Footle and Grok

I’m eating a piece of fudge, surrounded by Christmas decorations, listening to Christmas music, and I can’t think of anything to write. This happens every once and a while, but I didn’t think I’d have no ideas a week before Christmas. I’ve written about mistletoe, snow, Santa, and other Christmas icons in past years, and I don’t feel like repeating myself today.

So today, you get nothing.

I believe in doing nothing every once in a while. We do something all the time, so doing nothing can be a treat.

Try doing nothing today, even for just a few minutes. It can be a nice gift to yourself before the holiday fun ramps up, and I provide facts about lots of Christmas icons that I haven’t covered in the past.

“People say ‘Nothing is impossible’, but I do nothing every day.”

Winnie the Pooh

We call him Santa Claus, St. Nick, or Saint Nicholas, but everyone’s favorite jolly old elf has different names all around the world. Santa is one of his more recent names. 

Below is a list from Fact Monster of countries and the name they have for Santa Claus. Each of these figures has its own legend. Combined, they create the modern Christmas icon we all know.

If you want to read a book about the history of Santa Claus, I recommend, The Autobiography of Santa Claus: A Revised Edition of the Christmas Classic by Jeff Guinn. This book has twenty-four chapters, so you can read one each day in December.

It has been raining hard for the last couple of days. I love the rain. If it is going to be cloudy, it should rain. I like the rain even though I still have to do my run every day (my streak is not quite done.) 

I went looking for a lovely quote about rain, and most of them were negative. For a lot of quotable people, rain is a metaphor for the bad things in your life that you just have to live with.

That’s just silly.

Rain is as necessary as the sun. The lovely view out my window wouldn’t be as green if we didn’t have rain in the northwest. It’s not good or bad.

So in honor of the rain, I want to share one of my favorite poems by A. A. Milne. He wrote the Winnie the Pooh stories and two books of poetry. This lovely rain poem is from Now We Are Six.

Waiting At The Window

We decided to give fudge as gifts this year because 2020 needed some sweetness added to it. I enjoy making fudge almost as much as I enjoy eating it and giving it away.

There is something calming about stirring the sugar mixture while listening to Christmas music. Hubby’s job is to add the chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and vanilla as I continue to stir. We make a good team.

One of the people receiving fudge requested nuts in his batch. I never add nuts because I don’t like nuts in my fudge, but I had some crushed walnuts on hand, so I decided to add them.

The results were not what I expected.

My fudge is usually rich and smooth. After adding the nuts, the mixture cooled into a more crumbly mass. I could still cut it, but it wasn’t as neat. It still tastes great if you like nuts, but I was surprised at the changes.

Here is my fudge recipe. It’s from an old Kraft marshmallow creme jar (the new recipe calls for baking chocolate instead of chocolate chips.) This makes a foolproof fudge that everyone loves. Just remember to keep stirring.

Fantasy Fudge

• Prep: 10 min. plus cooling
• Cook: 15 min.
• Makes: 3 lbs. or 40 servings, 2 squares each

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter or margarine
• 1 small can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup)
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 jar Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Crème
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

• Heat sugar, butter, and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3 quart heavy saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly.
• Boil on medium heat until candy thermometer reaches 234° F (or for five minutes), stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat.
• Stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth.
• Stir in marshmallow crème and vanilla until color is a uniform dark brown.
• Spread immediately into a foil-lined 9 inch square pan. Cool at room temperature at least 4 hours; cut into 81 (1 inch) squares. Store in airtight container.

After giving blood last month, I received a discount for an American Red Cross class. When I lived in Oregon, our county Farm Bureau sponsored a First Aid/CPR class, and I took one every couple of years. I haven’t refreshed my first aid knowledge since moving to Washington in 2011, so I researched the available Red Cross classes.

Thanks to COVID-19, the American Red Cross first aid/CPR class is online only. If you need to meet OSHA requirements, online won’t cut it, but I was doing it for general knowledge, so I used my discount and signed up.

