Tu B'shevat

 

Somehow I managed to totally forget to take pictures, I NEVER do that! I was so sad.  Yesterday was Tu B'shevat, which because it is a Jewish Holiday it actually started Sunday at sun down. Tu B'shevat is one of three Jewish Holidays that has a Seder meal that goes with it. I was so excited that my friend accepted my invitation for her family to join my family in this event.

I spent several weeks studying Tu B'shevat, trying to fully understand it. I read multiple Seder scripts before I wrote mine to present for our dinner. Like Always I learned so much! 

Before we really even knew anything about Tu B'shevat my sister and I had selected a tree as our logo image for our website, blog and attempt at vlogging, YouTube, or podcasting.  We knew that trees were important, but it is only been recently that I realized the true importance of trees.

I do feel as if I should share a little about our podcasting/YouTube videos. I haven't written much about this process. After our Thanksgiving video we decided no one wants to listen to us drone on and on for hours so we decided to cut our videos to 6 minutes or less. We had an AWESOME script for Christmas, attempted to record them and failed. We felt strongly that we were supposed to go in another direction and focus strictly on the Jewish holidays and how they relate to our beliefs. So we started focusing on Tu B'shevat. Recording went a little smother than last time, but we ultimately were unsatisfied and not comfortable posting those ones either. And decided that we need to focus first on the big seven (or eight) however you count that are commanded in the Bible. Starting with  Passover.  We are excited for that upcoming recording and ask for prayers that it goes smoothly.

But just because we aren't recording on the minor holidays, yet, doesn't stop me from celebrating them and learning from them. 

Like Passover the Tu B'shevat Seder includes lots of drinking of grape juice (or wine if you are Jewish). I decided I need to invest in some Kiddush cups before Passover.  By the time you are done drinking all the Grape Juice you are completely full and there is not room for the delicious meal that follows. Kiddush is the drinking of wine the evening of the sabbath to welcome in the Sabbath. It is done with small (shot like) glasses.  If I got these, you would drink less grape juice, leaving more room for the delicious meal.

Tu B’shevat juices start with a cup of white grape juice, with each cup you add a little more red grape juice until the fourth cup is all red. These four cups represent the four different seasons, and what we can learn from each season.  You can see how this is A LOT of juice!

You alternate the drinking of juice with the eating of fruit. The first fruit you eat is one with a hard shell (a nut of some sort). The second is a fruit with a hard pit (cherry, apricot, nectarines… these are exceptionally difficult to find in winter, however I was able to find sone nectarines and they were DELIGHTFUL). The third fruit is entirely edible such as berries or grapes. And the forth is one that has a peel that must be removed to enjoy the sweetness inside. Each fruit also has a lesson to go with it. Then you eat a vegetarian meal… mmm mmm good

Traditionally on Tu B'shevat Jews plant trees in Jerusalem, or donate money to the tree fund, to reforest Jerusalem in fruit trees, to restore it to its original beauty. It is winter here, so it isn't ideal for planting anything. I have ordered at lemon tree, that I am going to plant inside, however it hasn't shown up.  But this is also about the time I always plant my garden veggie seeds inside to prepare for my spring gardening. So we did that.

Also Tu B'shevat falls approximately 90 days before the holiday of First Fruits. Which is the holiday that they offer up the sacrifice of the first fruits of their Barley harvest. Barley takes approximately 90 to grow from planting to harvesting. So despite the fact that I can't find anything pairing these two officially together, the Israelites must have planted the barely on or around Tu B'shevat. We planted Barley in a pot, so that we will have some to celebrate First Fruits with.

And then after we were done planting, we sat down for or Seder Meal.  The kids were very well behaved. My kids told me it was much better than Passover, shorter, and lots sweeter. We ate some amazing fruit. and I loved the opportunity I had to share my testimony with my friends. And provide the object lessons for them.  It was awesome!

