In Memory of Aunt Elaine

The 2015 Christmas Centre Pieces

It was been a full year since a wonderful lady went to be with her Lord.  Aunt Elaine became a very special Aunt when every year she would ask her great great nieces to help set up the Family Christmas tables.

Emily and Ruth upon hearing of her death wanted to know who would to do the tables at the Christmas dinner and with the approval of Aunt Elaine's family they were chosen to keep up this tradition.

This evening we complete the 2015 table centre pieces and tomorrow we will set the tables in think of Great Great Aunt Elaine.

If you would like to see the first centre pieces click here.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Turkey Cabbage Casserole

Potluck dinners are a great place to try out new recipes and that is exactly what we did when we made what we call Turkey Cabbage Casserole.  

Now we brought over half of this dish home not because of the taste but because I had no idea so many people find digesting cooked cabbage a problem.

Cabbage is such a healthy vegetable packed full of vitamin C, antioxidants, beta-carotene, and so much more.

It you like a bite of heat add more cayenne pepper and it you do not want heat eliminate it all together.  We use basmati rice in all of our rice dishes because we like the nutty flavour and because it holds its shape – does not become mushy.

Turkey Cabbage Casserole

Ingredients:

• 12 oz of ground turkey
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Small green cabbage
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 4 cups cooked rice

Directions:

1. Cook onions, celery and ground turkey until meat is cooked
2. Cut the cabbage into wide strip
3. Add cabbage to the meat pot and stir cook until cabbage starts to wilt
4. Stir in tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and salt and bring to a boil and then to a simmer for 10 minutes
5. In a 9 x 12 pan spread out the cooked rice
6. Layer the cooked turkey and cabbage 
7. Serve immediately or place in the refrigerator and when ready to serve 
8. Place in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes
9. Serve

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Decorating The Christmas Tree

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Keep Christmas Simple

When you think back to childhood memories of this holiday season what memories bring a smile of joy to you?  

For most of us the memory is of something simple, something that did not cost a great deal of money and that did involve an act of kindness or love.

• My younger sister poor in her first year of college knitting each of us snowmen to go on our Christmas trees.
• Buttered popcorn and hot chocolate while grandpa tells us stories.
• Watching my father and Uncle Clifford lay on their backs under the Christmas tree trying with their tongues to pull chocolate ornaments off the tree because you could not touch them until after Christmas dinner.
• Being given my Grandmother’s current Christmas bread recipe and hearing stories about this wonderful woman who died the year I was born.

Be mindful this season of the childhood memories that have carried you through the years, and create opportunities for your family to have similar memories.

Keep Christmas simple, with time for laughing, sharing stories, being present with each other with no expectations other than to spend the holidays together.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Love May Overflow

“There’s no room at the Inn” words that at Christmas Christians are familiar with and this week’s lectionary scriptures challenge us see this familiar phrase in a different way.

Is there room in your life for all God’s love?

Is there room in your heart in your life for overflowing Love, God’s love for us demonstrated by the birth of his son Jesus as a human?

What twist and turns is your life are taking you away from your spiritual centre, away from God?

What heights of excitement, reaches of ambition have you seeking mountain tops, rather than God?

What depth of depression, doubt and self-loathing keeps you from accepting God’s love?

 Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, And every mountain and hill shall be brought low; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.  Luke 3: 4-6

Turn your life towards your spiritual centre;

Come down off the mountain tops be what God needs you to be;

Know that you are always worthy of God’s love.

God’s love is always overflowing in our lives if we make room.

This post was inspired by Pastor Juanita Laverty

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Lectionary scriptures Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11, Luke 3: 1-6, Luke 1: 68-79.

Downsizing Grandma’s Craft Room

Recently I watched a friend attempt to empty out “hoards” (my words not hers) of stuff from her mother’s home and this had to occur too quickly follow this wonderful woman’s death.  The emotional toll that this took was difficult to watch.

“Why did she keep these?”

“What am I to do with this?”

And while the answer to this seems easy just box it all up and ship it off to a thrift store and let them sort it, because these things belonged to her mother she needed to open each book, magazine and sort through all the containers.  

She found among these soon to be gone items things that did have importance to her.

A hand written Christmas list

A childhood school story of hers placed within book

A poem that her mother created

We do not want to put our three children through what our friend has gone through so we have been downsizing.  We set a goal of two boxes every weekend and some weekends more go out while others just two begrudgingly are let go of.

I have a passion for craft magazines and books each contains at least one pattern that I want to make at sometime.  

