Fredrick the Christmas Rabbit Returns!

Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit of Christmas was lovingly (re)formed in the presence of not one, but two Christmas Camels.  

His life was threatened early on by a rolling pin wielding fiend, but he escaped with minimal damage to life, limb, and ego.  

 And so Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit came to be.  Again.   

 The process of gaining consciousness was not quite as odd the second time around, and he danced in celebration of life with Ginger the gingerbread girl, and Prince Halferdimple the gingerbread boy.

The boy and girl ran off to play with other gingerpeople, and Fredrick began to explore his surroundings.  The first thing he ran into was a Gingerbread Snow-Lion.  The lion growled and Fredrick's nose trembled.

"Hello?  My name is Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit who saved Christmas last year.  Please don't eat me!" he squeaked.

The snow-lion growled again and smiled.  "Of course I won't eat you!"  he said.  "I'm a carnivore, not a cannibal, and gingerbread is not part of my diet.  I'm Leonardo, the Gingerbread Snow-Lion."

Relieved, Fredrick smiled back and suggested that they make a snowperson together.  Leonardo agreed and the two of them set to work.  Being a snow-lion, Leonardo was especially skilled at forming snow and soon they finished and stepped back to admire their beautiful snow...girl?

For indeed, somehow she had turned out to be a girl.  A British Gingerbread Snowgirl.  "Hello," she greeted them.  "My name is Sandra the snow-girl.  It's a pleasure to meet you both."  She bowed, as only a gingerbread snow-girl can bow.  Fredrick and Leonardo bowed back.

"Would you like to go get a candy cane with us?" Fredrick asked.

"I'd be delighted," Sandra replied.

Soon the three of them were happily licking and nibbling away on a large candy cane.

They made short work of it.

Then it snowed on them.  Snowflakes in gingerbread land are excessively large, and it took a while for them to escape from underneath it.

When they finally removed themselves from the snowflake they found the were in the presence of a gingerbread camel.  A very old and loquatius gingerbread camel.

"My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great.........great grandfather came to Bethlehem with the wisemen about 2000 years ago," he began.  Fredrick and his friends listened as Camus the Camel continued and told them of Bethlehem and the Angels that spoke to the shepherds, and the brilliant star that his ancestor's master followed.

By the end of the story it was getting late.  Camus the Camel fell asleep where he was and Fredrick, Leonardo, and Sandra sneaked off and headed for bed themselves.  Fredrick thought he was quite alone when suddenly he found himself nose to nose(?) with the oddest creature he'd ever seen.

"What...ah, I mean, who are you?" he stuttered, trying to stay polite.

"I'm Alfonso Henri Shlomo Ling the 7th," the creature replied.  "I'm a bacteria.  Let's go make yogurt!"

And they did.

The End.

*In case you want to make gingerbread adventures of your own, here's the recipe:

Dark Cookies:
1 c. sugar
1 c. crisco
1 c. molasses
3 eggs
(Mix together, then add:)
3 tsp. soda in 1/2 c. boiling water
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
Flour (about 6 cups - enough so the dough can be rolled out and cut)

Mix together, roll out, cut, and bake at 350 for about 9 minutes.  Then frost and decorate.  Or you can try decorating before baking too.

Marshmallow Frosting:
1/2 c. boiling water
2 c. sugar
Boil until it spins a thread out of a spoon - not long.

2 egg whites, beaten

Pour syrup into whites slowly, while beating.  Add 10-12 large marshmallows (cut in pieces).
If not stiff enough add powdered sugar and a little butter.
If too stiff add a few drops of hot water.

Christmas Stroll, 2011

General feeling of Christmas cheer?  Check.
Quickly chilling cider or cocoa?  Check.
Seven layers of clothing and still frozen extremities?  Check.
Visions of draft horses and people in odd costumes?  Check.
Strains of Christmas music floating through the air?  Check.

Congratulations, you must be at Bozeman's 31st annual Christmas Stroll.  Here's some things you might see.

The Spiders.  It's not Christmas until the Christmas Spiders are up.  

Families bundled up for a chilly evening.  

This is HOW chilly.  (That's about 26F, fyi.)

Cake Boss, eat your heart out.  We have Gingerbread houses by 7 year olds. 

And sometimes we have Gingerbread Pyramids.  

People admiring the children's handiwork.  

Starting at one end of downtown Bozeman, heading to the other.  

Elves warning that Santa's home is melting.  

You can count all the different types of hats.  

There might be a carrot caroling.  

Or marshmallows roasting on an open fire.  

Or small ones hitching a ride on dad.

There's Norwegians... 

...and Bobcat fans.  (GO CATS! :)

A living Nativity Scene with a choir...

...and, of course, with animals.  

And awed children who try to pet said animals.  

You might catch a ride on a "sleigh" pulled by draft horses.  

Or run into dozens of women drumming on buckets!  (That was almost a Seuss moment.)

Some bikers sport (very little) athletic clothing...

And musical groups abound.  

All this, and more, at the Bozeman Christmas Stroll!  See you next year?