Ok So if you want to join in the fun and do a Tu B'Shevat Seder in light of the Restored Gospel feel free to use my Seder Guide, or you can use mine as a starting point and make your own.  Here is the link for THE SEDER GUIDE LINK.  And if you want to make it a booklet here is THE BOOKLET LINK, you will just need to tell your computer to print two pages per sheet, front to back. If your printer does not have a front to back option then tell it to print all odd pages, then once it is finished printing reseed them in the order they came (so on my printer I have to restock them) and then tell your printer to print all even pages.  It might take you a couple times of finagling it to figure it out, but it isn't too bad.

Shepherds Dinner

 

Ok so sometimes we have a real shepherds dinner. With what the Shepherds would have really eaten, grapes, olives, pomegranates, fish and bread.

But I will be honest, my kids prefer our fake Shepherds dinner better, so we will have shepherds pie every Christmas Eve, and I do a Shepherds dinner sitting on the ground another night.

My Recipe for Shepherds Pie

 

1-1/2 lbs of cooked ground meat (we use ground beef )

1 Walla Walla onion chopped

1 cup beef broth (I use water and Beef Better than Bouillon)

3 tbls Worcestershire sauce

1 bag of frozen mixed veggies

5  medium potatoes

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

3 eggs

 

Cook and crumble meat until browned.  Rinse all fat from meat. Return to pan and cook with chopped onions until soft. add beef broth and Worcestershire Sauce.  if you would like a thicker sauce you can add a tablespoon of flour.  After this has cooked mix in a bag of frozen veggies.

 

Meanwhile:

chop potatoes (I leave the skin on because that is where all the nutrients are).  once they are soft drain water and mash mix in Greek yogurt and three eggs.

 

Spread the meat mixture to cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish,  cover with the mashed potatoes.  Bake at 350 until the potatoes start to become golden.

 

mmm enjoy!

Candy Cane Cookies

 We make candy canes cookies every year when we talk about the Shepherds. We always discuss the symbolism of the candy cane and make these cookies.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

3/4 cup butter

2 eggs

1-1/2 cup brown sugar packed

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp peppermint flavoring

 

2 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup baking cocoa

1/2 bag of mini chocolate chips

6 candy canes crushed

 

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream first five ingredients together,  add dry ingredients, mix well. When dough is formed mix in chocolate chips and crushed candy canes.

 

form into 1-1/2" balls and place on cookie sheet (I like to use parchment paper). and bake for 12 to 14 minutes. mmm.

 

I just realized I don't have a picture of these amazing cookies, I will have to take one and add it later.

 



Shepherds Night

 Holidays and Traditions can either be a source of frustration or a source of heaven, often at the very same time.  This year I altered one of my favorite traditions to become even more splendid. I learned sometimes we try and do too much and try and make traditions too complicated and it makes it less fun. Simple is better.

Christmas Eve we always do a Shepherd's Night. We start off the night eating shepherd's pie, Have a game and read some books, scriptures, and traditionally make candy cane cookies.

Shepherd's Dinner

 

I realize that the shepherds really didn't eat shepherd's pie.  for the record most likely the shepherds ate fish, nuts, pomegranates, dates, figs, olives and other fruits that were easily dried, and pita bread.  we always set the table nice for our dinner but most likely shepherds ate on the ground with their fingers.  I thought about having a dinner with foods they ate and sitting on the ground. But my kids do not like fish, and are really not good about trying new foods like figs and dates, so I didn't want a battle on Christmas Eve, so we stick with our Shepherds Pie. But if you have more adventurous eaters it would be fun to have a real shepherds dinner.

 

Ye Shall Find the Babe

 

We then play a good game of Find baby Jesus. This is my kid's favorite Christmas tradition.  We swaddle a baby doll, and everyone dresses as a shepherd and then there is one Angel. My mom has a full set of nativity costumes, but on occasion I forget to borrow them and then we use towels and what ever we can find for ties around the head, and a pair of $1 store fairy wings, that works well too.

