Advent Day 13

A Christmas Tree Story 

12 days until Christmas, the countdown has officially begun and almost everyone I know has a Christmas Tree. Personally, I do not think given the current world situation Before the Flood - Leonardo Di Caprio it is a good idea to promote massive cutting of trees. Gladly now there are some options. Will share more below, so please keep reading!

My favourite tree embodies the Joy this Advent Period. My favourite tree is the Tree from the Costa Rica National Children's Hospital (Hospital Nacional de Ninos), a national pediatric hospital that provides medical care to children in the country since its founding in 1845. 

Since 1964 in the front garden of the Hospital a large tree is lighted up so all the hospitalized children can watch from their window. The picture speaks for itself:

This year they even took it up a notch and made the 25,999 light bulbs to be made of Led technology to make it eco-friendly. The tree is planted in the hospital garden, so no tree cutting required. 

The first person to bring a Christmas Tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th-century German preacher  Martin Luther. A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches. It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. Some people say this is the same tree as the 'Riga' tree, but it isn't! The Riga tree originally took place a few decades earlier. Source 

The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years. Pagans used branches of it to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come. The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia. Christians use it as a sign of everlasting life with God. Source 

n Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today. In 1605 an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas, they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-coloured paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc." Source 

At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wise Men saw.

The first Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the 1830s. They became very popular in 1841 when Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's German husband) had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle. In 1848, drawing of "The Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle" was published in the Illustrated London News. The drawing was republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850 (but they removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's moustache to make it look 'American'!). The publication of the drawing helped Christmas Trees become popular in the UK and USA. In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees. Source 

As promised... non-cutting trees options... LOL

Con amor,

Paola

P.S. Some real man-made Christmas Tree options Amazon - Christmas Tree

Advent: Day 12

Healthy Christmas Dinner

Earlier today I was planning the Christmas Dinner menu. I’ve been a vegetarian for many years, but 2017 was the year I turned fully vegan… yeiii helping the polar bears(I do not intend to put harsh images or sad news in this post, but if you want to know, please click on this link and see the starving polar bear which the deforestation for meat production has kicked out of beautiful glacier house due to global warming Polar Bear in Trouble)

So I was searching for good at Hay House Healthy Eating Books

And I found this great post at the VeganSociety.com

Hope you enjoy your Christmas Dinner and help the Polar Bears while saving money (did you know a Vegetarian Christmas Meal is 40% less expensive than a regular Christmas Meal?) and eating healthier! that is for sure!

Perhaps you want to one step further and save what you saved DONATE SAVE POLAR BEARS

Bon Appetit!,

Paola

1) Parsnip and butternut squash soup

From mydarlingvegan.com

The last thing you want to do is to spoil your appetite for the main event. This simple recipe includes roast apple for that sweet festive kick. Get the recipe here.

2) Cranberry and pine nut stuffing

From onegreenplanet.org

Tis the season to stuff our lovely vegan faces. Get the recipe here.

3) Gravy

From jamieoliver.com

Even Jamie Oliver’s getting on board the vegan gravy train. Make in advance to allow the flavours to intensify, and get the recipe here.

4) Maple glazed carrots

From lifecurrents.dw2.net

Providing a new hope to anyone who thinks carrots are icky, this glazing really makes it the best side ever. Get the recipe here.

5) Haggis and whisky sauce

From veganlass.com 

Traditionally served with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes to you non-Scots!) this vegan haggis is the perfect thing if you want to impress folk in the north of Britain. Get the recipe here, and check out Vegan Lass’ new recipe book – New Traditions: Christmas recipes for a vegan future.

6) Chestnut pâté strudel

From veganrecipeclub.org.uk

Praise be to ready-made puff pastry. Deceptively simple to make, this festive strudel will be a hit with vegans and non-vegans alike. Get the recipe here.

7) Christmas pudding ice cream

From Jane Hughes, author of Vegan: 100 everyday recipes.

That’s no moon… it’s a fabulous recipe for the more (holiday) seasoned chefs out there! The sprig of holly is, of course, essential. Get the recipe here.

8) Christmas trifle

From the lovely Sarah Cook, our Office Manager

Cake, custard, jelly, cream, nap by the fire. Yes please. Get the recipe here.

9) Lentil apple walnut loaf

From ohsheglows.com

Because including fruit in savoury recipes is the way to go. Get the recipe here.

10) Eggnog

From theroastedroot.net

As writer Julia Mueller says, ‘We will never understand eggnog naysayers. We put our brave britches on, take a swig of nog and say, “no, nog nayslayer, I will not succumb to your non-nog naysaying ways.” ‘ Get the recipe here.

