Advent Bible study: The Road to Christmas, Week 2

I've just completed the second week of the Advent Bible study "The Road to Christmas" from Love God Greatly.  As I mentioned last week, the focus of the study is on some of the women who were included in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1.  This week's study deals with Rahab and then, later in the week, with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I may have gotten something quite different out of this study than others, but I did find that it challenged me to greater obedience to the Lord.  In the verses which I SOAPed regarding Rahab (Joshua 6:17, 22-23, and 25), the city of Jericho was about to be destroyed.  Everyone in the city would die, all but one family.  This was the family of Rahab the harlot, who had hid the men Joshua sent to spy out the city ahead of time.  They agreed to spare Rahab and her family when the city was taken, and instructed her to bind a scarlet cord in the window of her house and to be sure all her family was there in the house with her.  As these verses describe, Joshua sent the spies to Rahab's house before the battle to bring her and her family out to a place of safety.

Here is the application I got from this passage:  The spies had spelled out exactly what Rahab had to do to be sure she and her family would be saved when the city was destroyed.   She needed to bring her family into the house with her, and she needed to bind the scarlet cord in the window. 

In the same way, God spells out exactly what we must do to be saved.  He then gives us explicit instructions for living the Christian life.  We must follow His directions, first to be sure of salvation and then to walk with Him.  Obedience is of utmost importance if we are to experience God's richest blessings!

And then Friday, I SOAPed verses from Luke 1 -- verses 34-38, detailing part of Mary's conversation with the Angel Gabriel.  He explained to this young girl that she had found favor with God and would become the mother of God's Son.  Mary's first response was a simple logistical question.  How could this possibly be?  The angel explained that this miraculous conception would be the work of God's Holy Spirit.  He then gave Mary the news that her aged, childless cousin Elisabeth was also miraculously pregnant.  He reminded Mary that nothing is impossible with God.

These answers:
1.  The Holy Spirit will do this;
2.  Nothing is impossible with God
were all that Mary needed.  Her swift response was: "I am the Lord's handmaid.  Be it unto me as you have said."

Here is how I applied these verses to my own life:  Mary's willing obedience, at such a young age, is such a rebuke to me!  So many times I question why things happen,  or I hold back from complete obedience.  I fail to see God's hand in my circumstances.

From Mary's response and from her song that follows in verses 46-55, we see that Mary knew God's Word well.  Her song is filled with Old Testament references and is reminiscent of Hannah's song in 1 Samuel. 

Unlike Mary, I am blessed to have all of God's Word at my fingertips.  Like Mary, I have much of it hidden in my heart.   God is using His Word to help me grow continually in my understanding of His character and attributes.  And so, I really have no reason not to have a heart of willing obedience similar to Mary's.  I know God would have me to do so -- and I know He will enable me to do so!

Are you doing an Advent Bible study this December?  If so, please leave a comment and share some of what you are learning!

Gluten-free gingersnaps

cookie photo is from Pixabay

 It can be a real challenge to bake gluten-free Christmas cookies.  I try to avoid wheat -- and, though I have found I can eat it occasionally with no problem, I'm not likely to ever go back to just eating wheat whenever I want.  As I've mentioned before, going wheat-free not only helped some digestive issues I was having, but -- after a couple of months -- my hip pain went away completely and has never returned.  I was able to stop taking glucosamine which I'd been taking to help battle the joint pain.  This was pain that kept me from sleeping and would occasionally bring me to tears.  So, since I have a simple way to keep pain-free, I will continue consuming very little wheat.

All that to say, we love Christmas cookies in this house and bake most of them with regular flour.  I do like to make a few kinds that I can eat.  A couple of years ago, I found a gluten-free gingersnap recipe that we really like.  It is also relatively low in fat and contains no eggs.  Here is the recipe:

GLUTEN-FREE GINGERSNAPS
1/4 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
3 Tblsp. molasses
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. ginger
1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
2 Tblsp. water, if necessary
White or colored sugar for dipping -- we use red and green at Christmas

In a large bowl, beat butter, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla until well blended.
Sift together all of the remaining ingredients except for the water and the sugar for dipping.
Stir the sifted dry ingredients into the butter mixture, adding water if necessary to form a dough that can be shaped.  Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Preheat oven to 325º.  Line a cookie sheet or two with parchment paper.  Form dough into 1-inch balls (recipe says 16; we got about 24).  Dip each ball in white or colored sugar and arrange them sugar-side up on the parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Flatten them slightly if you like with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, but Mr. T forgot that step and they came out just fine.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or just until the undersides of the cookies start to brown.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.

This is adapted from Wheat-Free Recipes & Menus, by Carol Fenster.

For more wonderful gluten-free baking recipes, check out The Baking Beauties.  Jeanine has loads of great ideas, including an entire e-book of Christmas cookies.  Her gluten-free whipped shortbread is fabulous!

Another quick thought for baking gluten-free is that Bob's Red Mill has come out with a 1-to-1 baking flour that may be used cup for cup instead of regular flour.  The xanthan gum is included in the blend.  In other words, you may take your old favorite Christmas cookie recipes and just substitute Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 for the all-purpose flour.  Sounds too good to be true!  But we did buy some and I am going to try it!

