of days. It also has a “spot cleaning” mode which will keep it localized to the area you set it on. For example, my son knocked over the pencil sharpener from my desk; shavings spilled around my desk area. I place the Roomba down on the mess and press the “spot” button — it won’t go wandering around the house. When your little one knocks over their Cheerios, use the spot button. I should mention that the Roomba is only for dry cleaning — don’t use this on wet spills. iRobot does have a different device for wet scrubbing called Scooba, which I haven’ttried.

One minor maintenance issue is that
human hairs will get wrapped around its rotating brushes, much like traditional vacuum cleaners. iRobot includes a small tool that aids in the removal of the wrapped-up hairs, so its no great chore.

All that being said I love the little thing. I don’t have to fuss over the floors anymore. Roomba has several models from the basic Roomba 650 ($350) up to the deluxe Roomba 980 ($900). The deluxe model is more efficient and has a longer battery life, but for less than half the price the “basic” model does a great job for me.

Get yourself one and let us know how you like it in the comments below. Already have one? Tell us about it or share any funny stories.

https://youtu.be/iebiPsFcVIY

(This NOT a paid advertisement. I am not paid by iRobot, or anybody else, to promote this product. I simply like it and think my readers will too. Disclaimer: this article may contain affiliate links.)

Ginger Cranberry Sauce

Published Wednesday, November 18th, 2015

This is the most delicious cranberry sauce I’ve ever tasted. Sweetened with honey, with mild ginger and orange accents, it’s the best. Be sure to cook this up at least a day before your feast.

Some interesting facts about cranberries:

The cranberry got its name from European settlers who thought the blooming flower resembled a crane, hence craneberry. In parts of Canada they are called mossberry; in England fenberry.
Native American Indians did eat cranberries, although there are no records to indicate that they were served at the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving in 1621.
The earliest recorded reference to cranberry juice was in cookbook from 1683.
The earliest recorded reference to cranberry sauce was during the American Civil War, being served to the troops in 1864.
Cranberry sauce in Europe is often served sour, whereas in North America it’s highly sweetened.
Rumors persist that cranberries are one of only three fruits native to North America. This is false. In addition to cranberries there are at least 36 fruits native to North America.
Cranberries can help to prevent urinary tract infections (UTI), although researchers aren’t precisely sure how it works.

Although Ginger Cranberry Sauce has no added sugar, it is not a low-calorie recipe.

Family Christmas Outings

Published Monday, November 16th, 2015

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but it is also one of my busiest times. My husband always says that I try to do too much, but I think it is important to make an effort to create lasting memories of these special times. Kids tend to not remember much before 5 years old, and by the time they’re 15 the last thing they want to do is hang out with their parents at Christmas, so we have less than a dozen years to form lasting memories that will stay with them for their lifetime. Years from now the kids won’t remember the gifts they received, so rather than put so much time and effort into rushing around buying them “stuff”, I do my best to craft experiences for them.

Here are some budget-friendly ideas for outings to do with your family at Christmas time:

Christmas Light Displays
This is a tradition that I have done every year since I was a little kid. It doesn’t matter where you are, if you are at home or on vacation, there will most likely be some sort of displays nearby around Christmas. Common popular places to look are botanical gardens, city parks, and upscale residential neighborhoods. If you have the budget, practically all zoos and theme parks will have professional displays.

Ice Skating
We make it a point to go ice skating every year. None of us can skate very well (since the only time we go is at Christmas!), but there is something about it that feels so festive. In reality it’s fairly painful on the feet (and other body parts that fall onto the ice), but in the end all that gets wiped clean from your mind by the fun Christmas memories you created by doing it. Christmas music playing, dreamy visions of a Currier & Ives lithograph, hot chocolate or a peppermint mocha… fun fun!

Christmas Movie at an Historic Theater
This has recently become a “thing” that many towns offer. In a nearby town we have an old theater built in the 1920’s which was restored so elegantly, and every December they offer the classic Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas and Holiday Inn. We use this opportunity to dress up fancy — as was the custom in the old days when going to the theater — and make it a night out on the town. Many theaters have matinee showings as well, if that fits your schedule better. Do some internet searching in your area and see what you can find.

Window Shopping
This is an excellent low-cost outing with your spouse (or significant other). We’ve had some years where the economics were lean, but we still made sure to get out once or twice in late-November/December without the kids. You can get a nice hot drink, stroll around the shops in a downtown shopping district, or even a shopping mall if that’s all you have access to. It’s always festive with decorations, Christmas music playing, and you get to enjoy the seasonal atmosphere. Keep it leisurely and relaxed — this is not a time for buying stuff, but for enjoying the company of your partner and the beauty of the season.

