“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Lillia: This week you went to the doctor for your annual check up. You are now 5′ 2 & 1/4″ tall! You are only 3/4 of an inch shorter than me now! You are in the 96th percentile for height, and your records show that you grew four and a quarter inches since your last appointment. No wonder why you have terrible growing pains all the time! I wonder how tall you will be when you grow up…You also had to get a vaccine but you were so brave , you didn’t even wince. You wore your sparkly band-aid as a badge of honor for the rest of the day.
Zane: This week you also went to the doctor for a check up. You are 38 inches tall, which puts you in the 46th percentile for height. In other words, you’re not the biggest guy! You were very relieved that you did not have to get any shots, as you described to me in detail how terrible it is to get poked in the thighs (they do vaccines in the thighs for little people because there’s more muscle there). Your development is right on schedule, as we already knew. You also finally made it back to school on Thursday after being gone for weeks. Between holidays, snow days, and illness, you hadn’t been to school since before Thanksgiving (only going twice a week makes it easy to miss a lot of days).
A few months ago I decided that this year I wanted my children to have a nativity that was artistic and beautiful, but also durable enough to be touched and played with. I looked around online and found many lovely nativity sets, but they were all upwards of $200-$300! Around the same time I started experimenting with making peg dolls for Zane’s nature table. I thought to myself, wouldn’t these peg dolls make an interesting nativity? One thing I don’t have is tons of cash, but I do have some free time (occasionally) and I love to make things, so I gave it a shot. I didn’t use any patterns; I just created their faces and clothes as I worked on each one. I’m so happy with the finished product, and I hope my children enjoy looking at it and playing with it for years to come. Right now we just have out the shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and the animals because, of course, baby Jesus has not been born yet. The wise men will come on Epiphany (January 6).
[Just a note: I did not make the wooden animals; the peg doll bodies came from ArtDexi.]
“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Lillia: This week you had a holiday concert at your school. I love watching you go through the process of deciding how you will dress because you have very particular ideas about how you want to look. You always like to wear a tie to special events — it’s your “signature style.” After your part of the concert was over, I noticed you were animatedly chatting with your teacher. It makes me so happy that you enjoy school, and that you have such a great relationship with your teacher. As we know from experience, it doesn’t always work out that way. I feel very thankful that the past two years at school have been, by and large, very good ones.
Zane: This week you got to start your advent calendar (we started on the first day of advent, rather than the first day of December). I don’t think anyone has ever been more excited about Christmas than you are this year. I keep reminding you that the big day doesn’t come for several more weeks, but every morning you still ask me, “Is today Christmas?” I kind of wish there was a way to rein in the excitement; Christmas is built up to such a huge degree that it’s inevitably a little disappointing. I do try hard to de-emphasize the gift-getting part of the holiday, but it seems like the whole world is working against me sometimes!
Today is the Feast of St. Nicholas, or St. Nicholas Day as it is commonly called. In the United States we don’t really celebrate St. Nicholas Day, but in some European countries it is just as big a deal as Christmas is here. St. Nicholas was a Bishop in Lycia (modern-day Turkey) during the 4th Century A.D. One legend regarding his works and character is as follows: St. Nicholas heard that children in a neighboring village were impoverished and starving because of a famine. So, he instructed his own servants to harvest everything on his estate and they all traveled to the village and distributed the food to the starving children. No matter how much he gave away, there always seemed to be more in his sack. There are other versions of this story, but the common theme is that they all involve miraculous quantities of food provided by St. Nicholas. Because he was willing to give it away, God helped him to provide it. The St. Nicholas Center has an enormous amount of information about St. Nicholas’s life, his works, and ways that his feast day can be celebrated — it is worth a visit. You might be surprised by how much our modern-day Christmas resembles this ancient feast day! And, beyond the fun, St. Nicholas is a wonderful model for how to be a good human being; the embodiment of love, kindness, and generosity.
For our little celebration at home we had each of the kids fill a bag for each other and hang it on the doorknob to be opened in the morning. Europeans typically use shoes but I made bags because they are cleaner, and can be reused year after year. In this year’s bag each of my children received candycanes, a chocolate orange, two gold dollar coins, a St. Nicholas peg doll, and a book. We also read The Baker’s Dozen: A St. Nicholas Tale , written by Aaron Shepherd with pictures by Wendy Edelson. This beautifully illustrated children’s book tells the story of a baker, Van Amsterdam, who always gives his customers exactly what they pay for; no more, no less. That is, until he receives a special visitor who teaches him that sometimes by giving more, we get more in return. This afternoon we’ll be baking and decorating Speculatius, or German spice cookies, for ourselves and for others. You can find the recipe below. Happy St. Nicholas Day!
Speculatius (German Spice Cookies), from St. Nicholas Center
Mix in order:
1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs whole
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cloves
Turn out onto a floured board. Knead in about one cup additional flour or as much as you need until dough is no longer sticky and is easy to handle.
Put into a plastic bag and refrigerate until chilled and stiff. Then you are ready to roll out and cut the cookies. Cut off a manageable piece and keep the rest cool until you are ready for more.
For many little cut-out shapes, roll out the dough thinly. Thin cookies are tastiest.
For the larger, decorated St. Nicholas cookies, roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Cut out cookie around paper pattern. Place on greased baking sheet.Then get inspired. Use scrappy bits of dough to decorate your Nicholas. For a beard press a little dough through a sieve or a garlic press. Use little balls of dough for eyes or buttons.
Bake at 350º F. until golden-brown. These keep forever in tins in the freezer or for two–three weeks on the shelf.