In this edition:

1. Personal update: Creating a new family tradition
2. Monthly Maxim: Indulge every now and then
3. Feature article: Christmas indulgences with a clear conscience
4. Recipes: African Christmas dishes to indulge in

1. Personal update: Creating a new family tradition

Staying home hope to save some money but more importantly we hope to start a couple of our own family traditions for Christmas. With our household having grown to a family of four now is the ideal time to get that going.

We also had a friends Christmas on the 2nd of January. This means that we get also get to spend Christmas with friends who will all be going to their families for the festive season. Read about the lovely Christmas pudding I made for the Friends Christmas below.

Do you have any Christmas traditions that are special and unique to your family? We would like to hear from you, even if it is just a short note. A lot of information on the internet about Christmas deal with American customs. What about us in Africa? Share your traditions with me and we will create a Christmas in Africa page to celebrate our uniqueness.

Click here and just type your story in the comment block: Contact us with your Christmas tradition

2. Monthly Maxim: Indulge every now and then

Indulging now and then is excellent for two reasons:

1. In the beginning it is a motivator to keep on choosing healthy food.
2. You soon discover that you have not really been missing out much.

3. Feature article: Christmas indulgences with a clear conscience

Do you dream of a Christmas where little children once again learn to believe in Santa? Or where an angel come to earth and earn his wings by helping a little boy who has lost his dad? Or where the father of a similar boy regains his son’s trust by overcoming all odds to get him the present he longs for, but dad forgot to buy because he was working until very late in spite of his wife’s urgent appeals to remember his son? Do you look up into the sky wishing to see a reindeer and hear bells that might belong to a sleigh or at least see a shooting star?

Like any ritual happening, the function of Christmas is to help us Westerners re-examine our values. Everything about it is designed to make us ask the big question: do we still live by what we say we believe? Most often than not the answer is ‘no’ because we take rather than give, fight rather than make peace, complain, rather than express gratitude, and the list goes on. This is why Christmas stories centre on the Scrooge who learns to give, the disillusioned who learns to believe, And the couple who had drifted apart who learn to love again. These tales are designed to make us look at ourselves and return to the values our society claims to believe in. What are the mechanisms of the stories and of the rituals around Christmas that try to bring about this re-examination of values and what stands in the way of its being successful?

Joseph Campbell and others have told us that stories an rituals alike are created around a series of events that bring about a values change. Look how Christmas follows the same pattern.

You have to

1. Leave your everyday existence behind: Christmas is a holiday, so you are required not to go to work like every other day. You are even encouraged to go away and visit family, or receive them in your home
2. Enter into a sacred world of wonder and adventure: The tree, the lights, the music everything works together to create a wondrous magical world of adventure
3. Prove your worth: You must prove yourself worthy by being good so that Santa will give you a present
4. Face your nemesis as embodiment of your ego and overcome him/her by reaffirming your values: Instead of wanting and getting which is the language of the ego, you must learn to give and love
5. Seize the reward: In return you receive gifts from others
6. Sacrifice something dear to you: Reflect on your life and make commitments to give up things that give pleasure, but are ultimately bad for you – this step is reinforced by the coming of the new year soon after Christmas
7. Finally, return to your ordinary life with new commitment, and remedies for its problems: Return to your life with some new solutions and some changes to your own attitude and actions

So why is it that this seemingly effective system does not work? Why do you return to your life and need another Christmas 12 months later? One week into the new year someone asks “how was your holliday?’ and you say “which holiday?”. You are already back to the same drab dreary existence as the one before Christmas. Or you get to April and you are still tired, still fat, still in debt, still unhappy in spite of those new years resolutions?

Here is my take on it:

We stop the process at step number 5. Instead of learning to give up things that bring short term enjoyment, yet is detrimental to ourselves and our relationships in the long run, we give priority to them even overindulge in them. Like ancient tribes we work ourselves into a frenzy or trans state buying, eating and drinking ourselves into a stupor, until we convulse with over indulgence (not spirit powers overtaking our senses). Even our beautiful efforts to warm the hearts of orphans with old toys, or brighten the eyes of hospital patients with carol singing only soothes our sensibilities and make us feel like we are indeed catching the spirit. We follow the beckoning of the media which makes it easy for us to create that wonder world of stars, lights, music, gifts, Santa and angels, sweet treats and glazed hams. And then? When last did you feel like you sacrificed something over Christmas? Most likely you will now tell me about the bank balance, the extra weight, the in-laws you had to put up with. Those are not sacrifices. They are consequences of your choices. Sacrifice is what Christ did on the cross. It is not the little baby Jesus in the crib, but the bleeding adult on the hill.

If you have had painful experiences over Christmas, or any other time in your life, you will know what I am talking about. If you have worked through the pain to the other side, you will also know that such experiences change you forever. You may also have discovered that recovering from them happens as you learn to give it up, to forgive, to willingly let it go. This is sacrifice.