Volunteer Together
What feels even better than receiving? Giving! We try to teach our children to know the joy of helping others. I let them choose projects that sound good to them and we do them together as a family. We help with charity food and toy drives, the animal shelters, and even your local town needs volunteers to help with Christmas parades and such. Make Christmas time be not just about receiving presents, but contributing as well. Remember, the memories are whats important, especially for the kids, and they are far more likely to remember the Christmas when they helped decorate the town park than sitting on the couch playing video games. Do some hunting for what your options are and make it a point to have everybody in the family volunteer.

Tree Lighting Celebration
I really like attending these. Our town has a Christmas parade that we get to walk in because the kids play for the town soccer club. The parade ends with a great big celebration with caroling, hot chocolate, cookies, and the tree lighting.

Local Ballet Company’s Nutcracker
This has been a long standing family tradition that began with my mom. I loved going to the big productions with a live orchestra and all. If you don’t have a big production in your area or can’t afford the high price-tag, we often support the community ballet companies as well. It’s still a nice day out, we still get all dressed up as though we were going to a prestigious performance hall, and the local groups are often quite capable performers. It doesn’t need to be Russian Ballet to enjoy the show.

Community Christmas Party/Meal
In December you’ll find that many churches, community centers, and even the Elk’s Lodges hosting Christmas dinners or pancake breakfasts with Santa, this sort of thing. Most are open to the public for a small fee (for charity). Even if you don’t know anyone and don’t attend that church or group, I find that the people are so friendly and gracious that it boosts my faith in humanity and really makes any awkwardness vanish. You can also volunteer at these events; make it a two-for.

Cookies for the Neighbors
We live in a neighborhood where people don’t socialize much. I believe this is quite common today, unfortunately. We don’t really know our neighbors very well, so I take this opportunity to reach out and try to get to know them a little bit. We bake a bunch of cookies together as a family, package a few in pretty little bags that the kids decorate, and hand them out to the neighbors on our block. Everyone seems appreciative and the kids love doing it.

Filling the Advent Calendars
Some years ago we bought wooden reusable advent calendars. In late November, usually the weekend after Thanksgiving, we visit a candy shop or a boutique supermarket that has bulk candies in bins, and we each pick out 25 little candies. I personally like to buy a large dark chocolate bar that I cut up into smaller bits for my daily December dose of dark delight. This is such fun because everybody likes going to the candy shop. We don’t spend much on it either.

An important lesson to remember is that what you imagine the family Christmas outings will be like in your mind’s eye, and how it turns out in real life, are often quite different. I used to take this discrepancy as a failure on my part, but I’ve learned to keep a sense of humor and perspective. Like when you have high expectations for a movie, you’re always disappointed. Keep your expectations grounded in reality, just enjoy the time spent with your family, and try to remember that it’s always the little things that you didn’t plan for which make the most lasting impressions.

Chocolate Climax Cookies

Published Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

These are truly the ultimate dark chocolate cookies. We use four types of chocolate, including raw unprocessed cocoa nibs, and hardly any flour. The nibs give them an amazing crunch with each bite. There is so much chocolate in these cookies that the batter can barely stay together on its own — we have to refrigerate it before baking just to keep the batter together.

I got this recipe from a close friend who’s an accomplished European chef. We began making these a few years ago around November/December, and while they aren’t your normal Christmas cookie, the whole family likes them so much that its become our favorite Christmas cookie of all. The kids demand that we leave these for Santa on Christmas Eve because surely he’ll appreciate them, being that he’s a connoisseur of fine cookies and all that.

Also, because of the high percentage of unprocessed cocoa in these cookies, they contain a lot of the beneficial flavonoids which have been shown to have positive health effects. These do have butter and sugar however, so it’s not a free pass to eat all you want, but at least there’s a positive side to these delicious treats.

I urge you to try these, and be sure to share the recipe with your friends. You’ll never look at chocolate cookies the same way again.

chocolate climax cookies on rack — Chocolate Climax Cookies, with raw cacao nibs and dark chocolate

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The Best Family Christmas Movies

Published Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

When I was young, if I wanted to watch a Christmas special I had to wait for it to come on TV on one of the 4 available stations. I realize that I am dating myself with that comment (youngsters: this was before cable TV, Netflix, internet, or DVD players). We marked it on the calendar, waited for it to come on, and they usually only played the show/movie once, maybe twice, in the season. They were called “specials” because they really were special. With Thanksgiving being the official kick-off to the Christmas season, the local TV stations would play the first Christmas show of the season on Thanksgiving night (American Thanksgiving that is, not Canadian Thanksgiving).

