Until you come home
I’m waiting for Christmas with you

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I cannot wait for this week! Lorene is writing her last school exam (ever!) and we are packing the car to head south… vacation time. After a year of restrictions, lockdowns,closed borders and not seeing loved ones, we are taking the dreaded Covid test and driving down to Cape Town for our summer and Christmas holiday.

I can already feel my mother’s hug and see my dad’s tears. I can already hear the bubbling excitement of cousins reunited, the crashing of waves outside my bedroom window…I can already feel the salty sea breeze on my face and the white sand under my toes. I am so ready!

Memories are made when gathered around the table.

The rusks are baked, the Rocky roads are made and the Christmas menu is planned. I am so excited to set my Christmas table and have my family gathered together on Christmas Eve. To set the stage for creating new memories, celebrating new and old traditions and honoring our Lord and Savior. I am looking forward to lighting the fairy lights and candles around the house and seeing the shadows dance on my children’s faces. To listen to Christmas carols ring out this special season. Because we are home…we belong.

I belong because I am loved….Yes! I have a Reason to celebrate life. He is my Reason. He is my Immanuel… despite these unprecedented. uncertain and unknown times… my God with us, now here in 2020.

So with much excitement and thankfulness, I am ready. Ready for Christmas and ready to create a home away from home this summer Ready to spoil my loved ones with a celebratory environment and an easy and delicious festive menu. Roast Lamb with some beautiful sides and then of course dessert.

My sides will be quick salads full of colour and flavor. It is summer and the days are long and warm, so what is better than a succulent roast lamb with this beautiful Cranberry and Spinach Salad. All the preparations are done beforehand and you toss the homemade dressing just before serving. I assure you it will be a great accompaniment to your Christmas table. A salad that balances sweet and sour with a good crunch from almonds and sesame seeds. Beautiful, easy and delicious.

Recipe page 2.

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What if, today, we were grateful for everything?

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Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away. I can imagine all my American friends are ready to slow down and take the time to gather with family and friends and reminisce on the months passed.

Yes, 2020 was a tough year. A year that challenged us as a family in more ways than one. But it was also a year of reflection, refocus, realigning priorities and rekindling family relationships. A year where we grew stronger together and where we were reminded to live attentively and thankfully.

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 107:1

So take the time this Thanksgiving to STOP. LOOK. GO. Make a list of everything you can be thankful for…a Gratitude list. (Numerous studies have shown that the acknowledgement of gratitude is positively correlated to happiness.) Be intentional about thanking God and others for the blessings that come our way (daily!).

Eucharisteo-thanksgiving-always precedes the miracle.

Ann Voskamp

I know you are tired of lists, but I ensure you this gratitude list will be a list that puts a smile on your face. And then there are these super easy, gorgeous and delicious Cranberry Pecan Mini Goat Cheese Balls! Holiday entertaining has never been easier! Perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s! (Can be made in advance!) It will surely bring a smile to all your loved ones gathered together during this festive time.

One just has to love cheese balls. Sweet, savory…I love mixing and matching flavors and coming up with new and exciting combinations that will please friends and family.

This cheese ball is perfect as a party appetizer while you prepare the rest of your holiday feast! It’s completely low maintenance. Just fix it up, pull it from the fridge when you’re ready, and set it out with a bunch of yummy crackers for people to serve themselves.

For the festive season, the winning combination of cream cheese, goat cheese, white cheddar cheese, dried cranberries, pecans, and chives come together for a pleasantly savory appetizer that is just as pretty as it is delicious.

Serve the mini cheese balls with a pretzel stick in them, as it makes them so easy to pick up and it looks cute too! I have covered the cheese balls in dried cranberries, chives, and pecans. I love how festive this looks! If you have an extra couple minutes, tie chives into bows around the pretzel sticks. Totally optional, but it gives such a Christmas feel to it!

I assure you your friends and family will go nuts for this make-ahead appetizer. And it will become a to-go-to recipe in your kitchen and a favorite on your gratitude ( and festive menu) list. Recipe page 2

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Thanksgiving is a Word of Gratitude.

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We are midway into Lorene’s final exams. Days, schedules and shopping lists are full and time is running through our fingers. So many to-do lists and so little time. But today I am taking a deep breath and taking the time to give thanks. To wake up to the wonder of the small every day things… the wonder of life.

I love the American Thanksgiving celebrations. It is not a holiday we celebrate (nationally) here in Namibia but it has become a reminder to us as a family to take time to be thankful. To highlight a day on our calendar to say ‘Thank you’. Even in a year with so many challenges, disappointments and cancellations, there is so much to be thankful for!

Deep joy is only really found at the table of thanksgiving.

Ann Voskamp

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies . And since the time of Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving had been celebrated on the last Thursday of the month. What a rich history and beautiful reminder to live a thankful and grateful life. We love sharing in our American and Canadian friends’ celebration of this day.

As a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863

The centerpiece of a contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States is a large family meal, generally centered on a large roasted turkey. It is served with a variety of side dishes which vary from traditional dishes such as mashed potatoes, stuffing, Brussel sprouts, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie. This Namibian girl will be sharing with you a delicious, easy cranberry relish that you can serve with your show stopper turkey. Turkey is not a meat you will find in our Namibian stores or on our dinner tables ( even during the festive season), so I will be serving this beautiful cranberry relish with a baked brie cheese and some crackers. However you want to serve it, I assure you this colorful cranberry accompaniment will appeal to all joined around your laden Thanksgiving table. Recipe page 2

So, with a week to go, may this Thanksgiving be more than just a day where we eat too much and strategize our Black Friday sales plan of attack. May the next week of preparing a bountiful meal with family and friends, creating a day of festive celebrations,give you enough reason to stop, breath and be thankful. Remember, giving thanks isn’t a practice reserved for a single day each year. It has deeper spiritual significance and benefits that ring true long after the leftovers are consumed. Even in a year like 2020, we have reason to say ‘ Thank You’.

