Me to Taido in October:

Oh my goodness. Direct flights to Venice from Stuttgart are less than $20 right now! What do you think? Christmas in Italy. We could surprise the kids!

Taido: Let’s do it. 

(My husband is a man of few words.)

It’s funny how many of our trips have begun with an exchange like this actually. We have entirely too many flight alerts set up on various apps and websites.

But also I see cheap tickets all the time that I don’t snap up. And sometimes when I do buy them, I get worried when I start trying to fill in all the other details that are not so cheap (transfers from the airport, places to stay and eat).

But this time around, I have to say that even though it cost almost the same amount to get from the Venice airport to Venice as it did for us to fly to Venice from Germany, I was very happy with this decision.

Because Venice at any time of the year is pretty great.

But Venice at Christmas was very special.

Also it was the worth the price of admission to see our kids faces when we said:

Pack a backpack because we are heading to Venice tomorrow. 

We arrived in Venice on Christmas Eve (just two days after Cole came to Germany!) and went straight to the market to get groceries in case things were closed on Christmas Day.

But Venice is way open for business on Christmas. Restaurants, shops and markets were all ready for us on Christmas morning.

We went to mass at St Mark’s on Christmas morning,

and then spent the rest of the day walking the streets, crossing canals and eating our way through the city. Pizza, pasta, gelato.

In fact, we spent our whole week walking and eating. Walking and eating.

We even went on a tour for walking and eating. (More to come about this!)

Every corner of Venice is beautiful, and I think we managed to see every corner before the week was over.

In fact, I was surprised to find (because I have a device that records these sorts of things) that in spite of walking many, many trails and towns in 2016, that the last week of the year, and one of the coldest, I walked more miles than in any other week of the year.

And that’s the thing about walking in Venice,

You can always take one more step.

Turn one more corner.

Cross one more canal.

Stand on one more little bridge.

You just don’t get tired of it.

Or I guess I should say: I don’t get tired of it.

But just as the kids were starting to maybe get tired of it…

SURPRISE again! More friends!!!

Our friends Tanja, Chipper and Bailey stole a few days away from their family Christmas to walk the streets of Venice with us!

Two families in Venice = Double the fun.

Gelato at all hours!

Top of St. Mark’s!

Every bridge + canal = photo op!

Because so much beauty.

Such a fun group!

And also we rode gondolas together!

Which is cheesy and expensive, but every bit as wonderful as you think it will be.

We discovered a pastry shop that I went back to again the next day because everything in it was delightful.

We made dinner together and laughed and squeezed into little street bars and it was so good.

We LOVED our time in Venice.

It was my third time to wander through Venice, and over the trips I have compiled a good little list of favorites for the next time I spy $20 tickets.

I’m so thankful we did it!

We flew home (over the Alps!) on New Year’s Eve to cold and snowy Germany and spent the next week being cozy and watching movies and going for snowy hikes. So much treasured time.

The post Snapshots of Venice, Italy appeared first on Alison Chino.

I have to say that being in Germany for the Christmas season has been a delight to the senses. We did not travel far and wide to get to Christmas markets this year, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ones in Tübingen and the surrounding area.

What I loved about attending the local markets was watching communities gather around these events. Children playing music. Families shopping together. Friends standing around outdoor fires. Everyone drinking Glühwein.

Christmas Markets definitely bring tourism to Germany, and they are worth the trip, but more importantly to me is the sense of local folks doing something they have done for a long, long time: gathering in the streets to welcome the Advent season.

The fact that Christmas Markets are a beautiful gathering for families and friends during a season of peace and joy makes the fact that someone would use that gathering as an opportunity to display hate and evil so abhorrent. In the face of that darkness this week (a man drove a truck into the Berlin Christmas Market as an act of terror), I thought it would be appropriate to share my collection of photos from our visits to Christmas Markets.

Always light in the midst of darkness.

Merry Christmas from Germany friends!

The post Snapshots of Christmas Markets in Germany appeared first on Alison Chino.

