If what you bought comes in the box to the right than there is no need but for everyone else, here is a little how-to.

1. Gather your materials and lay them out on a flat work surface. Remember to remove the price tag from the gift before wrapping it.

2. Place the box along the length of wrapping paper and unroll enough paper to wrap it around the box, leaving at least a 2-inch overlap. Make sure there is enough wrapping paper at each end of the box to cover the ends completely when folded over them.

3. Use a pencil to mark where this overlap ends and cut the wrapping paper in a straight line at this point. Fold the paper or use a yardstick to guide you in cutting a straight line.

4. Eyeball the wrapping paper at the ends of the box. Trim away any extra paper so that the remaining flaps are long enough to cover the box but short enough to fold over smoothly into flaps.

5. Open the paper you’ve just cut and lay the box in the center of the unprinted side, top down.

6. Bring one lengthwise edge of the wrapping paper to the center of the box and secure it with tape. Turn the opposite edge of the paper under approximately 1 inch and bring this to the center of the box as well so that it overlaps the first edge, and tape it down.

7. Position the box so that one short end is facing you. Grasp the left and right edges of the wrapping paper and push the sides in so that top and bottom flaps are formed. Make sure the edges are pushed in as far as they will go without ripping the paper. Tape the edges to the box.

8. Bring the upper flap down against the side of the box, making sure the flap is sharply creased at its folds. Tape the flap to the box.

9. Bring the lower flap up against the side of the box. Crease and secure it as you did the upper flap.

10. Repeat for the opposite end of the box.

11. Position the package so the seamless side is facing down.

12. Wrap a long piece of ribbon around the box lengthwise, then twist the ribbon at the lengthwise seam to wrap it around the box widthwise.

13. Turn the box over so that the seamless side is facing up and tie the ribbon into a bow on top of the present where the ribbons cross.

14. If you have a card, slide it under the ribbon and secure it with tape on the underside. If you have a gift tag, use the loose ends of the ribbon to secure the gift tag (if it has a hole in it), or adhere it directly to the gift (if it has adhesive on it.)

Many believe that eggnog is a tradition that was brought to America from Europe. This is partially true. Eggnog is related to various milk and wine punches that had been concocted long ago in the “Old World”. However, in America a new twist was put on the theme. Rum was used in the place of wine. In Colonial America, rum was commonly called “grog”, so the name eggnog is likely derived from the very descriptive term for this drink, “egg-and-grog”, which corrupted to egg’n'grog and soon to eggnog. At least this is one version…

Other experts would have it that the “nog” of eggnog comes from the word “noggin”. A noggin was a small, wooden, carved mug. It was used to serve drinks at table in taverns (while drinks beside the fire were served in tankards). It is thought that eggnog started out as a mixture of Spanish “Sherry” and milk. The English called this concoction “Dry sack posset”. It is very easy to see how an egg drink in a noggin could become eggnog.

The true story might be a mixture of the two and eggnog was originally called “egg and grog in a noggin”. This was a term that required shortening if ever there was one.

With it’s European roots and the availability of the ingredients, eggnog soon became a popular wintertime drink throughout Colonial America. It had much to recomend it; it was rich, spicy, and alcoholic.

In the 1820’s Pierce Egan, a period author, wrote a book called “Life of London: or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and His Elegant Friend Corinthina Tom”. To publicize his work Mr. Egan made up a variation of eggnog he called “Tom and Jerry”. It added 1/2 oz of brandy to the basic recipe (fortifying it considerably and adding further to its popularity).

Oh I love Eggnog so much but because of the above information I will not be enjoying as much as I’d like to. Nonetheless, here is a wonderful recipe for it.

Egg Nog Recipe

* 4 cups milk
* 5 whole cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 12 egg yolks
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 4 cups light cream
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine milk, cloves, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon in a saucepan, and heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes. Slowly bring milk mixture to a boil.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar. Whisk together until fluffy. Whisk hot milk mixture slowly into the eggs. Pour mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick. Do not allow mixture to boil. Strain to remove cloves, and let cool for about an hour.

Stir in cream, 2 teaspoon vanilla, and nutmeg. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

We decorated our Chistmas tree today. It’s a whopping 11 foot tall Fraser Fir.

The exact origin of the Christmas tree seems under debate, but it is safe to say that this symbol evolved from Pagan tradition.

The Norse pagans and Celtic Druids revered evergreens as manifestations of deity because they did not “die” from year to year but stayed green and alive when other plants appeared dead and bare. The trees represented everlasting life and hope for the return of spring.