By Elena Orde and Ali Ryland

Advent: Day 11

Advent: Day 10

ASK

Who? I asked

God! I replied 

God's plans are better than your dreams, but he loves that we tell him/her our heart's desires. This afternoon I hand-wrote four long pages of my dreams to God and prayed that he/she would give me the wisdom to surrender and advent his/her miracles with faith and love through this Advent Calendar days.

Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator.  Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.
-ACIM 

So let's pray and ask God for what we want this Advent. 

Today I went to a Christmas Breakfast. It was not just any breakfast, it was a soul-food gathering hosted by one of my dearest friends, a woman with a special sparkle in her eyes, a great professional, a great daughter and a loving soul. Her name is Elizabeth.

For years now she has been doing this friendly gathering where she invites her family and friends, and anyone her family and friends want to join. This was the first time she invited me because this has been the year we realized we REALLY enjoy to be closer friends than just acquaintances. Elizabeth outpoured love in every corner of her house,  cleaned it, decorated it, waters the plants and grooms her dogs waiting for our arrival. She bought eco-friendly plates and cutlery, cooked and had an awesome carols playlist. From the moment you got in the house the vibe of care made your soul feel cheerful. If you are thinking it sounds too good to be true... well let me tell you: it was! She even had a present for each one of us... real presents, the ones you search throughout the year and can not be bought at the Mall.

So, I asked my soul what made me most happy at the party, as always the soul sends an immediate thought which is right, but we insist to ask, after re-asking... the thought was confirmed by my guardian angels: - the Children's Table!

My friend and her mom had two short glass tables placed in the front garden where they set up a crafts workshop for the children to create Christmas decorations, there was no TV around or social media to post, just the sun shining and the hammocks swinging. There was glue, frost (escharcha) and glue and frost. The children spent about five minutes at the table (then went off to play with the dogs... and balloons... and boxes... and...), but the some of us the "adults" spent an hour creating beautiful tree decorations in blue, gold and silver for the Christmas Tree. We even whore aprons, which were useless of course, everyone knows frost goes wherever it wants...

The moment was magical as we let the frost lead the way and talked... like in the old days... not being able to google for things we do not remember due to our sticky fingers. The glue did not allow us to reach for the mobile. Then one of the "adults" swinging in a purple hammock said" - I think I haven't felt to present for months... I feel just happy I guess!

That is how children enjoy life and my goal is to at least enjoy Advent like that. So I urge you, invite you, advise and command to look for the Kid's table at every party to go... and if there is no kid's table MAKE IT! Let others feel the joy of being present, happy and in each other's true company. You might even find yourself finding some lost sparks!

When I got home I pulled out the card at the beginning of this post from the Daily Guidance from your Angels Oracle Cards from Doreen Virtue

Daily Guidance from Your Angels Oracle Cards is a beautiful deck filled with 365 channelled meditations, each card offers comforting and uplifting messages, to set a positive and healing tone for the day. This deck also functions as a divination tool, so you can ask a question and select a card at random to a message that gives you guidance and answers.  www.hayhouse.com 

All I could do was write, write down the bones! that is how I pray most of the time. Now I will finish this post and meditate. Praying is talking to God and Meditating is listening to God.

Hope you are enjoying this lovely sunny, windy and rainy afternoon. You are all in my prayers.

Con amor,

Paola

Advent: Day 9

I spent all day cleaning and writing. Even the dogs were groomed. Seems de-cluttering is an ongoing theme for me this Advent. What about you?

There are so many things I am thankful for today, they I've almost forgotten what was bothering me ... That is one of the best qualities of being Grateful, it instantly vanishes lack. I urge you to remember the thing you are most grateful about this Christmas and see how whatever is missing vanished instantly from your mind!

Most of my writing was for my book the Hen that Wanted to Fly, its moving along at God's pace, today God was happy to let me take a lot of hand notes and tomorrow will be a typing day. Will share some material tommorow so some of you can email me some comments (p.fonsecarojas@gmail.com)

As shared before, my long morning routine... (which I do love by the way....) includes the famous Julia Cameron's morning pages ... Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, ideally done first thing you do when you wake up. But before the morning pages start (which for the last year I've been mixing up with other journaling excersises), I read the A Course in Miracles daily lesson. Today's lesson belongs to Section 13, and it reads What is a Miracle? After re-reading it my letter to Baby Jesus was clear, this is what I want for Christmas 

Dear Baby Jesus

Thank you,
Paola

This is A Course in Miracles, Section 13

Section 13. What is a Miracle?

A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception, nor exceed the function of forgiveness. Thus it stays within time's limits. Yet it paves the way for the return of timelessness and love's awakening, for fear must slip away under the gentle remedy it brings.