A Letter to My Friend Sarabeth about Advent Traditions and Celebrating Christmas in 2016

November 23, 2016

Dear Sarabeth,

When you texted me yesterday to ask me for ideas about Advent, I was in the middle of crying through the end of Ta-Nehisi Coate’s book Between the World and Me. 

I was sitting and wishing that the world could be different from the one that he describes in his book. The whole book is a letter to his fifteen year-old son, a son who is growing into a man. You and I are currently parenting boys who are becoming men. I have written many letters to my sons, especially to my oldest since he left home. I published one of those letters yesterday on my website. But today I am struck only by the fact that I won’t ever have to write words to my sons like those that Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote to his. Words like these:

 -from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Today my son is driving to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. He is still new to driving and every time he makes a long drive, I get a little anxious. I hope he will make it home safely. I pray that he will not get lost or get into an accident. I pray that he won’t text or look at his phone while he’s driving.

It never crosses my mind to pray that if he is pulled over by the police for speeding or for some other infraction, that he won’t be shot and killed.

I don’t pray that the eyes of police officers will not fall on his face and wonder if he is up to some kind of trouble.

Yesterday I saw in the news that it was the anniversary of the deaths of JFK and C. S. Lewis. It was also the anniversary of the shooting of twelve-year old Tamir Rice by Cleveland Police two years ago.

And I wonder why we remember some deaths but not others. Why do we value some people over others when Jesus holds every life as precious?

And this is where I was sitting when you texted and asked me about Advent.

And so I stopped, I did a quick search on my blog, and got lost for a minute thinking of all the many ways I have celebrated Advent with my kids in years past.

This year when we moved (again) and I got rid of everything (again), I did not keep any Christmas decorations. I look at the pictures and the books and the gatherings from years past and I feel so far away from those seasons.

How do we celebrate when people are in prison and enslaved and in refugee camps and stuck in the middle of war zones? How do we celebrate when in our own country, the divides between people seem wider than ever?

And I wonder even if I make a list, and try hold a light up in the darkness, if it will only be an unheard whisper amidst the throngs of Black Friday madness as we all let the hurting fade into our frenzy.

So I closed my computer and went to bed. And then today I thought long and hard about the coming Christmas season. I thought that even if I am too late now with my list for you, that I still need to make it. I need to make it for myself. Because I still want to be a part of the people who are climbing to the light.

Somewhere beyond the barricade there is a world I want to see.

I am still waiting for Jesus, and while I’m waiting, I am looking hard for him in the faces of every person I pass as I walk through my new home town.

All over the streets here in Tübingen, vendors are selling advent wreaths made of evergreen. Even my German teacher said this week that everyone in Germany will be preparing for Advent. I bought a wreath on my way home today.

My first steps toward Christmas, and towards hope.

So this Sunday, I will join in with people all over the world in marking the first Sunday of Advent. I will light a candle in the dark. And I will try to let it shine.

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Alison

PS Here’s my list:

WAYS TO CELEBRATE ADVENT

(especially with little ones!)

Read Christmas stories!

Here are some of our favorites:

The Last Straw Fredrick H. Thury

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey Susan Wojciechowski

Christmas Tapestry Patricia Polacco

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Barbara Robinson

An Orange for Frankie Patricia Polacco

Welcome Comfort Patricia Polacco

Christmas Day in the Morning Pearl S. Buck

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dr. Suess

The Legend of the Christmas Stocking Rick Osborne

Silent Night (just the words of the hymn) illustrated by Susan Jeffers

I Spy Christmas Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo 

Angela and the Baby Jesus Frank McCourt

The All I’ll Ever Want for Christmas Doll Patricia K. McKissack

Great Joy Kate DiCamillo

Read Christmas books/devotions.

Again, my favorites:

Unwrapping the Gift by Ann Voskamp

She also has a beautiful children’s version, and you can download ornaments to color in and hang if you do the Jesse Tree from her website. You can also buy a gorgeous, wood-carved advent wreath made by Ann’s kids who use the money they make to support kids they have adopted through Compassion International.