 

The Angel goes and hides baby Jesus somewhere in the house (while the shepherds are all waiting in a bedroom, or a bathroom or somewhere behind a closed door together).

 

And then the Angel comes and announces, "fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger"  Go find him. (the Angel then typically starts giggling uncontrollably in anticipation for the wild hunt to come)

 

 

 

Then the Shepherds disperse and look for baby Jesus. 

 

 

Who ever finds Baby Jesus gets to be the next angel and they swap costumes with the Angel

This is the point when the mom starts giggling uncontrollably because dad is dressed in a tutu and fairy wings

 

 

Shepherd Stories

This normally takes us pretty close to bed time so we just jump right into bed time stories.

Our long time favorite is J is for Jesus: the Sweetest Story Ever Told.

 

It is the story of the candy cane. My kids have loved it since they were itty bitty, so we continue to read it.  Though I am thinking of buy a couple other shepherd stories to read for next year.

I'm struggling to find any that really grab my attention so I am going to have to search the libraries and book stores. One off of amazon that looks like it might be cute is

The Greatest Shepherd of All

 

The Amazon description says: On Christmas Eve, Grandpa Woolly shares with three excited youngsters the story of the birth of Baby Jesus, and how three young sheep, much like themselves, met this greatest of all shepherds.

I will keep you posted if I find one that is just amazing.

We will also then read the scripture story of the shepherds.

Bed time

In the past we have slept on the ground all in one room together, just like the shepherds would have. the kids love this.  However I HATE sleeping on the floor, or actually I can't sleep on the floor so I have given this up, but my kids do all have a slumber party together in one room in the house.

cookies

Growing up we always made Christmas cookies for Santa Claus. I tried to carry this Christmas tradition on in my family. To tie in with the shepherd theme we made Candy Cane cookies after we read the J is for Jesus book. They are most delicious.  However, this is exactly what I am talking about by trying to add too much in to our traditions, this was just too much and it stressed me out. So I cut this out, don't worry I will provide the Heavenly Recipe. But this year we simply bought Santa his favorite cookies, Oreos, and called it good.  It just occurred to me that maybe next year we will buy him candy cane Oreos.  Now for our divine Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

 

Our Shepherd Tradition

As part of our seven weekly devotionals before Christmas, one is based on the shepherds. While we have a shepherds night typically on Christmas Eve, this is a separate devotional we do  three Sunday's before Christmas to help us focus all season long on Christ. We learn about the shepherds, put the shepherd in the nativity scene and do an activity that has to do with the Shepherds.

This year we focused in on how the shepherds didn't just keep the good news to themselves, they went and spread the good news all over. So we decided, (ok so really it was I decided) it would be a good idea to deliver neighborhood gifts on this night, and to make sure they too spread the good word. 

You can't really tell by this picture, but we got HUGE candy canes, and put the legend of the Candy Cane on it. We then took it around.

You can find many versions of the legend of the candy cane, some short, some long, some stories, some poems.  My favorite is J is for Jesus, a board book with a cute poem in it. My sister really likes The Legend of the Candy Cane, they read it every year too. I found a shorter version on the internet and just printed it up and tied it on to each Giant Candy Cane.

We came home and warmed up by drinking candy cane hot cocoa and reading J is for Jesus.  It was a splendid evening.

 

Our Angel Tradition

The angel devotional takes place four weeks before Christmas.

 I imagine the same angel that spoke to Mary about her upcoming pregnancy, and Joseph about supporting Mary in her pregnancy was probably the same angel that made the announcement to the shepherds that the baby was born. I often wonder how an angel is chosen to be the one to make such announcements. 

