I Also Like...
Nativity scenes and Christmas cookies.
Nativity scenes because not only are they what one would use to best explain "Christmas" to the wandering extraterrestrials (and in fact I threatened to have only the Nativity scenes as decoration this year before I got a replacement tree) but because they're great art too. Like chess sets they provide a rigid framework within which one can have a fair degree of play: shepherds or wise men, how many angels, what kind of animals, what everyone wears. I like them all--the abstract, the blown-glass, the handcarved, the wooden, the fabric...and also the "standard" plastic ones with the flowing robes and the cows.
For the record, "our" Nativity set was made from felt and pipe cleaners the year Grandmom died and features both shepherds and wise men no matter how non-canonical that is (I always think of the wise men as "bride's side" and the shepherds as "groom's side" which is probably why I don't get asked to midnight Mass much.) We have sheep instead of cows or goats and also a giraffe and a duck. Yup, we have a Nativity Duck.
Christmas cookies are also a great thing: they prove that at least one person (and sometimes lots of people with some forethought and planning) thought enough of the holiday to spend time baking not just one kind of cookie but a bunch of different kinds of cookies: that's a great thing. Variety si the spice of life and there's nothing nicer than a plate of homemade cookies...except a plate of all sorts of homemade cookies. Too bad I didn't do any serious baking this year.
Hmm....maybe next year I'll be able to distill the holiday down to just my four essential elements. Preferably somewhere warm while I'm at it.
Nativity scenes because not only are they what one would use to best explain "Christmas" to the wandering extraterrestrials (and in fact I threatened to have only the Nativity scenes as decoration this year before I got a replacement tree) but because they're great art too. Like chess sets they provide a rigid framework within which one can have a fair degree of play: shepherds or wise men, how many angels, what kind of animals, what everyone wears. I like them all--the abstract, the blown-glass, the handcarved, the wooden, the fabric...and also the "standard" plastic ones with the flowing robes and the cows.
For the record, "our" Nativity set was made from felt and pipe cleaners the year Grandmom died and features both shepherds and wise men no matter how non-canonical that is (I always think of the wise men as "bride's side" and the shepherds as "groom's side" which is probably why I don't get asked to midnight Mass much.) We have sheep instead of cows or goats and also a giraffe and a duck. Yup, we have a Nativity Duck.
Christmas cookies are also a great thing: they prove that at least one person (and sometimes lots of people with some forethought and planning) thought enough of the holiday to spend time baking not just one kind of cookie but a bunch of different kinds of cookies: that's a great thing. Variety si the spice of life and there's nothing nicer than a plate of homemade cookies...except a plate of all sorts of homemade cookies. Too bad I didn't do any serious baking this year.
Hmm....maybe next year I'll be able to distill the holiday down to just my four essential elements. Preferably somewhere warm while I'm at it.
posted by SamD | 3:55 PM
1 Comments:
I tend to forget to bake cookies at all, sadly--which is a shame since I have a _great_ gingerbread recipe. Maybe for springtime...
PS my "word verification" was LQCNIPS...doesn't THAT sound like some sort of snack food?!?
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