Preparing for Christmas by Richard Rohr

Watch for the Light is a collection from multiple authors

WinterSong and A Widening Light are books of Christmas poetry that I love

Christmastide: Prayers for Advent by Phyllis Tickle

Our friend Jerusalem Greer has a section on celebrating Advent in her great book for families, A Homemade Year

Other EASY, practically free ways to celebrate:

Make salt dough ornaments.

Make gingerbread men.

Make other treats to share!

Take treats to your neighbors.

Make a nativity out of these prints and toilet paper rolls.

Listen to Christmas Music! Of course. For kids, Slugs and Bugs Christmas is our fav. But I like all kinds of Christmas music.

Join a choir!

Make a Jesse Tree.

Volunteer to be a Salvation Army Bell Ringer.

Read the Christmas story from the Bible every day in December. My mama did this with us when we were little, and by the time Christmas came we could say the whole story. Just like Linus.

Use a pocket advent calendar or 24 brown bags or 24 envelopes to make your December plans. I’ve done this for years and it helps me to be intentional about doing one small thing every day to mark the season. Some of the ideas require a little more planning, but others are simple or easy. I also put in any big events that are already on the calendar, like our church Christmas service or any party that we are all invited to, because then there’s no need to plan something else for that day. If I fill the calendar up the week before December 1st, I can do whatever planning I need to do for the bigger events. And the events/activities have evolved as the kids have gotten older. For example, I used to put “Read Christmas stories and make hot cocoa” but last year, instead I wrote “Visit our friends’ little kids at bedtime and read them Christmas stories.” A few more ideas: Go ice skating, Watch a Christmas movie, Make cookies, Go for a winter walk in the woods, Drive around and look at Christmas lights, Walk around with coffee and cinnamon rolls and hand them out to whoever is on the streets, Sing Christmas songs, Make Christmas cards, Play board games, Make a silly video for a faraway family member or friend and send it to them, Paint Christmas trees and hang them on the wall.

Ok that’s all I can think of! Now I need to find 24 envelopes and get to work. XO

The post A Letter about Celebrating Christmas appeared first on Alison Chino.

It’s been exactly a month since Christmas. The holiday season already seems like a long time ago, but it was such a special time that I wanted to dedicate a post to its memory. I don’t have photos of all the bits I want to remember, but this collection of random snapshots captures a lot of what I loved about this year’s sweet season.

Preparations for a girls’ movie night to watch my favorite movie of the year, Far From The Madding Crowd. Lots of laughs.

Simon and his glee over all things Star Wars. (also, his shirt with “homemade thumbholes” which my friend Diane did for him because he wanted one with thumbholes like his brothers)

Daily Christmas readings and coloring Jesse Tree ornaments.

Running a gingerbread man table at a ladies’ craft night.

A winter hike around Crathes Castle with friends.

Kids being silly.

Hot mulled cider.

Baking with my kiddos.

The kitchen covered in treats.

The Christmas tree at Kings College. (and gray December days)

Sharing our favorite Christmas stories with some of our favorite people.

Our two favorites are The Last Straw and The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

I made a point of finding some wee ones to read to this year because I do miss having little ones around at Christmas.

Taking my four loves to be around these four little munchkins makes me super nostalgic for those crazy toddler days.

Lemons and lots of lemon zest. For lemon cakes and apple pies.

Making lots of batches of winter punch that could be served to the kids or added to alcohol for adults.

Going to the beach to see the sunset on the shortest day of the year.

Fires in the backyard on cold nights (with marshmallows and whisky).

Taido and his mama having lots of time together this year. (Before she arrived for Christmas, they went on a Danube River Cruise!)

Taido in the kitchen. Doing his thing.

Christmas Morning at church with Harriet and Koko (Taido’s mom and sis).

Jigsaw puzzles on the table.

Taking Koko (my sister-in-law) to Stonehaven for the day.

Seeing a rainbow on the way to the castle.

Sitting in one of my favorite pubs after a misty walk to the castle and back. Warming up with pints + Cullen Skink (a Scottish seafood chowder) and talking for hours and hours.

Also, here’s Koko sneaking over the fence to retrieve her dropped glove.