So in keeping with that tradition, we put away the Christmas DVDs all year and don’t pull them out until Thanksgiving night, when we let them watch one after dinner. And right through New Years Day we have a frequent stream of Christmas specials playing, at which point they get put away again. I think the rarity helps to add a bit of “specialness” to the movies.

As with my earlier list of the best Family Halloween and Thanksgiving movies, here are my picks for the best Christmas movies and shows. Plenty of kid’s cartoon specials can be annoying for adults to watch, but we have put together a list of charming Christmas tales that are quite tolerable for adults. These are the favorites in our household. If you don’t already have all of these, each title below is a link that will show you where you get get a copy for yourself.

Share with your friends and family, and let us know in the comments below which ones your family enjoys most.

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
The original Charlie Brown special that started them all. Charlie Brown seeks the real meaning of Christmas after becoming disenchanted with all the commercialism he sees around him. Notice how the same themes people struggled with 50 years ago still plague us today. All ages.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) (animated)
Boris Karloff narrates this original animated Dr. Seuss favorite about a grumpy hermit who plans to keep Christmas from coming. All ages.

Elf (2003)
A human who was raised in the North Pole believing himself to be a Christmas Elf travels to New York to seek out his biological father and restore the Christmas spirit to those who have forgotten. Ages 7+.

Rise of the Guardians (2012)
An all-star cast in an entirely original holiday story that will touch and entertain children and adults alike. The Immortal Guardians (Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and Jack Frost) team up to prevent the evil Boogie Man from destroying the innocence of children across the world. Starring Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, and Jude Law. Ages 7+.

Prep and Landing (2009)
Animated story of how the Christmas elves prepare each house in advance for the arrival of Santa Claus. Very funny for adults as well as kids. All ages.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
The Disney characters play the roles in Dickens’ classic tale. All ages.

The Night Before Christmas – Tom and Jerry (1941)
It is Christmas Eve and Tom gets to know the spirit of giving after he tosses Jerry outside in the cold when he catches him trying to get to a present. This 9 minute short has such beautifully hand-drawn animation that you’ll wish they still make cartoons of this quality. It was nominated for an Academy Award. Available on the Tom and Jerry Golden Collection DVD. All ages.

Yogis First Christmas (1980)
Yogi, Boo Boo, and Cindy awaken from hibernation to join their friends in Christmas celebrations, but can Yogi stay awake until Santa comes? All ages.

Casper’s First Christmas (1979)
Casper gets a Christmas visit from Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, and the whole gang. All ages.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) (live-action)
Jim Carrey plays the Grinch in the live-action retelling of the Dr. Seuss book. All ages.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed. Such a beautiful and engaging story. Although this is considered to be a Christmas classic, it spans the lifetime of the protagonist George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart. Originally produced as black and white, I prefer the colorized version as I feel that it draws the audience in more, simply due to the additional visual clarity. All ages, although young kids may find it boring.

TNT’s A Christmas Carol (1999)
The classic Dickens tale of hope and redemption. Some of you may call me a blasphemer for saying this, but I find all other version of this beloved story to be inferior. Starring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge, this is far and away the greatest rendition on screen. The script was the most accurate to the book, and Stewart absolutely nails the role like none other. This version brings me to tears every time I watch it. All ages, although young kids may find it boring.

Holiday Inn (1942)
At an inn which is only open on holidays, a crooner and a dancer vie for the affections of a beautiful young performer. Although this is often lumped in with Christmas movies, it spans all the holidays of the year. Stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Fun Facts: This is the movie that the song White Christmas was written for. White Christmas is the best selling song of all time. All ages, although young kids may find it boring.

White Christmas (1954)
A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general from WWII. Stars Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Danny Kaye. Fun facts: Rosemary is George Clooney’s nephew. All ages, although young kids may find it boring.

What are your favorite Christmas specials? Did I miss any? Leave a comment below!

Disclaimer: this article may contain affiliate links.

Butternut Galliano

Published Monday, November 2nd, 2015

This is a delicious dish for holiday meals to serve along side a turkey or ham. Galliano is the “secret” ingredient that provides deep layers of flavor to the butternut squash and will have your guests begging for your recipe. Galliano is an award winning sweet Italian liqueur, infused with natural spices and herbs, that provides complementary flavors to winter squash dishes and soups. In some parts of the world butternut squash is also known as butternut pumpkin. Galliano makes several different flavors of liqueur, but we are using the original flavor.

Butternut squashes do vary in size. This recipe was designed for a large butternut yielding approximately 4 cups of cooked squash, so adjust recipe or cook two smaller squashes, as needed.