Here is a personal disclosure.  I love to sing. But I am not at all good at singing. In fact, I am so bad at singing my baby daughter cries every time I sing. I am not offended, I think it is kind of funny that she is so young and already knows how horrible I am. My poor other kids have grown up with me singing to them every night, and they are just trained to think I am good, they have no idea how bad I am. But I like to think, that in the Pre-earth life I wasn't so bad at singing, and I like to pretend that maybe I was part of the heavenly host singing about the birth of the Savior.

Anyhow, to celebrate the angel I would love to take my family Christmas Caroling, but that is WAY out of my comfort zone, think if the 18 month old cries, what adults would do when they heard me sing, I would be publicly shamed. So instead, we sing every Christmas Hymn we can think of this night. And then for the rest of the month we sing a song or two at night when we say our family prayers.  I think this is one of my favorite traditions.

Our Mary Tradition

We recently moved from Utah to the mid-west. Everyone warned us that it would be a huge culture shock. I am probably not a fair judge of if it is a culture shock or not, because I went from working full time, to staying home with my baby. My kids would likely tell you otherwise, but I have not felt the culture here is at all shocking. The biggest difference I see is that many people have a Statue of Mary in their yard all year long, this is nothing we saw back in Utah. I am not joining the many people out here that have Mary in the front lawn, but I do have a Devotional for Mary the fifth week before Christmas.

I think that Mary is greatly misunderstood.  In fact I would go so far as to say that I think that Satan has done an excellent job of deceptively down playing Mary. People think I am crazy because I loath the song, "Mary did you know?"  Guess what folks, of course, she knew. She knew better than anyone that the child she had was the Son of God. Everyone else is working off of faith, But MARY she KNEW that the child she carried was miraculously put there. And God didn't just select anyone to be the mother of his One and Only child, or the Mother of the Savior of the World.  The angel Gabriel informed her that she was Chosen. She was an elect lady. She was responsible for teaching this child, and preparing  him for his divine mission.

This task placed on Mary must have been overwhelming. Mary's testimony must have been unwavering. But she wasn't asked to do it alone, she had Elizabeth, her cousin who also was pregnant with a Miracle baby, and she had Joseph right by her side. This year for our activity after the lesson part of the devotional we stood in a circle, and we pondered about our testimonies for a minute. After a few minutes I gave out candles and lit my Husband's he then shared his testimony and lit someone else's candle. We watched the light grow as we shared our testimony's with each other. Just like Mary and Joseph strengthened each other, and Jesus helped strengthened his parent's testimony, we likewise can strengthen each other in our own family, and together we can do what God asks.

I love hearing my children's testimony's and I love the beautiful light cast by the candles. This is one of my favorite Traditions.

 

Our Joseph Tradition

 If you are looking for a real simple way of adding Christ into your traditions Emily Belle Freeman has a great book out there. Christ Centered Christmas. you can get the adult version.

 But really I love the children's version

I love them because they go through the nativity and one by one, you add the nativity pieces, talk about them, learn about them and it has a simple activity to do. I love that it has figured it all out.  There are seven mini lessons, We do them the seven Sundays leading up to Christmas. But you could do them the seven days before Christmas, or just randomly through out the year. Some of the activities I swap out with my own.  BUT I LOVE THAT IF I DON'T WANT TO I DON'T HAVE TO THINK! 

But for instance Joseph

It talks about how he quietly went about cleaning and getting everything ready for the baby. I totally agree that Joseph was the quiet hero that often gets over looked. I love how the activity for Joseph is to chose a secret act of service the Family can participate in.  Joseph is the second mini lesson, so this happens for us six weeks before Christmas. We either start our secret person swap at this time, when we all draw a family member's name out of a hat and serve them for that week, and then we do that again each week leading up to Christmas. Or we pull out our Manger to fill with hay.  When you do something nice, for anyone, you can put a piece of hay in the manger.

This is mine, it came in a set called, Soft Enough for a King.

But you can find all sorts of them. with the same concept, or you can simply get just any manger, and it will work. I think this set looks really cute.