The white foam on the North Sea looking like snow.

Days and days and days of rain and flooding.

Out for a walk all by myself in the rain, to see how high the river was and to breathe deep after Cole’s departure to America and all our visitors had come and gone.

I’m smiling at you and wishing you a happy 2016, friends.

The post Snapshots of Christmas in Scotland appeared first on Alison Chino.

I know you can make gingerbread at any time of the year, but for some reason I only make them at Christmas.

Christmas and Gingerbread Men just go together, like Easter + Bunnies. Ice Cream + Summer.

I love the way gingerbread makes your house smell like Christmastime.

I’ve used Martha Stewart’s gingerbread recipe for about twenty years now, and I have yet to taste one I like better. Also, it rolls out well and holds its shape when using cookie cutters, so that’s helpful.

This year, I had to adjust the recipe a bit to make it with British ingredients. Treacle instead of molasses. Some folks say the two are interchangeable, but after experimenting a bit, I’m not entirely sure. I ended up with a combination of dark treacle and golden syrup to get the taste that I usually get from molasses back home.

Also, while making these little fellas, I may have whined about eleventy-million times about the fact that Tiny Oven can only bake three at a time, which basically means it took me the better part of four days to bake a double batch of this recipe.

Gingerbread Men 

(makes about 24 4-inch little fellas)

Ingredients:

400 grams plain flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

85 grams unsalted butter at room temp.

120 grams dark brown sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

85 grams black treacle

170 grams golden syrup

Royal Icing

250 grams icing sugar

10 grams powdered egg whites

50ml warm water

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix flour, ginger, nutmeg, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl beat butter and brown sugar until light. Beat in egg, black treacle and golden syrup. Slowly add flour mixture until just combined. Flatten dough into two circles, wrap each in parchment paper and chill for for an hour. Roll out each disk on a floured surface and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Re-roll scraps to make more gingerbread men.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on desired softness at 180 degrees C or Gas Mark 4. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

Icing: Whisk together water and egg white powder. Add cream of tartar and icing sugar. Transfer icing to a pastry bag with a small tip or a plastic tip with a small hole snipped in the corner. Decorate cookies as desired.

The post Gingerbread Men appeared first on Alison Chino.

Hello friends!

We’re excited to be wrapping up 2014 in Arkansas.

Since I’ll be visiting with friends and family, the blog will be a bit quiet for the rest of December, but I wanted to take a minute to say thank you so much for reading and walking with me this year!

I hope you have a beautiful Christmas season and I look forward to sharing adventures with you again in 2015.

Happy Christmas with SO MUCH LOVE from all the Chinos!

Thanks so much to Whitney Loibner for our gorgeous family photo, taken this past summer in Switzerland. 

The post Happy Christmas appeared first on Alison Chino.

12 Homemade Treats for the Holidays!

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have heard me engaging in battle with my current nemesis, Tiny Oven. I have admitted Tiny Oven is suffering mostly in my eyes from an unfair comparison to Dream Oven, my industrial wonder from Christmas Past.

One of the many facets of Tiny Oven’s personality, apart from a propensity to burn everything, is that he is not a multi-tasker. He just does not like to take on multiple projects at one time. Or multiple baking trays.

If you are satisfied with cooking one small tray of cookies at a time, Tiny Oven will do the job. He is happy to perfectly brown 6-8 cookies. But don’t even think about stacking trays of cookies to try to cook 18 at one time. Tiny Oven and I get along better if I just try to forget that Dream Oven would happily bake 48 cookies at a time to perfection. And we’re not even going to talk about cupcakes. Dear goodness, it’s like that girl who used to buy 25-pound bags of flour and sugar to make 800 cupcakes at Christmas is from another lifetime.

If I tried to bake at that scale today, I would also have to contend with Tiny Fridge and Tiny Freezer.

Even though I will not be churning out the sweet treats like I would from my Arkansas kitchen, I am determined to make a few Christmas goodies. In very small batches.

However, if you are fortunate enough to have a regular sized oven or dear goodness, a chest deep freeze, you can spend a day baking and filling it up to be ready for the holiday season!