Downsizing here was extremely painful until I realized that I could scan a personal copy of the pattern I wanted and let go of the book.  Copyright is a big issue I uphold rules and so I worried "Can I even do this?"  

Now I should have known the answer because I have always make a working copy of a pattern to write on and this is what the scanned copy is,  my working copy – Fair Use Law. 

So today I have been making digital copies of the patterns I want to make and letting go of magazines and books.  I have decided on a few that I will keep and the test is when there is more than two pattern I want to make.

When my children have to close up my craft room they will find an external hard drive labelled, Patterns Mom wanted to make - Deleted.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Taco Pie

 

What will we have for supper with hungry granddaughters to feed with grandpa and grandma tired from a day at work?

Taco Pie a favourite supper of their father’s childhood, and now with gluten free Bisquick it can go back on grandma’s menu board.

This is a fast meal to make taking approximately 60 minutes from start to finish, with many steps that kids can help with.

And is is a hit with yet another generation of Snyder's.

Please note we used gluten free taco mix, shredded cheese and Bisquick making this recipe gluten free!

Taco Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 1 package taco seasoning mix
• ¾ cup Bisquick Mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 ¼ cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1 tomato dices
• 2 cups of kale or spinach chopped.

Directions:

1. Chop the onion and celery
2. In a frying pan brown the ground turkey with the onion and celery.
3. Once the meat is cooked through turn off the heat and stir in the taco seasoning
4. Grease an 8 by 8 oven proof pan.
5. Pour meat mixture into the pan and set aside
6. Preheat your oven to 400 F
7. In a mixing bowl whisk together the Bisquick, eggs and milk pour this over the meat
8. Bake for 25 minutes
9. Remove taco pie from the oven sprinkle the cheese overtop and return to the oven until the cheese is melted
10. Chop the tomatoes and greens.
11. Cut the taco pie into squares and garnish with tomatoes and kale.
12. Serve

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

My Rusted Truck

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

I’m Not the Parent I’m the Grandparent

Our first experience as Grandparents was one of negotiating the complex and conflicting role of being simultaneously parents and grandparents within the fluidity of a multi-generational household, when our eldest child moved home with our first grandchild. 

Our child needed us to be parents; supportive, protective, taking charge at times and stepping back at other.  

What they did not need was us stepping into the role of parent to our grandchild – we were the grandparents!

We will be the first to say this was challenging and not without many emotional landmines.   It required that we maintain honest and active communication both between ourselves (Mom/Dad) and with our child.  Further it meant that our home now held two separate households and everyone needed to be flexible and willing to change - it was no longer our home it was now OUR home, you get the picture.

The first lesson we learned was what the parent says goes even when they are not around.

For there to be a strong grandchild, grandparent relationship trust has to be at the foundation.  The trust you need to build is not with your grandchild it is with their parent. 

The parent has to trust that you will uphold, support, and back-up, their decisions even when you think they are not necessary or they are wrong.

Once trust is established parents will consult you on parenting and now you have influence over how your grandchild will be raised.  

This is not like backseat driving!  

Your will be riding along side the driver.

Whereas plotting with grandchildren to break parental rules is a slippery slope that will take your grandchildren to a place you do not want them to go!

“If grandma thinks it’s OK to break Dad’s rule then I can too” 

and now what may have been an innocent deception on your part has become an excuse used to break a rule that may have been put in place to protect your grandchild.

The lesson you want to teach them is how to negotiate with their parents, how to talk through disagreements.  So rather than saying “You’re in my house now so…”  say “ Your parents have said no before so we will do something else this time and we can discuss it with them again”

Grandparent by supporting your children as Parents.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Play and Relax This Holiday Season

Exhaustion over takes many of us at this time of year.  

We work all day at our jobs, those things that have to be done no matter what for income and home.  

And then we add to our work the many preparations that happen in December and we expect to enjoy the Christmas Holiday.  

We do this year after year spending more and having to work harder to pay for the holiday, “go[ing] mad or becom[ing] unstable without knowing it”

This holiday season be mindful to take time to play, have fun and relax.  

 We have a hypnosis that by building in, fun relaxation and play we have the potential to spend less money, give more meaningful gifts and enjoy the holiday season  deeply.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

I will fulfil my promise

Our world appears to have gone crazy, war, terrorism, domestic violence, violence against children, governments being OK with homelessness/starving  children, and populations on mass leaving the home that they love to flee to a place where they are not really wanted.