I’ve taken a lot of online classes in 2020, and this was one of the best. I had to do missions to learn the first aid/CPR material, which consisted of interactive videos. They reminded me of a computer choose-your-own-adventure game. If I chose the right options in the right order, I moved onto the next mission. The lessons repeated the basics, so I got many chances to practice what I learned. 

This style of learning works well for me. I understand the material better because I’m not just reading a book; I have to work through the situation. If I don’t feel that I handled the problem well, I can do it again and again. Also, I could complete a few missions at a time, so I didn’t feel overwhelmed. 

If you haven’t taken a first aid/CPR class for a while (or ever), I recommend the American Red Cross options. I wish more of the online classes I took were this interactive. I feel I actually learned something.

Happy National Lemon Cupcake Day.

I don’t know why this is a holiday, especially in December with everything gingerbread, pumpkin spice, and chocolate. Perhaps that is why we need a day for lemon cupcakes. It is a pallet cleanser for the coming holidays.

I love lemon desserts. I had a wonderfully tart lemon bar at my Mom’s house. They were so good that I brought the extras home. Linda’s recipe is awesome.

Except at Christmastime, when I enjoy the gingerbread loaf, my go-to treat at Starbucks is the lemon loaf. It has the best icing.

Enjoy something tart today. There will be plenty of time for sweet stuff.

Today is Monday, a perfect day to share an awesome video about the odds of an asteroid wiping out humanity. With all this worry about COVID-19, I wanted to give you anther disaster to ponder. You’re welcome.

Veritasium is one of my favorite science You-Tube channels, and I think this video is one of the best. It’s only twenty minutes long, less time than you spend on social media. If you don’t watch, you won’t know if you should be concerned about humans facing the same fate as dinosaurs.

Click here to watch the video. You can worry about the pandemic later.

It has been a year since my cats reviewed a book on their Facebook page, Chapters and Cats. I think I reached expert-level procrastination with this project, especially since I read over 100 books in 2020 and had ample chances to recommend some of them.

However, after reading the newest Walt Longmire mystery, Next to Last Stand by Craig Johnson, I knew it was time to once again let my kitties have their say. Hopefully, they will recommend many more books in 2021. After all, books and cats go together like peanut butter and jelly.

I found this joke in my Facebook feed while I was at my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. I loved it so much that I told it to my entire family. Every time I shared it, I laughed long and loud. Everyone said I was funnier than the joke, but it is still my new favorite. Enjoy!!!

I have always loved Christmas carols. When I was a kid, I sang along with our records, caroled the neighborhood with friends, and sang in the church choir. However, I never thought about when these carols were written. To me, they were just old songs.

I have since learned that while “Joy to the World” and “Away in a Manger” were old to me, they were rather young in the history of Christmas music.

Celebrating Christmas on December 25 was first recognized by the Church in 375 A.D. Back then, hymns were often sung without music. Below is a list of original Christmas music. Most of it was not originally written in English, and all these titles were new to me.

• “Jesus Refulsit Omnium” (“Jesus, Light of All the Nations”) – 365 A.D.
• “Corde natus ex Parentis” (“Of the Father’s Love Begotten“) – 4th century (Click the link to listen to it. It is awesome!)
• “The Friendly Beasts” – 12th century
• “Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris” (“Between the Ox and the Grey Donkey”) –  13th century or 16th century
• In dulci jublio” (“In Sweet Rejoicing“) – 1328
• “Resonet in laudibus” (“Let the voice of praise resound”) – 1360

Wow, some of those are really old. If you want to hear what they sounded like, click on the links (“Of the Father’s Love Begotten” is super good.)

Let’s look at some of the Christmas carols we sing today (click here to see a much longer list.) By comparison, they aren’t old at all. I guess I was wrong when I was a kid.

• “Joy to the World” – 1719
• “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” – 1739
• “The First Noel” – 1823
• “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” – 1849
• “Jingle Bells” – 1857
• “We Three Kings of Orient Are” – 1863
• “Go Tell It On the Mountain” – 1865
• “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – 1867
• “Away in a Manger” – 1882
• “Carol of the Bells” – 1904
• “Christmas Song” – 1945
• “Little Drummer Boy” – 1957
• “Do You Hear What I Hear?” – 1962