I LOVE to freeze cookies at every stage. I freeze dough in balls to be baked and served warm. I freeze sugar cookies cut out and ready to be baked, or already baked and ready to be iced. There is nothing that makes you feel on top of the holidays like having several different kinds of cookies frozen and ready to pull out to put together a platter for a party or a box for a friend!

So if you are planning a baking day soon, here are my:

12 Favorite Holiday Recipes for Baking and Gifting!

Cellophane Bags + Curling Ribbon + Baked Goods = Christmas Presents Sorted!

Candied Nuts

Snowball Cookies

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Gingerbread (bake in small tin loaf pans)

Almond Biscotti

Pumpkin Bread

Raspberry Rugelach

Molasses Spice Cookies

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Dipped Pretzels (easy to adjust this recipe for any holiday!)

Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Pecan Cookies

Happy Baking Friends!

PS Anytime you bake one of my recipes, I would LOVE to see a picture, so tag me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!

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The post Homemade Treats = Perfect Gifts appeared first on Alison Chino.

Last weekend, Taido and I went downtown by ourselves and we walked up and down Union Street and did just a tiny bit of shopping. Mostly we just enjoyed looking at the lights that are making Aberdeen’s city center shine so bright! LOVE! Then we went to a pub, where I had an ale that was infused with heather (so yummy) and we met some super kind Scottish folk who told us all about Hogmanay (New Year’s) in Stonehaven. (We’re going!) Also, they tried to guess where we were from because of our accents and they couldn’t! Their three tries were: Israel, South Africa and Canada. Funny, right? Southern Drawl + Dreadlocks really throws people off I suppose.

Here are a few more fun highlights in my thankful list this week having to do with this season:

My Instagram feed blown up with twinkle lights and Christmas Markets.

New decorations and lights appearing in windows on our (dark) walks home from school.

Silver spray paint and tea lights

A family moving back to the US this month gifting us their Christmas tree + lights. (Making a seven year old in our house VERY happy!)

Listening to my Daddy’s sermon for the beginning of advent, a season of waiting.

Attending the classical Carol Service at St. Machar’s Cathedral. Because a choir carrying candles and singing acapella in a 1500 year old church is pretty much the best there is. I was blown away.

Related: The verses of It Came Upon A Midnight Clear are full of the best kind of joy and light and hope and I have never even noticed! Maybe it was that the tune was different (like this) that I paid closer attention to the words.  My all time favorite lines of a Christmas hymn are from Hark The Herald Angels Sing:

Mild he lays his glory by

Born that man no more may die.

born to raise the sons of earth,

born to give them second birth.

I cannot sing those words without crying, but now I have to add as a close second these words from It Came Upon A Midnight Clear:

And you, beneath life’s crushing load

whose forms are bending low,

who toil along the climbing way

with painful steps and slow,

look now! for glad and golden hours

come swiftly on the wing;

oh, rest beside the weary road,

and hear the angels sing.

If you have the chance to attend a carol service this Christmas, I highly recommend it!

Here are a few other Christmas-y links for your wintery weekend.

On making do with what you have this Christmas.

On reading Christmas. (This is the irrational season. When love blooms bright and wild.)

Something about this little gesture of courtesy touched me.

I’ve been saving toilet tissue rolls for a couple of weeks, so Simon and I are all set to make this nativity this weekend.

You have probably already seen this one, but SUCH a precious idea!

In the gift guides times infinity category, here are some I’ve liked: Ethical gifts for dudes. Epic List For Travelers, esp Photographers. Best Kitchen/Foodie gift guide

The Chino House Gift Guide is pretty minimalist. It goes like this:

Give books. Or travel.

Give this book to a family. This one to an adult. This one to your BFF. This one to your Star Wars geek. This one to a creative.  This one to a middle schooler. This one to an elementary school child. And these for toddlers.

Also, if my house is any indication, then I’m pretty sure all teenagers want headphones. Just saying.

I hope you sing a carol out at the top of your lungs this weekend, and that the singing lifts life’s crushing load just a little bit!