The Christmas Stroll

Here in Bozeman, the annual Christmas stroll is as much a part of Christmas as...these decorations:

I believe at one point the city of Bozeman tried to dispose of these decorations.  I mean, let's be honest, they're old, kind of scraggly, and THEY LOOK LIKE GIANT INVERTED SPIDERS. Public outcry was so great, however (probably from crazy people like me who can't feel like it's really Christmas without them), that the lighted spiders still appear every year, suspended between buildings on Main Street.

The feeling of the stroll is a lot like the Jerusalem Light Festival (for those of you who experienced that), just smaller and waaaayyy colder.

Yes.  That's Fahrenheit.  Luckily, it stayed above zero this year.  Some strolls aren't so warm.  

The stroll kicks off around 4:30.  Detours go up earlier in the day, forcing all traffic away from Main Street as different organizations set up their booths to sell a variety of food and (hot) drinks.  

Katie enjoys a "Big Apple" from the Leaf and Bean

Things don't really start hopping until after dark, when the spiders have been lit for the night and the cold begins to seep into one's bones.

Notice a lot more people in this picture than the previous one.

Some highlights from this year include (but are not limited to):
Alpacas!

 A living Christmas tree handing out candy.

 Gingerbread houses.  I think this one was my favorite.  The look of stone work and stained glass reminded me of Israel.  Also, the whole square-castle-surrounded-by-a-moat look reminded me of Belvoir.

 This creative contraptions that roasted marshmallows.

 A nod to Hanukkah.  (Chag Hanukkah Sameach!)

 A Living Nativity.  It was good, really, but having spent last Christmas in Israel, and Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, I had to laugh.  The picture of the nativity commonly held here is NOTHING like reality.  Well, both have a baby.  I guess that's something.

 A lady and her sheep.

 Turkey legs!

 There were, of course, the usual number of run-ins between dogs and meltdowns by overly tired and cold children, but overall it was a good stroll.  And now it officially feels like Christmas time.

Favorite Christmas Carols

Everyone has one. Mine just happens to be one that is utterly unknown by your average college student.

So here's an introduction to what is, if not my very favorite carol, at least in my top 5 or so. I don't know the second song they sing, so feel free to skip it if you like. On the other hand, they have a beautiful sound, so why not enjoy it?

And to aid in your enjoyment, here are the lyrics.

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True Man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.

A taste of my joys since arriving state-side

December 15, 2008 12:10 am
I arrived home, still sick from Egypt, after traveling, well, hmm, 2 or so days straight. Let me tell you, it was nice to lay down finally! I left the sands of Egypt on Saturday morning with temperatures probably in the 80's.I arrived home to snow and temperatures in the -20's. Yeah, that was something of a shock to my system. Still, it was good to be home. :)

December 16, 2008 12:05pm
I stopped by Petra to have lunch. That was the first time I'd seen most of my students since June. It was really fun to see them again, even for a short time.

December 17, 2008 2:45pm
I was still sick and not really feeling better, so we visited the doctor. I probably would have gotten better on my own eventually, but he gave me drugs which sped up the process a bit.

December 19, 2008 8:10am
I went to Petra again, to hang out for their day-before-Christmas-break-celebration-and-house-competition. It was nice to have a little more time to talk to both students and teachers there. It made me realize just how much I missed teaching there. Will I ever teach there again? God knows.

December 21, 2008
I went to church in the morning, and was able to see and talk to quite a few people, which was nice. Also went to church in the evening when they had a report from a small team that went to Turkey. (Have I mentioned that I really want to go to Turkey??) They showed clips from the film "Bethlehem Star" which was interesting, at least. We then went home and celebrated Christmas (Mom, Dad, Larissa, and I).

December 22, 2008 5:30am
My alarm went off. We headed to the airport to catch our 8:00 plane to Kentucky. Well, technically, the plane took us to Minneapolis, where we caught a connecting flight to Kentucky. We eventually got here and I got to see my brother and sister-in-law, also for the first time since June.

December 24, 2008
We celebrated Christmas again, this time with Joel and Rachel.
December 25, 2008 9:30am
We got in the van and drove to Elizabethtown to visit my Aunt Erica, Uncle Chuck, and my cousins Vicki, Chas, Amy, Jessica, and Jonathan and celebrate Christmas with them. We played Rook, ate a lot, opened more gifts, played music, and I showed pictures from Israel. We spent the night there and the next day we worked on the deck and the pump, took a walk, and made chicken pot pie and jello fluff for dinner before heading back to Joel and Rachel's.

December 27, 2008 9:00am
We're caught up to today! This morning we went to Bardstown, which is, I believe, something like the second oldest town in Kentucky. It had a tavern from 1779.
We visited a distillery (The Maker's Mark-gotta love that Kentucky Bourbon...or something. Interesting tour, at least),
Drove by the location where Abraham Lincoln lived as a child,
and walked around downtown.

So really, I've managed to stay fairly busy since arriving "home." :) Of course, I still have a month to go...