The druids decorated their trees with symbols of prosperity — a fruitful harvest, coins for wealth and various charms such as those for love or fertility. Scandinavian Pagans are thought to be the first to bring their decorated trees indoors as this provided a warm and welcoming environment for the native fairy folk and tree elementals to join in the festivities. The Saxons, a Germanic pagan tribe, were the first to place lights on the their trees in the form of candles. Ancient Romans decorated their homes with greens at the Festival of Saturnalia, their New Year and exchanged evergreen branches with friends as a sign of good luck.

christmas tree historyThe first Christian use of the Christmas tree symbol is credited to 16th century when devout Christians also brought decorated trees into their homes. German born Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is credited with starting the trend in England in 1841 when he brought the first Christmas Tree to Windsor Castle.

While Europe had already been celebrating Christmas for some time, the first recorded sighting of a Christmas tree in America came in 1830’s Pennsylvania. It seems a local church erected the tree as a fundraising effort. Christmas trees were generally not thought kindly of in early America, as many people saw them as Pagan symbols, which is in fact, their origin. By the 1890’s, however, Christmas ornaments were being imported from Germany and Christmas trees were in high fashion.

While Europeans generally favored smaller trees about three to four feet in height, Americans, as usual, liked to do things big. Their trees proudly stretched from floor to ceiling. Popular ornaments with the German-Americans were natural items like apples, nuts, berries, marzipan and cookies. Popcorn, an American addition, eventually was added to the mix.

With the advent of electricity, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across America and the traditional “lighting of the tree” quickly became the official symbols of the beginning of the holiday season.

Here is my beautiful gingerbread house and a history of them.

Gingerbread has been baked in Europe for centuries. In some places, it was a soft, delicately spiced cake; in others, a crisp, flat cookie, and in others, warm, thick, steamy-dark squares of “bread,” sometimes served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. It was sometimes light, sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but it was almost always cut into shapes such as men, women, stars or animals, and colorfully decorated or stamped with a mold and dusted with white sugar to make the impression visible.

The term may be imprecise because in Medieval England gingerbread meant simply “preserved ginger” and was a corruption of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle and flavored with ginger.

The manufacture of gingerbread appears to have spread throughout Western Europe at the end of the eleventh century, possibly introduced by crusaders returning from wars in the Eastern Mediterranean.

If you lived in London in 1614, your family would have gone to the Bartholomew Fair on August 24. Of the special cakes prepared for holidays and feasts in England, many were gingerbread. If a fair honored a town’s patron saint, e.g., St. Bartholomew, the saint’s image might have been stamped (and even gilded) into the gingerbread you would buy. If the fair were on a special market day, the cakes would probably be decorated with an edible icing to look like men, animals, valentine hearts or flowers. Sometimes the dough was simply cut into round “snaps.”

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was both modernized and romanticized. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by destitute parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies. By the end of the century the composer Englebert Humperdink wrote an opera about the boy and the girl and the gingerbread house.

At Christmas, gingerbread makes its most impressive appearance. The German practice of making gingerbread houses never caught on in Britain in the same way as it did in North America, and it is here still that the most extraordinary creations are found. Elaborate Victorian houses, heavy with candies and sugar icicles, vie in competition with the Hansel and Gretel houses.

Gingerbread making in North America has its origins in the traditions of the many settlers from all parts of Northern Europe who brought with them family recipes and customs. By the nineteenth century, America had been baking gingerbread for decades.

American recipes usually call for fewer spices than their European counterparts, but often make use of ingredients that were only available regionally. Maple syrup gingerbreads are made in New England, and in the South sorghum molasses is used.

I’ve decided that I’m going to write a Christmas theme post for each day in December leading up to “The Day.” Sort of like an blogging advent calendar and as I’ve recently found out, not everyone knows what an advent calendar is so I’ll start there.

Advent is a holy season of the Christian church, the period of preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, or Christmas. A traditional advent calendar consists of two pieces of cardboard on top of each other. 24 doors are cut out in the top layer, with one door being opened every day, from December 1 to December 24 (Christmas Eve). Each compartment can either show a part of the Nativity story and the birth of Jesus, or can simply display a piece of paraphernalia to do with Christmas (e.g. bells, holly). More contempory calendars have been adapted to include a piece of chocolate or a sweet behind each compartment.

You can find advent calendars at most local supermarkets as well as places like Walgreens and Longs.

Here is an online advent calendar fromWoodlands Junior School with interesting tidbits about Christmas around the world.

It seems I have made someone’s 100 Blogging Poets list.

Check it out