December 8th is the day that some followers of Buddhism celebrate the day the Buddha achieved enlightenment. Siddhartha Gautama, who would later become the Buddha, was a prince from Nepal who would leave his wealthy family in search for the meaning of life. After spending six years living the life of an aesthetic (which is a branch of philosophy dealing with the appreciation of the nature of art and beauty) and serving under six teachers, he still did not find what we was searching for. Siddhartha vowed to sit under the Bodhi tree until he had his answers. He fasted and meditated under the tree for a week, and on the morning of the eighth day he came to several realizations which were to become the principles of Buddhism. In all the pages I saw during my research for this post there was mention of Siddhartha meditating and watching Venus rising when we discovered "The Noble Eightfold Path" and "Four Noble Truths." After this Siddhartha was referred to as Buddha, "The Enlightened One."

Several sites that I looked up said that beginning on Bodhi Day, trees are decorated with multi-colored lights, strung with beads to symbolize the way things are united, and hung with three shiny ornaments to represent the Three Jewels- The Buddha, The Dharma and Sangha, Candles are lit for eight days starting on Bodhi day to symbolize the days of meditation leading to Buddha's enlightenment. Since we do a Christmas tree in our house it seemed like a good idea to tie this holiday in with our existing tradition. Stringing beads to make garland seemed like a nice idea, but instead of beads we used cranberries, just like my family used to do when I was a kid minus the popcorn. So an old tradition from my childhood has found it's way into my house again but this time with a Buddhist lesson. It was even nicer then usual doing this craft with the kids because my mom is here visiting so she got to do the craft with all of us!

All you need for the craft is cranberries, a needle, and thread. We threaded the needle and poked it through a cranberry and then tied the end around the cranberry for our base. We then threaded as many cranberries as we could fit on the thread. At the end, we tied a knot and then my oldest and I hung out Bodhi day "garland" on our tree.

A traditional food to be consumed on Bodhi day is rice and milk, because it was said to have been offered to the Buddha to help him regain his strength after his Enlightening meditation. We did a take on this by making rice pudding, original recipe here. My middle child was much more enthusiastic about cooking with his Nana here- so he showed off his skills in the kitchen and it turned out so well!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of whole milk
1/3 cup of uncooked short grain rice (we used brown but white would work well too)
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
raisins (your desired amount)

Method:

Bring the milk, rice and salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20-25 minutes. I had to stir the rice almost continuously because the milk would keep bubbling up if I stopped for more then 30 seconds.

In a mixing bowl whisk together the egg and brown sugar. Then add the rice mixture a tablespoon at a time to the egg mixture. Be sure to stir it in well with each scoop.

Put the mixture back into the saucepan and stir on low heat for 5 to 10 minutes. If the consistency of your pudding is not thick enough you may heat longer, for us our pudding was too thick so we thinned it out a little at the end. Then remove from heat and add vanilla, cinnamon, and raisins.

Teamwork, one whisks while the other adds the rice mixture.

This rice pudding was a little tedious with all the stirring, but it was so, so, so tasty! We will definitely be making this again.

Our final product- super yummy rice pudding!

Our first Buddhist holiday was a hit, I hope you enjoyed it too and thanks for reading!

Whoa we are into December already! Are you ready for this holiday season and winter break? We are kind of ready. Both the moms come to visit this month which means happy children and possible date nights for the hubs and me. I'm happy to have extra hands to help me keep the kids happy and to help us on a holiday craft and food making spree! December is another month with many holidays and the first one we talked about was Saint Nicholas Day. This holiday is one I grew up with. Saint Nicholas Day is one that is celebrated in Germany and the kids have been discussing it in their German class at school. Traditionally children leave shoes out and they are filled with fruit, or small treats. In my house growing up, we had our stocking hung early and that's what "St. Nick" would leave a small gift in for us on his celebration day. For those of you that did not grow up in a Catholic home that celebrated St. Nicholas day here's what I can tell you about the holiday. Historically speaking, there not much really known about Nicholas. Though he's one of the most popular saints in the Green and Latin churches, his existence isn't attested by any historical document. He was probably the bishop of Myra (Turkey) sometime in the 300s. He was best known for his generosity. One story that popped up over and over again in my research was his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters or marriageable age. Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man's window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into a custom of gift-giving on the saint's feast day.

For Saint Nicholas day I thought it would be fun to leave surprises for the boys teachers. So for our craft we created our own paper candy canes to accompany some sweets. Since this holiday is about giving, the boys and I are going to sneak the gifts into the classroom. We just put a few gold coin chocolates and a little note saying Happy St. Nicholas day. We have our craft all assembled and will just have to sneak around distributing them on December 5th.

I found these cute paper candy canes here.

Here's how we made the candy canes:

First cut paper into square shape.

Next draw lines on the paper as shown below.

Draw different color lines on paper with a 90 degree angle.

Roll up paper and secure with tape or glue dot.

Then curve one end around a marker to make the top of the candy cane.

For our Saint Nicholas treat we decided to make Marzipan. At the Christmas markets I have seen St. Nicholas man-shaped breads and marzipan candies. I chose the easier of the two for our food and found this Dutch marzipan recipe for us to try.

Marsepein (Dutch Marzipan)

Ingredients:

1 cup blanched almonds (We used almond meal so we could skip the grinding)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg white
¼ teaspoon water (original recipe called for lemon juice)

Method:

Grind the almonds. Add the sugar, the egg white and the water. Grind the mixture very fine. Let the marzipan stand for 24 hours, under a damp cloth. Form hearts, dolls, letters, animals and other fancy figures.

From The Real Dutch Treat Cook Book, by Rie Ykema-Steenbergen, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1949

The marzipan was very easy and basic. It was almondy and sugary and much like store bought or Christmas market bought marzipan I wasn't completely impressed with it- but the children thought it was good and it was like a grainy playdough which made a fun time for all.

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

Craft Theology