A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified.

Forgiveness is the home of miracles. The eyes of Christ deliver them to all they look upon in mercy and in love. Perception stands corrected in His sight, and what was meant to curse has come to bless. Each lily of forgiveness offers all the world the silent miracle of love. And each is laid before the Word of God, upon the universal altar to Creator and creation in the light of perfect purity and endless joy.

The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there.

Miracles fall like drops of healing rain from Heaven on a dry and dusty world, where starved and thirsty creatures come to die. Now they have water. Now the world is green. And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show that what is born can never die, for what has life has immortality.

On a final note! Last month I did a Hay House (www.hayhouse.com) Writers Workshop with Julia Cameron, she signed my copy of The Artis Way.... OMG! OMG! OMG ... http://juliacameronlive.com

Another thing to be grateful for!

Con amor,

Paola

Advent: Day 8

Tonight I am writing my letter to Baby Jesus.

When I was a little girl, children in Costa Rica used to write a letter to el Nino Jesus (Baby Jesus) not to Santa, since it was on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) that we placed the little figure of Baby Jesus in the Portal before going to bed and waking up early to collect the gifts placed near the Portal.

Later... because of the movies and globalization, Costa Rican kids started writing to Santa and Parents woke up even earlier to place the gifts under a Canadian imported pine decorated with fake snowballs. Little-me decorated a different kind of Christmas Tree, a Cipres (Cypress) Tree!. Which reminds me...  Cypress the real smell of Chritmas in Costa Rica, not Ginger Cokkies, although we love eating them now...

Tonight I am watching a Chritsmas movie, writting my letter to Jesus, working on the Advent Calendar DIY and the Crown of Advent made of Cypress, on Sunday a special prayer will take place

It smells like my Christmas back in 1990 , so Little-me and me have a busy night ahead ...

Advent: Day 7

Oh, I wish I could write a Christmas Carol...

Today I went to the library & crafts store and got everything I need to create the DIY Advent Calendar, will post some pictures soon... but the real lesson was the drive... a long pathfinder type of drive along the streets packed with Christmas shopping wishes

As some of you may know, I have the honour of being part of a Woman's Anthology of Tales called Escritura Magica, which has tales from 29 woman authors, it is a blessing to be part of it. And being part of it means we have to promote the book, today's promotion was about reading some tales in a large bookstore in Alajuela, a province in Costa Rica where the Airport is located... so it was a long long drive... REPEAT... it was a looong drive

No one likes to be stuck in traffic, I personally think that it is because its a reminder of being stuck in life, but that's a whole different post, back to my car... I decided to practice kindness to myself in the car by listening to whatever I wanted in youtube.com. I often do this... I listen to Portuguese classes, motivational videos, study the faeries, angels, listen to updates about the new data protection rules, contract drafting techniques, the news, well basically anything... but I confess I usually restrict myself to a "useful" or "time saving" videos... BUT today I just searched and listened to all I wanted from the Spice Girs to Bruce Springsteen... until I remembered what I really wanted to listen was a Carols' playlist... so I did, I sang, I laughed I enjoyed Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and Sinatra singing along Mariah Carey and Elvis

Some of my favourites...

While singing I started thinking about all these great artists that have used their skills to embody the Holiday's Cheers and teach a lesson. Like when Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, I LOVE the many and more versions of this book, the first time I visited London in December, my #1 tourist visit was to the Charles Dickens Museum where I bought a nice vintage-looking copy which is now on my desk, it always likes to come out of the bookshelf around Christmas.

And what about The Nutcracker two-act ballet, it was brilliant of Ruskies Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov to use Alexandre Dumas' story of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King to "ballet shoes" to Tchaikovsky's immortal music.

WE CAN ALL SPREAD HOLIDAY SHEERS ANYWAY WE WANT 

... as long as we follow our heart!

My mom spreads the oy with her "portal", a very popular Latin American and Costa Rica custom during Christmas, which is a nativity scene constructed of figurines representing the birth of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the three wise men, the ox and mule and shepherds. San Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene.

The local church spreads the joy with the "posadas", which take place during the nine days before Christmas. Originated in Spain and Mexico, the “posada” consists of a group of children and neighbours getting together at a different neighbour’s house each day to act out the pilgrimage of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay where Jesus could be born. This is accompanied by Christmas carols and prayers, and candies for the children at the end.

What talent do you have? I am still searching for mine... For now, I will start with the Advent Calendar and letting people laugh and pretend they are not looking at me while I sing at the top of my lungs in the car... I am still keeping the windows closed... but who knows maybe tomorrow I will open them and let Santa Claus come to town... 

Con amor,

Paola