A simpler method for cooking the squash, using a slow-cooker:

Wash the outside of the squash.
Place whole inside your Crockpot. No cutting or dicing.
Add 1/2 inch of water to the Crockpot vessel.
Cook on HIGH for 5 hours, or LOW for 8 hours, or until tender.
Remove with tongs and place on a cutting board.
Cut lengthwise down the middle.
Using a spoon or an ice scream scoop, remove the seeds and stringy bits — discard.
Carefully scoop out the tender flesh of the squash, leaving the skin.
Prepare as above.

Traditional Scottish Bread Sauce

Published Sunday, November 1st, 2015

“The whole point of roast turkey is the bread sauce.” –Great-grandma Fraser

In North America bread sauce is virtually unknown, which is unusual because so many of our American and Canadian customs — especially holiday customs — came from Britain. Bread sauce is one of the oldest British sauces, with records of it going back to medieval times, and is the only surviving bread-thickened sauce from that epoch. Its an important part of a traditional British Christmas dinner to accompany roast poultry.

Bread sauce is a savory sauce with a very unique flavor, unlike anything you’ve tasted before. Its excellent with turkey or any fowl, but accompanies well with beef, lamb, or fish. It should be served up similarly to how we traditionally serve cranberry sauce: a dab along side your meat. You can also “butter” your bread with it when making a turkey sandwich from leftovers. Can be served cold, but I prefer it warm.

My family’s recipe came over with them from Scotland more than a century ago and has been served with every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in living memory. Bread sauce is easy to make and is a crowd-pleasing extra for the holidays or for any special gathering. It also freezes well, so can be made up to a month is advance.

I like what Mrs. Leyel and Miss Hartley have to say about bread sauce from their famous cookbook The Gentle Art of Cookery (1925): “This is one of the sauces we make better in England than in France, for the French don’t make bread sauce at all — a great mistake on their part, for properly made it is excellent, not only with birds but with many kinds of fish.”

Try it this holiday season and let us know what you think about it in the comments section below.

Holiday Diet: How To Enjoy The Holidays While Dieting

Published Tuesday, October 13th, 2015

When the weather starts getting cooler in Autumn and the “Pumpkin Spice” flavored goodies appear wherever you look, most people who had been successful with their eating habits up until now will suddenly begin cheating too often and losing their hard-earned gains. Halloween candy, family feasts, pie, gravy, egg nog, fruitcake, cookies, chocolates… the last three months of every year! We all find our will-power being tested at holidays, and for many people who are trying to pursue body or fitness goals, this time of year mark the end of their healthy diet – they give up entirely and revert to horrible eating habits until New Year’s rolls around again, then the cycle starts over.

Anybody who tells you that its easy is lying to you. If it were easy then everybody would be in great shape. As a former athlete and fitness professional, I’ve spent years seeing how people struggle this time of year — including myself — and I’ve learned some valuable lessons to help navigate the holidays without blowing up your diet.

Why do we crave fats and sugars?
How to use “cheat meals” to keep you ON your diet without feeling guilty.
Is gluten the real reason that you struggle to get trim? Or is it sugar? Or pesticides? Or something else?
What should you do if you give in to temptation?
Should you be eating low-fat or low-carb?

I’ve writen a new book called “The Holiday Dieting Handbook”, available at Amazon, which answers these questions and many more. Full of delicious holiday recipes that won’t compromise your diet or make you feel like you’re missing out. These are all-original recipes that aren’t on my website or anywhere else.

Want to know what the biggest lie in the fitness industry is? Here is an excerpt from the book:

Competitive athletes and bodybuilders have known for decades that the best way to get protein is to eat food; not protein powders or bars. Even though they all sell powders and bars, they rarely eat the stuff. The powder business is hugely profitable, and so they all try to sell the public on the myth that you can drink this expensive powder and look just like them. Meanwhile they almost never touch the stuff. Powders are highly processed waste byproduct of food manufacturing (mostly from dairy processing). They used to throw the stuff away, then someone got the idea to sell it. Through fancy packaging, attractive models, and a lot of misleading (or outright false) advertising, a multi-billion dollar business has sold a naïve public that they need powdered protein to get fit. I could write an entire book about all the fraud that goes on in the supplement business, but suffice for now that powders and bars should be your last option, not your first. These overpriced powders do have their place as an occasional meal replacement when you’re in a pinch and have no other choice, such as an airline flight, a long meeting, and when added to certain recipes. The pros do use powders in this limited way as well. Just remember: powders are a food of last resort.

The Holiday Dieting Handbook is available now at Amazon for $1.99 digital download (free with Kindle Unlimited). I hope it helps you to make it to New Years with your diet intact!