Our Month of Multicultural Celebrations

Given the fact that we live in a fairly monocultural community, I decided to try to broaden my boys' horizons by celebrating various holidays and traditions of other cultures during the month of December. We did a few of these last year and my boys loved it so I expanded into a few more holidays this year. Basically, for each holiday we talk about what it means, do an activity (if applicable) and eat some kind of food related to that holiday.

Here is what we're doing this year:

Dec. 4- Eid al-fatir (Muslim)

-Celebrated at the end of Ramadan (which I know was in the summer this year).

-Talk about how Muslims observe Ramadan (fasting, prayer, giving to the poor)

-Eat shish kebab and shiraz salad

Dec. 5- St. Nicholas Eve (Netherlands)

-Talk about St. Nicholas and Black Peter

-Make a "letterbanket" (cake in the shape of the family's last name)

-Eat beef stew

-Kids put a shoe on the hearth for St. Nicholas to put candy in overnight.

Dec. 8- Immaculate Conception Day (Chile)

-Talk about Mary's role as the mother of Jesus

-Eat empanadas and pastel de choclo

Dec. 13- St. Lucia Day (Sweden)

-Have youngest child in family serve hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls for breakfast

Dec. 17-Saturnalia (Ancient Rome)

-Kids are in charge for the day

-Bake muffins with something extra in one (bean, M&Ms), whoever gets that muffin is the King/Queen of Saturnalia

-Make and wear freedman's (conical) hats

Dec. 18- Posadas (Mexico)

-Act out the Nativity

-Eat tamales and bunuelos

-Possibly sing Christmas carols in Spanish

Dec. 20- Ignatius ceremony (Romania, old pagan tradition)

-Behead a pig (I'm going make a pig-shaped cake for us to behead)

-Eat some kind of pork product for dinner

Dec. 21- Hanukkah (Jewish)

-Talk about the miracle of the oil and how Hannukah came to be

-Eat latkes and applesauce

-Play dreidel (it will be a "droidel" this year if I can get my hands on the pattern!)

Dec. 26-Boxing Day/Feast of St. Stephen

-Read about Stephen in the Bible

-Gather items to give to the poor (via the thrift store or local homeless shelter)

-Feast on Christmas leftovers

I purposely did not include recipes because there are a wide variety available on the internet; you can find ones that suit your family's preferences. If I have made any glaring errors on these holidays (highly possible!) or if you have something to add that you think would make our partying better, please comment!

I'll keep you posted about our celebrating as we go along :)

Gratitude

In honor of Thanksgiving today, I asked my sons today what they were thankful for. I was pleasantly surprised by their answers:

My 10 year old: Our guinea pig and dogs, video games, food, friends, and Trafalga (a local mini-golf course and fun center)

My five year old: Legos, our house, parents, video games, and a toilet

My three year old: pets, Mom, everyone in the world, stuffed animals, toys, and family.

I am so thankful for the blessing of my three happy, healthy, wild boys and a wonderful husband to raise the kids with me. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and remember to give thanks every day for all the amazing things in life!

76 Trombones

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to combine several of my favorite things: spending time with friends, introducing my boys to new cultural experiences, and live musicals. I haven't taken my boys to see a live play since an ill-fated trip to see "Beauty and Beast" in 2006. However, I decided it was time to try again and we were presented with a fabulous opportunity. A good friend on mine and her five young children (four boys and one girl) were participating in a community theater production of "The Music Man." I was amazed by the quality of the production and how well my boys behaved during the performance. (I think the latter was directly proportional to the former) My boys loved watching the colorful, well-paced performance and got so excited every time they saw their friends come on stage. Here's a round of applause for community theater that truly involves the community and provides a wonderful family night out.

Who can find a virtuous woman?

Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend church with our old friends in California and had the blessing to hear the teenage girls do a speaking and singing program. It was wonderful to see these sweet young women, many of whom I had the privilege of working with when they were younger, speak about the importance of developing all of their attributes to prepare them for life and presenting themselves to the world in a way that young men will be attracted to them by more important attributes than their physical appearance. As I sat and listened to them, I couldn't help thinking how I want my boys to find young women like these when the time comes that they will be interested in young women. Then I began to wonder: How do I teach my sons to look at a young woman and be attracted to them for qualities that really matter? How will they learn to value her for her companionship, her intelligence, her kindness, her sense of humor? How do I teach them how to treat young ladies (and all women, for that matter) with respect and kindness, and to expect that respect and kindness in return? At this point in time, even my oldest still deems girls "icky", but I'm sure the day will come faster than I expect that they will be looking at those "icky" girls in a different light. When that day comes, I hope they will be prepared to find virtuous young women who will help them be better men.

Treat bombing with the candy ninja knights

Armed with a pillowcase full of homemade cookies and candy, a plastic sword, and a stuffed Stegosaurus, my intrepid band of candy ninja knights and I were dressed in our ninja costumes (black shirts and navy blue shorts) ready to treat bomb the neighborhood. "Stealthy" could have been our middle names as we crept around the neighborhood, dropping bags of treats on doorsteps, ringing the doorbell, and running away. Well, we could have been stealthy if my five year old had not insisted on running in front of the freshly treat-bombed house brandishing his sword.

Let me explain the origins of our evening escapades. A few days ago, I told the kids about my plans to do some yarn bombing this Saturday in honor of International Yarn Bombing Day. My 9 and 5 year olds ran with this idea and wanted to make cookie bombs for some of our neighbors. My 3 year old firmly insisted that we also had to share candy and that we be called the "candy ninja knights". To carry out our plan, we made batches of cookies and candy this morning, then prepared the "bombs" in Ziploc bags and put them in a pillowcase for distribution.

I deeply appreciate the neighbors who pretended not to see us so the candy ninja knights could feel they fulfilled their mission- to make the world a sweeter place.

Sowing the seeds of love. . . and salsa

Since I'm reasonably sure it won't snow for a few months, I've been in the process of planting my garden. Eager for any chance to play in the dirt, my boys have been helping me. After my husband did an awesome job tilling up the dirt (Thanks honey!), the munchkins and I bought some seedlings from our neighborhood nursery and got to work. They decided that the seedlings were babies that we needed to dig beds for and cover them with dirt "blankies". My 3 and 5 year olds really got into it, saying things like, "This one's cranky. He needs a nap." and "Let's cover him up all warm and cozy." My favorite parts were watching my three year old tickling the seedlings, saying "Cutchie cutchie coo!" and singing lullabies to the seedlings. I told the kids that the seedlings were going to grow into tomatoes, peppers, and onions, then I asked them what we would do with the veggies. Their response, "Let's make salsa!" I'm so glad my boys get excited about the creation of food, from the dirt to the table.

Blame it on the rain

Today was one of those days. There were so many things on the calendar today that I ran out of room: a field trip for my five-year-old, Scouts and baseball for my nine-year-old, extra meetings at work for me plus a college class and the school carnival. Being the Supermom that I am, I had a beautiful list this morning of everything that everyone needed to take everywhere. Before I left for work, I had bags ready with all the stuff we needed. Then, as per the weather's SOP of late, we had rain. Because of that blessed moisture, the baseball game and carnival were postponed. Even though the million other things went on as planned, it was wonderful to have a couple of hours at the end of the day to relax with my munchkins, to make (and eat) some yummy chocolate covered strawberries. It made me wonder: is it the busy running around to tons of activities that makes for a good childhood or just time to be together and have some yummy treats?