For food in a world where many walk in hunger, faith in a world where many walk in fear, friends in a world where many walk alone. We give you thanks, Oh Lord. Amen.

—From Seven Days in Utopia, directed by Matthew Dean Russell
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Life is a Book with Many Chapters

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It is Monday morning and our seniors started with their final exams today. Yes, in Namibia our school year runs with the calendar year and our kids finish their year in December to start a new school grade in January. With Covid -19 and the pandemic that also reached us here in the southwest of Africa, there was a time when our seniors were to only write their finals in 2021.

But thankfully, with prayerful faith, meetings with top officials and hours of negotiating, our seniors could walk into the school hall today to write their Cambridge final exams and close this chapter named ‘school’. I stand in awe at how quickly this crazy but delightful season of school runs, lunch boxes and sport days went by for me as the mother of a bright beautiful young girl..

Our lives are all about chapters and seasons. 2020 may be a year for many of us where we wish we could skip some chapters, skip to THE END. As we flip through the pages of our life, and especially this year, we live through an array of emotions, actions, and circumstances. We had our ups and downs. We laughed,we cried,we won,we lost,we faltered and we grew stronger…in ourselves and in our faith.

Yes, every day adds a new page to our overall journey. Every day offers a new beginning. A chance to act, to live attentively. To start over. To try again to make something beautiful of this journey called life.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.”

George Bernard Shaw

The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season.” It also tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time.” I love these scriptures, as it encourages me that seasons change and that God is working in my life and the lives of my too-quick-growing children. I can keep the faith and live expectantly! For God is the author of my (and their) life.

So in the next few weeks, we as a family are in the chapter or season called FINALS. Long days of studying, encouraging, late nights, cookies and milk, supporting, praying, biting nails, coffee on the porch, tears, giggles, hugs and chocolate. Lots of chocolate! We have already finished a batch of the most delectable Rocky Roads… and this is day one!

Whoever came up with the idea for Rocky Roads was a genius. It requires no baking, contains lots of yummy ingredients and no one expects it to look picture perfect! It is a family favorite, especially during the exams. This is a no bake cookie recipe that doesn’t require the oven, so it’s super quick and easy to make. Child‘s play! Perfect to keep a batch on hand to serve friends as they pop over and spread some holiday cheer.

The problem will be keeping your family away from it long enough to actually serve to guests! I know my pan has already been devoured and they are waiting for a refill! And we are not even close to vacation time or Christmas! Maybe it is because of exam nerves? ( Mum included!).

While Rocky Roads are the perfect easy treat to put out any time and during any season of year, it also makes for an amazing homemade holiday treat! A great homemade gift for all the teachers,coaches, friends and family over this festive season.

I love to add cranberries and flaked almonds or pistachios for a Christmas touch and then box it with a big Christmas bow! Use your imagination and add dried fruits, candied cherries, Turkish delight, Maltezer chocolate balls, white chocolate, hazelnuts, raisins, choc chips or anything you may have on hand in your pantry. This is your story, your own take on Rocky Roads.

So whatever season you find yourself in, or whatever chapter of your life story you are writing, or if you just want to reach THE END of 2020, there should be a special mention of these fudgy, chewy, and crunchy textured Rocky Road cookies. You will find this a scrumptious, indulgent and easy-to-make Rocky Road recipe. Perfect for the holiday season ( and exam chapter) and so super easy and simple to make. It will bring a huge happy smile to your face and give you the spring in your step you need for the next few weeks. Recipe on page 2.

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Nothing brings people together like good food.

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I really love to cook and bake, plan and prepare for special celebrations, holidays and high days but, there is something about weekday dinners. We all have those nights when we don’t feel like cooking anything complicated. There’s also times when we don’t feel inspired, or just simply did not put in any time or energy into planning a meal.

As a mother, we are continuously running around trying to balance work, laundry, car pools, homework and healthy eating. And all the while trying to stay fit, fabulous and fun! Hard work for sure!

Family dinners are non negotiable in our house, even if it is something simple like scrambled eggs on toast. On the ranch in the Kalahari or in Windhoek during school runs, we make it a priority to sit down as a family for dinner around the kitchen table and share our day and life together. Time to look one another in the eye, be vulnerable and be together, all around a plate of food.

A family that eats together, stays together.

But it is not that easy! Evening work commitments, late meetings, sport and school activities all compete for evening-time attention, not to speak about television, social media and smart phones!

So when life is busy and hunger knocks at the door…Open, sesame! Everyone loves a warm and classic casserole like Chicken Divan, or as it’s more commonly known, Chicken Broccoli Casserole.This is an easy family-friendly weekday favorite.When you need dinner ready under the hour, this Chicken Broccoli Casserole with the creamiest sauce will save the day. Say hello to your family’s new favorite!

I absolutely love this easy version of Easy Chicken Broccoli Casserole. Perfectly-cooked broccoli, tender and juicy chicken on the bone, with an incredibly creamy, garlicky sauce – what more could you ask for? Many recipes call for condensed soups to get that smooth and creamy sauce, but this one uses just cream, wholegrain mustard and honey– so it’s gluten-free, and healthier all around! Yes, no processed ingredients in sight! Awesome, right?

So set the table, light the candles even on this Thursday evening. Your Chicken Broccoli Casserole will be ready in the hour and you can prepare for a hearty, easy and relaxed meal with your family. For the best memories are made around the table. Recipe on page 2.

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