And here comfortable in North America we have finished our Thanksgiving celebrations and are moving on to Christmas.  Black Friday saw shoppers fighting with other shoppers over 'things', things that we do not need but we really want!

Yes a world gone crazy and where do Christian's sit in this mess?

The lectionary readings this week speak directly to the current situation.  We are to hold tight to our faith, to the knowledge that it is through God's preparation not any of our own that at the end of this path we will arrive home, our eternal home.  That God walks every step of this human life with us, encouraging and providing for our spiritual health, so we do not turn away or fall faint.

"I will fulfill my promise" Jeremiah 33:14

God's promise to us is this, an eternal home free of sin, hate and pain and the knowledge that God is always present now, showing us love, providing spiritual support and guidance if we just have an open spirit and eyes to see.

Where are Christian's in this world gone crazy? 

We walk the same human path as everyone else, we suffer as everyone suffers and we do it with faith.  Faith in the promise of our God and we live as our Lord Jesus Christ did offering not judgement and reproach but love.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Lectionary readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25:1-10, Luke 21:25-26, Thessalonians 3: 9-13

Wooden Snowmen Christmas Craft

The idea for this activity with our grandchildren came about this summer when our son built a fence around their backyard.  We had gone over to help them pick up the wood left over from the project and here we found various lengths of wooden posts.  Rather than see them go to the dump we gathered them up and stacked them in the garage.

Once again we would love to credit the original creator of this idea however the net and Pinterest are full of version of this idea and so we add ours to the growing list.

Our snowmen cost exactly $2.00 each to create.  We purchase Christmas socks at the dollar store and one can of varnish.

What you will need:

• White paint
• Something orange for the noise we used scrap doweling that Grandpa
• Dark or Black button of various sizes.  For this we went to Grandma’s button box.
• Green and red scrape of fabric.  These came from Grandma’s fabric stash
• 1 colourful scarf per snowperson
• Hot glue
• drilled and glued into the wood
• Varnish

Directions:

1. Paint the wood white
2. Varnish
3. Glue on the noise (orange), and the buttons for eyes, mouth and buttons
4. Tie and glue on the scarf
5. Place sock on the top and you are done

Ruth and Emily gave a set of snowmen to each of the Grandparent’s and Great Grandmother.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Ginger Chicken Soup

With the arrival of cold weather and snow our thoughts turned to chicken/turkey soup.  So this week as our American friends celebrate Thanksgiving I hope they have kept the bones and some leftover meat because this is a wonderful soup.

Ingredients:

Broth

• Bones and leftover meat of one chicken
• 10 cloves of garlic
• Five large onions
• Seven celery stocks
• 2 teaspoon salt
• Three bay leaves
• Water to cover

Soup

• 6 cups of broth
• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 3 teaspoons grated ginger (add more if you enjoy the flavour)
• 2 carrots finely julienned
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Directions:

1. In a large soup pot simmer all of the broth ingredients for three hours (freeze any left over chicken broth to use later)
2. Strain broth through cheese cloth and discard everything in the cheese cloth
3. Place all the soup ingredients in a medium soup pot holding back 1/2 cup of julienned carrots as garnish
4. Bring to a simmer and cook just long enough to cook the peas
5. Plate the soup and garnish with carrots in the centre

From Our Table To Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Lighthouse In Winter

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Practice Mindful Kindness This Holiday Season

Social media is full of advice on how to make it through the coming holidays, specifically how to deal with family/how to not feel guilty about avoiding family. 

Family relationships are the most complex relationships we will ever have to negotiate, because at the core these relationship reflect on us or to us images we reject or are painful– they are fundamentally about us.

 

Just as self-forgiveness/self-love is difficult so are the relationship of our childhoods.

This holiday season rather than avoiding, ignoring, bracing yourself for the fight, approach family gatherings with an attitude of kindness.  

These are not people you have to live with nor do you see them daily.  

You gather with them at this time of year solely because they are family.

All too soon they may be gone, they will beyond your reach.  

Be kind this holiday season to yourself and your family.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Your temple will always be beautiful

Words of reassurance and hope that no matter what has happened or will happen, our eternal home remains beautiful , undefiled by sin waiting for our homecoming through the love of Jesus Christ.

Thus those who seek to bring fear into our world they will not have my fear they have my love.