Happy Christmas!

The post In The Pipeline: Christmas Links appeared first on Alison Chino.

I made these ornaments as a child with my mother. I think we made 56 snowmen one year.

I have been homebound with sick ones this week so instead of attending Christmas school parties we stayed in our pajamas for four days while sorting legos and making ornaments.

And watching The Lord of the Rings.

I’ve never noticed before how many parts of The Lord of the Rings remind me of my Grandmother.

It’s been a productive week around here. (sarcasm)

There is a shocking lack of baked goods and wrapped presents, but no shortage of silver spray painted ornaments.

I’m pretty sure that in some small way this is bringing balance to the universe.

In other news, my sister opened a restaurant this week. Now there’s something you can’t do in your pajamas.

You should go and visit her at Blackberry Market if you live anywhere near Glen Ellyn, Illinois.  And if you aren’t staying home in your pajamas.

However, if you find you are staying in your pjs sometime soon, you can probably make these salt dough ornaments without leaving the house.

Salt Dough Ornaments

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil

Shape, mold or roll out dough. (bring on the cookie cutters)

Bake on cookie sheets for 1 hour (or until hard) at 325 degrees F.

Allow to cool and paint as desired.

Enjoy!

The post Salt Dough Ornaments appeared first on Alison Chino.

Here are my Advent Readings for this year.

My six year old, Simon, is counting down the days until December 1st.

He remembers fondly that even though there is currently no evidence of the coming season in our house, we usually start Christmas on December 1st with the opening of advent calendars.

I have an activity advent calendar that I fill up with plans for December.  And I have another one that sits on the table with daily readings.  However, Simon is more concerned with the advent calendar that comes filled with tiny chocolates that he gets to eat before breakfast for the entire month of December.

His daily reminders that DECEMBER IS COMING are also serving to creak open the part of my heart that is hoping for Advent.  If I am still for a minute, I can admit that I am also longing for a coming.

Before I can pull out the Christmas boxes, I am looking to a familiar place to answer the cries of my heart.  To words.

If a word is helpful to you in preparing for Christmas, here are a few tried and true places I am going.

Preparing for Christmas by Richard Rohr

This one is new this year.  It is a tiny collection of daily readings for December that I can carry in my pocket or purse.  I came to love Richard Rohr when a friend gave me Falling Upward, so even though I have not yet read this selection, I feel certain it will become a treasured addition to my Christmas.

Watch for the Light

This collection had been a favorite for a few years now.  Filled with 40 essays and poems by all different writers, these rich reflections are a feast for the soul.

Good News of Great Joy

This might be the easiest addition to your Advent collection.  It is a free download of daily readings from Desiring God Ministries.  I’ve already read through the first few days and they are beautiful.  Now on my phone and Kindle, a word for today could not be more easily accessible.

WinterSong  by Luci Shaw and Madeleine L’Engle and A Widening Light by Luci Shaw

These are Christmas poetry collections I found a few years ago through another blogger.  I love to gather them up and sit with a cup of mulled spiced wine under the Christmas tree lights and read.  (This image is almost the motivation I need to get my Christmas tree up.)

Christmastide: Prayers for Advent through Epiphany from Phyllis Tickle

I go in and out of seasons of praying these Divine Hours.  When I come back to them, it is like coming home.

What the Land Already Knows by Phyllis Tickle

My friend Jerusalem introduced me years ago to these winter stories.  They are now both a yearly favorite and a reminder to me that I want to write down my own family stories according to the seasons.

Going back through my Christmas books is just what I needed to start to long for Christmas.

I found this quote in the second reading from Good News of Great Joy about God’s word, the words I most need at Christmas and always:

“Is not my word like fire, says the Lord!”

(Jeremiah 23:29)

Gather ‘round that fire this Advent season.

It is warm.

It is sparkling with colors of grace.

It is healing for a thousand hurts.

It is light for dark nights.

Do you have a favorite book of Christmas readings?  Please share it in the comments!

The post Advent Readings appeared first on Alison Chino.