My Kitchen Gifts Pinterest board, Part 2

Some of my kitchen gifts in the making!

 I just did a post concerning this board, my Kitchen Gifts Pinterest board, over at my Christmas blog, Mrs. T's Christmas Kitchen.  (The link is in the sidebar.)  This post here at my kitchen table contains different links, so you will want to check them both out!


Let's start with this Cranberry Orange Chocolate Chip Bread with Printable Wrapper from Yellow Bliss Road.

Photo from Yellow Bliss Road

Sounds like a fantastic combination of flavors, and the printable wrapper (not shown in this picture, but it's on my Pinterest board) makes it so pretty for gift giving!
 Don't these Scotchmallows from Project Queen look delicious?

Photo from Projectqueen.org

These handmade Cinnamon Sugar Packets from Positively Splendid are so unique and pretty and would make fun additions to tuck in a gift basket.

Photo from Smart School House via Positively Splendid

Here is a very fun idea for giving a sugar cookie mix!  Check out these Sugar Cookie Sacks from Celebrate Creativity.  I love these!

Photo from CelebrateCreativity.com

 If you are concerned that your neighbors might be on special diets or you are not sure what they like, this simmering spice for neighbor gifts from Dandee Designs might be a great solution:

Photo by Dandee Designs

Next up, some fun ways to package kitchen gifts, especially cookies.  If you click on these bhg links, you will find you can also access the cookie recipes for the cookies pictured with the packaging.
This Decorated Cookie Can is so cute!

Photo from bhg.com

Then lastly there is this festive holiday box.  Hope you've found some great inspiration from these pins!

Photo by bhg.com

Baking report for early December

Eggnog Logs (photo from Taste of Home)

Here's a little update and some links for the cookies Mr. T has been baking.

So far he has made:

Eggnog Log Cookies

Whipped Shortbread -- so yummy

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

one of last year's cookie trays -- the little round chocolate ones in the top point are chocolate spritz

Chocolate Spritz

He also made Gingersnaps, which are a pretty common recipe that most people have, so I won't share one.  But while they were baking I saw a recipe in Taste of Home for

Gingersnap Coconut Creams

and decided to sandwich some of the baked gingersnaps together with the coconut cream filling in that recipe.

photo from Taste of Home

I think by looking at her recipe that her cookies are softer (they are a drop cookie), where ours are more crisp.  But after being stored in a tin for a day or two, they make a very nice sandwich cookie.  The ginger and coconut flavors are very good together.

That's the update for now!

Simple Christmas card banners

Photo from bhg.com

Yesterday I hung up the simple Christmas card banners that my granddaughter and I made last year.  I blogged about them on my Christmas blog at the time, but apparently not here.  Here's the link to that post: Simple Christmas Card Banner.  As I noted in that post, we made the individual "pennants" together and I sewed them to ribbon a few days later to create the banners.

Here is the link to this project on my Crafting for Christmas Pinterest board: Christmas Card Banner.  If you click the "website" link at the top, you'll be taken to bhg.com, where you can access the specific directions.

We did adapt the idea very freely, as I explain in the post on my Christmas blog, substituting card stock for fabric.  I especially liked that this project used not only the fronts of cards but some of the inside verses as well.  We had some older cards to use and some of them had lovely verses indeed.

Are you interested in a simple project that elementary aged kids will enjoy?  Or do you just enjoy playing with old Christmas cards and scissors as I do?  In either case, you may want to check this out!

Adding instant Christmas spirit to a couch or chair

You can add instant Christmas spirit to a room just by folding (or even tossing) a Christmasy throw onto the arm or back of a couch or chair.   Here are some posts that detail how I've done just that:

 Simple Flannel Throw is the one pictured at the top.  I made the reverse side a plain dark green flannel so that I can use it all year round, just folded the other way.  Making the couch Christmasy is a matter of reversing the throw and folding it with the Christmas print outward.

And here is a Christmas Fabric Throw.


This one has a holly print on one side
 
and a fun quilt-like print on the other side, featuring rooms decorated for Christmas.  If you follow the link you will get a closer look at the print.

So why not make or buy a simple Christmas throw or two to add some instant Christmas spirit to your rooms?

Gentlemen, preheat your ovens!

from a vintage cookbooklet in my collection

Or, let the baking begin!  There's really only one gentleman preheating an oven, but I liked the title so took a bit of poetic license.  Our Christmas cookie-baking started Saturday when Mr. T announced it was time to bake his favorite Chocolate Spritz.  In recent years he has discovered that he loves to bake Christmas cookies, and these are his top favorite both to bake and to eat.

He ran out of sprinkles, so headed off to Walmart while I continued baking.  While he was gone, I prepared the dough for gluten-free gingersnaps, and when he returned he finished baking his chocolate cookies and made the dough for regular gingersnaps, baking both types. We like to dip our gingersnaps in red or green sugar for Christmas!

 I saw a recipe in Taste of Home for gingersnaps sandwiched together with a yummy-looking coconut filling.  Ginger and coconut are great together (in fact, I have one recipe for Coconut Gingeroons!) so we are definitely trying this idea.  I'll let you know how they turn out!