Amen.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

Revised Common Lectionary for this week Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:4b-8, John 18:33-37

Spinach and Quinoa Salad

We have attended our first family Christmas dinner and this event is a planned pot luck and we had been tasked with brings a salad.  Wanting a salad that contained protein (an alternative to turkey) we knew that quinoa would be one of the ingredients used.  Recently we enjoyed a spinach and lentil salad at a friends home so we set out to replicate the salad using quinoa instead of lentils.  

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 celery sticks
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 4 shallots finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 4 cups spinach
• ¼ cup shredded parsley
• Dressing
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 garlic clove pressed
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• finely grated peel of one lemon.

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa and cool in refrigerator
2. Sautee the shallots and celery in coconut oil until shallots until tender
3. Add cumin and thyme to frying pan and combined with the celery and shallots
4. Set this mixture in the refrigerator to cool.
5. Chopped parsley
6. Clean spinach
7. Make dressing and set this aside.
8. Combined all ingredients except the dressing in a large bowl and toss until evenly mixed.
9. Add dressing and toss again.
10. Serve immediately

From Our Table to Yours

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls

10 Things To Tell Your (Grand) Children in November

The boundaries of any family are fluid, ever changing with different stories to tell, yet all families will have stories that encompass either loss or victory with cancer.

In November we recognize and make time to remember /fund raise for numerous types of cancer. 

Loss is part of the human experience and too often we underestimate children's ability to process death so we protect them from it and in doing so leave them with unanswered question and emotional painful that is every bite as real as our own.

We each have lost family, significant friends or community members to cancer where the loss profoundly affected the family system.  Telling these stories to our (grand) children builds resilience in them in.  It gives them a starting point, a historical reference of resilience from which to begin the process of resolving their own grief.

Start this conversation with hope

1) Provide your (grand)children a story of hope, a story of recovery from cancer.

2) If you or your partner have had or have cancer in age appropriate terms tell this story and if you are speaking with children over 12 talk about your fears and your hopes.

3) Point out how cancer affected you and the family for example: loss of relationship, employment, driving a loved one for cancer treatment.

As a children we always had our birthday parties at the home of two wonderful great aunts.   Aunt Adela made the most amazing Barbie doll cakes and I looked forward to both the new Barbie doll and cake that was always made from scratch.   Aunt Adela died of cancer and as a young child I was kept away, protected from this event the result being she just disappeared from my life.  This remains an empty hole in my life’s story and almost 50 years later every time I see a Barbie doll cake I think of her and questions charge up to the surface of my consciousness about last days her, her death.

4) Describe how your family has responded/changed as a result of cancer for example: change in life style or diet, remarriage after the death of a partner, stopping smoking etc.

5) Discuss how your family fund-raises or supports cancer research and/or cancer patients today.  Remember that doing nothing is a choice and should be discussed as well.

Use this opportunity to join with your (grand)children in getting involved in an event in support of cancer, building in them a sense of community support.

In November we also stop for a minutes silence on the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 am, remembering and honouring those men and women who have and are fighting in wars around the world.

War is unfortunately a part of our reality.  We all have family stories about war.    These stories are often difficult to tell and once again out of a misguided attempt to protect children not told. 

As a Mennonite in my childhood I heard stories of how father’s, uncles, older brothers were sent to take the place of men at war in key industries.  As a Russian Mennonite child I heard stories of my great grandmother’s struggle to bring her children including my grandfather to Canadian religious refugees.

These are stories that require we take time to plan and practice the telling.  Ensuring that at the end of the story we leave our children feeling safe, and able to move forward with their lives.

6) Starting with WWI talk about anyone in your family that went to war as either a combatant, or as part the large infrastructure the traveled with the war.  Take out pictures explain where these people fit into your family system and their war story.

7) Describe the impact on your family’s home and daily life  during that time.

In my grandfather’s home the blackout curtains still hung on the windows and he would talk about that time, young men leaving and never coming home again of the telegrams that needed to be delivered.

We would sit in awed silence at a girlfriends home has her mother talked about sweeping the barn floor for the last of grain to make gruel out of in Holland and the sound of thunder as soldiers march across the wooden bridge by their home.   

And an employer of mine talking about being a child in a prisoner of war camp and how she and her sister survived because they learned to eat bugs for protein.

8) We will be retelling stories that have been told to us, describe who told you, how old you were and what your reaction was.

9) Apply the same questions to all subsequent wars.

10) Discuss with your (grand)children how your family remembers, commemorates those who have been injured physically, psychologically, mentally and who gave the ultimate sacrifice their lives.  Again if this is something your family does not do talk about this as well.

Grandma Snyder

©2013-2015 twosnydergirls