I think this is one of my favorite traditions.

Why We Celebrate Hanukkah

 In December I went and picked my daughter up from her friend’s house.  Amongst all the many Christmas decorations ornamenting their shelves sat a beautiful Menorah. I immediately felt a

kinship with my daughter’s friend’s Mother. A fellow Christian celebrating Hanukkah, and why not?

I celebrate Hanukkah because it is a celebration of Faith, of Miracles, and of Temples. All things that we should celebrate.  Christ attended Hanukkah celebrations, in the bible it is referred to as the feat of the dedication. What is the history of Hanukkah?

The old testament ends in about  420 BC and the New Testament starts in about 1 BC. What happened in those 420 years?  This is the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Apocrypha. In about 160 BC Syria overtook Jerusalem, and like so often was the custom of those who took over Jerusalem they made practicing Judaism against the law. Syria took over the temple, and filled it with statues of their pagan Gods, and insisted on submission to the pagan God. There were some who resisted. Judas Maccabees was one of these so was Judith (a woman prophetess).  Judas Maccabee lead a rebellion, that knocked down the statues of the God’s and then they fled to the mountains to hide.  While they were in the mountains word spread that they were there and faithful Jews from all over joined them. Judith was in a city in the out skirts. Her city was surrounded by the Syrian army and they were just waiting for the city to surrender.  When the city was about to surrender she told them that they all lacked faith in God, and that it would be better to die faithful than to surrender to the Syrians.  She then went out to the leader of the Syrian Army brought him loads of cheese and whine, and when he drunk himself silly she chopped off his head and brought it back to the city. The Army fled, and the citizens of the city went and joined with Maccabees.  After a while the small army went and reclaimed the city from the Assyrians a Miracles in and off itself.  The first thing they did after winning the city back was to clear the temple of the Pagan Gods.  They wanted to start the temple back up, but only could find enough oil for one day. As part of the temple ceremony they were not supposed to let the lanterns burn out, they need to keep them full of oil at all times Oil takes seven days to purify, but they really didn’t want to wait to have their temple back.  They decided to go ahead and relight and rededicate their temple.  The second miracle happened, the oil lasted for the full additional seven days until they were able to have more.

Wow what an amazing story of Faith, commitment to following the Lord, Miracles and blessing for the faith and following the Lord. And the importance of temples. 

While these events were not recorded in Canonized scripture, Hanukkah is known as the Feast of Dedication in the Bible, Christ attended this annual celebration.  The celebration is a feast that God still provides Miracles, a Celebration that they could once again worship in the temple.  So it was

very exciting to find a fellow Christian who celebrates it as well. We should all still be celebrating the good news that God still preforms Miracles, that he goes before us and fights our fights for us.  And even more important that we have temples to worship in.  I love celebrating Hanukkah!

Hanukkah is very low key for us.  We light the Menorah and talk about the miracles we have seen in our lives. We will visit Temple Square, what could be more fitting the temple all adorned in lights. Traditional Hanukkah foods include fried foods to celebrate the oil lasting for eight days, and cheese to celebrate the faithful example of Judith. Some of the fried foods include latkes (traditionally potato, however this year I found an apple latke that I plan on trying) and doughnuts. Mozzarella sticks that combine both the cheese and fried foods.   There are plenty of recipes found on the internet. We have had several menorah’s; my kids do a good job of breaking them. I finally got this mini one, which just uses standard birthday cake candles, which makes supplying the candles a whole lot easier because it was hard for me to find menorah candles around here. 

We have celebrated Hanukkah for years.  We have also dabbled a little with Passover. But this past year, I stated wondering about the other Biblical Holidays? What are they about, what can I learn about my faith if I learn more about them. The last few months have taken us on an incredibly journey of discovery. We are constantly amazed at the things we have learned and have decided that we need to share this. We want everyone to be as excited as we are, we want other to be able to understand the things we have come to understand.