[Magdalen] Christmas Treats.

[Jay Weigel]

It's a lovely idea. Mine does many similar things. One I got involved with
this year is the Christmas gifts for Shen-Paco, which is the sheltered
workshop. I chose for mine a man I know to be autistic, because of my son.
It felt good to buy the present he wanted. Such a small thing, really.

On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 4:13 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> My church has this wonderful thing that they have identified about thirty
> families in the area who are down on their luck, and they give them a
> Thanksgiving dinner, and a Christmas dinner. They have these events that
> are purely to raise the money needed for the dinner fixings and the
> presents for everyone.  They had a cookie sale as a fund-raising project,
> and I made a huge batch of butterscotch blondies. We had a sale after the
> cookie sale for what was left, and I'm delighted to say none of mine were
> left.  My sweetie made a raftload of M&M Chochip cookies and they went too.
>
> Some people make this a staple of their holiday festivities, and I think I
> will too, as I search for that perfect blondie recipe. One guy has this
> thing of making peanut brittle, and he must make a major project of it, cuz
> thebags he had supplied filled a tray that covered half of a large table.
> He practically sold out too.
>
> Diet? What's that? We sample each others specialties! It's like a potluck
> dinner, only you only have dessert!
>
> I, being childless and inexperienced with kids, hesitated to take a star
> from the gift tree, but my buddy said, "Jim, it's really very easy. I took
> a star and went to a store and handed it to an associate, and she fixed me
> right up. Easy as pie." So I screwed up my courage and picked a star, and
> my Inner Voice said, C'mon, Jimmie! You KNOW you can do better 'n that!
> So I took three, and went to the mall and it was indeed a simple process.
> And, as those who do this probably know, the good feeling lasts.
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>
> On Thu, Dec 22, 2016 at 11:32 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I yearn for ethnic holiday cookies and breads this time of the year.
> > They were an integral part of the holiday season during my Upper
> > Midwest USA upbringing, and the special recipes by family and
> > friends are lost to me for good.
> >
> > Still there are the pleasant memories of them.  Here are some of  them:
> >
> > (1) Fattigman (literally "fat man)," small cookies that were the
> specialty
> > of my godmother, Aunt Gladys.
> >
> > (2) Crumkake; thin, delicate rolled confections.  No one made  them
> > better than my mother.
> >
> > (3) Sunbakkels: baked in special "sunburst" shaped tins.  Loaded  with
> > cardamam spice.  Another of my mother's specialties.
> >
> > (4) Pfeffernusse cookies:  a German specialty of a German  neighbor.
> >
> > (5) Julekage:  A sweet holiday bread common to all the  Scandinavian
> > countries.
> >
> > (6) Date filled cookies.  My mother and Aunt Helen made several
> > varieties of these.  They weren't ethnic Scandinavian but were  part
> > of the Christmas scene.
> >
> > (7) Rosettes:  A local woman (Mrs. Chris Thompson) was so good  at
> > these treats, she made them for the entire village.
> >
> >
> > David Strang.
> >
>