Perhaps you only know the pain and not the forgiveness. Then this may be the Christmas when you willingly accept what has happened to you and let it go. That is both forgiveness and sacrifice. If you are tempted to try and ignore Christmas, wishing it would pass without impact, fight it. The build up and preparations are important to create the opportunity for you to reflect on your experience and give it up in acceptance. You do not need the crazyness and frenzy. You need only the few things that will make it happen for you. On the other side you will discover peace, joy and goodwill like never before.

If you are lucky enough not to be in this position, then perhaps you need to accept that if you were not tired and depressed because of your bad diet, or broke and stingy because of your bad debt, you may have something remarkable to accomplish and give to the world. You can’t if you have to work off debt or work up the nerve all year. Perhaps you are so overwhelmed with work and life in general that you don’t have the time or energy to think about being healthy, or focussing on your own ideals and dreams so that you can truly serve and give to the world.

I am not wishing for you this Christmas to lose something special in your life to force you to think about these things. I am urging you to give up something willingly that might hurt. Something that would require you to be an adult, not a kid running after pretty things. Keep your eyes open for the thing that will be right for you. Start by preparing for Christmas by choosing to do only those things that will make it special and sacred for you and your close ones. Be selective and thoughtful. Let go of the unnecessary paraphernalia so you can find what is truly meaningful and then indulge in it!. Too much of this kind of good thing is fantastic! It is possible that you may have to say "no" to your little crying princess who wants that dolly that poohs and pukes, or say 'no' to that cake with the tempting frosting that is really just going to cause you to be hungry again in an hour looking for the next treat. You will not be left with an empty feeling of pointlessness if you focus on what really matters. If you do indulge in the wrong thing and you feel terrible, or disappointed stop. Don’t do it again tomorrow! Be reminded of its pointlessness so that the things that give your life purpose can stand out in contrast. Take hold of these again, even if it means you have to say you are sorry – sacrifice, remember.

This Christmas, be the adult you are and teach your children the true meaning of Christmas by coming out the other end a changed person and returning to work in January with priorities rearranged. How incredible would it be if you did not have to work yourself out of Christmas debt, out of extra packed on kilograms, out of the Christmas hangover! What if you actually had the energy, the money and the courage to take your partner on that cruise, build that tennis court and start training, allow your eldest to join that theatre group? Or accept that promotion and relocate to another city? Dare to do it differently this year. Discover the things that are truly worth indulging in. They will open a doorway to a kind of giving and serving that blesses you and everyone who comes in contact with you.

4. Recipes: African Christmas dishes to indulge in

For starters: green and red crunch

Make a platter using every fresh product you can think of that come in both red and green versions: apples, sweet peppers, lettuce and bazil leaves, olives, add cucumber and tomatoes, sprinkle with feta to show off the springonion and chopped peppadue garnish. Its fun, its beautiful and its yum!

For in between: fruit and nut squares

Put one cup of raisins and half a cup of raw almonds in the foodprocessor with a little honey (2-3 teaspoons) and pulse until coarsely chopped. Sprinkle your ice cube tray with coconut so that the bottom is well covered. Press the fruit and nut mix tightly down into the squares and bang out onto the counter (I put a dishcloth underneath to muffle the noise somewhat). Easy and delicious with no sucrose added.

The grand finale: Christmas ice cream

Here in Africa we have no use for hot steaming Christmas puddings and if you want to try something other than trifle, try this recipe. Not only is it a good alternative, but a whole lot healthier. I combined my own ideas with a recipe I found in Mary-Ann Shearer’s The Natural Way Recipe Book 1. Thanks to her I have been converted to ice cream as a major healthy treat alternative.

In the food processor put:

• 3 or 4 bananas
• 1 cup fruit mix (no bleached sultanas if you can)
• ½ cup dried cranberries/ peaches /other fruit of choice (no sulpher dioxide please)
• ½ cup macadamia nuts or almonds
• 1 tsp freshly grated orange rind
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• ½ - 1 cup of honey
• 2 cups of soya milk

Wizz until you are happy with the size of the bits. I like them coarsely chopped, you may like them finer.

Freeze for 2 or 3 hours (depending on how fast your freezer works) blend (do not chop unless you want the bits smaller) freeze again. Repeat until you have blended at least thrice. Freeze for the last time. This pudding is outrageously yummy. If you are not dairy sensitive or watching your weight can substitute some or all of the soya milk with cream, but add it after you have chopped the other ingredients. I dipped the round bowl containing the ice cream into hot water turned it over on a plate and poured cream over the top and sprinkled with dried fruit and nuts to finish it off. Beware it is soft and creamy and melts quickly, but so delicious it will be gone before you need to return it to the freezer.

Greetings,

Petro Janse van Vuuren

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Feed and Eat Digest is published by FeedandEat.com Copyright © 2007

Petro Janse van Vuuren
Feed and Eat
94 Birkett Road, Scottsville
3201, South Africa