Latest / Family Prayer Podcast / 19. Gingerbread House Day - Friday Morning

Transcript

19. Gingerbread House Day - Friday Morning · Family Prayer Podcast

• 0:00
  Good morning, Grace Harbor.
• 0:02
  It's Dan, and it's Friday.
• 0:06
  We've made it to the end of another week. And to another mini holiday.
• 0:10
  But first, let's check out some of our listener mail.
• 0:14
  I asked you earlier this week to send in any Gratituesday stories you might have.
• 0:18
  So let's listen in.
• 0:20
  Hi, my name is Hazel.
• 0:22
  I am seven years old.
• 0:24
  I live in Lake Mary, and what I am grateful for
• 0:28
  is my big brother Henry. And how I can show
• 0:31
  it is by making him a card.
• 0:35
  Hi, my name is Ben.
• 0:36
  I'm nine years old, and I live in Orlando, Florida.
• 0:39
  And someone that I'm thankful for is my best friend Laith.
• 0:43
  And something that I'm going to do to let him know
• 0:48
  is I'm going to just say thank
• 0:52
  you for being my friend.
• 0:55
  Hi, my name is Kaylor and I'm five
• 0:58
  and I'm from Chesterfield, Virginia.
• 1:01
  And Ju-Ju is my grandma and
• 1:05
  her name is Judine.
• 1:07
  And I send her art and mail because I'm grateful for her.
• 1:14
  And I love her so much.
• 1:18
  I'm William,
• 1:19
  I'm a 12 year old boy, and I'm in seventh grade,
• 1:22
  and I live in Orlando, Florida.
• 1:25
  One person
• 1:25
  I'm grateful for is my mom and dad. Mom, because she does all the little things
• 1:30
  and shows that she really cares about me.
• 1:34
  And she's always been there.
• 1:35
  And one way I can do something good for her is by getting her a bouquet of flowers.
• 1:40
  And for dad, man...
• 1:42
  He’s the bulk of the family, keeping us together.
• 1:45
  I mean, I really appreciate that.
• 1:47
  One thing I can do is listening really well to him
• 1:51
  and just showing him that I'm really appreciative of what he does.
• 1:55
  Thank you.
• 1:57
  Amazing.
• 1:58
  I loved hearing all of your Gratituesday stories,
• 2:01
  and I hope you had fun giving it a try for the first time.
• 2:04
  Now, don't worry if you weren't able to send something in this week,
• 2:08
  or if you did send something in and you didn't hear it today.
• 2:12
  I want to make listener mail a regular part of the podcast because
• 2:15
  you're an important part of our community, and I love hearing your voices.
• 2:20
  You can continue to send in things you're grateful for, ways you celebrated
• 2:24
  Gratituesday or anything else the podcast made you think of.
• 2:29
  Have your adult check the show notes for details.
• 2:32
  Okay, so I said that today is a mini holiday.
• 2:36
  I also teased way back at the end of last week
• 2:39
  that we would be talking more about cookies.
• 2:42
  You've had to wait all week, but it's finally here. Today,
• 2:46
  December 12th is Gingerbread House Day.
• 2:50
  That's right.
• 2:51
  A whole day dedicated to celebrating the tasty
• 2:55
  and at times tricky art of building houses out of gingerbread.
• 3:00
  Do you like gingerbread?
• 3:02
  It definitely has a unique flavor.
• 3:04
  It's even a little bit spicy.
• 3:07
  But what's great about gingerbread houses
• 3:10
  is that you don't have to like gingerbread to enjoy making them,
• 3:13
  and you usually decorate them with all sorts of icing and candy,
• 3:17
  so there's something tasty to munch on anyway.
• 3:20
  I learned this week
• 3:21
  that people have been using the combination of sweeteners like honey
• 3:25
  or sugar alongside ginger to flavor
• 3:28
  food, drinks, and treats since ancient times.
• 3:32
  The gingerbread we would recognize was first brought to Europe in the year
• 3:36
  992 by Saint Gregory of Nicopolis.
• 3:41
  And the record for the largest gingerbread house ever made was set
• 3:45
  in Texas in 2013, with a gingerbread house nearly as big as a tennis court.
• 3:51
  To celebrate, I got a small kit from the store,
• 3:54
  and we'll be making a gingerbread house together as a family.
• 3:58
  We'll see how that goes.
• 4:00
  The last time we tried to make one, it fell over and everyone seemed
• 4:04
  more interested in eating the candy than in using it as a decoration.
• 4:09
  But you know what? That's okay.
• 4:11
  We aren't entering it into any contests, and we aren't trying to set any records.
• 4:16
  Would it be cool if it came out looking really nice?
• 4:19
  Sure.
• 4:20
  But the whole point
• 4:21
  is not to make something that could grace the cover of a magazine.
• 4:25
  The point is to have fun building together as a family.
• 4:29
  That's really what this week has been all about.
• 4:32
  This week's advent theme has been peace,
• 4:35
  and we said that peace was all about making good things happen.
• 4:40
  Is it possible to make good things happen by yourself?
• 4:43
  Of course! You can make a card for someone,
• 4:46
  paint a picture, surprise
• 4:47
  a family member with a tasty snack, or just give someone a hug.
• 4:52
  But sometimes the good that the world needs
• 4:55
  is bigger than any one person or one family can handle by themselves.
• 5:01
  That doesn't mean we give up,
• 5:03
  but it may mean that we need to make our harbors bigger.
• 5:08
  You can look for other people and other families that also care
• 5:12
  about your community and become peacemakers together.
• 5:16
  Your adult can help you discover organizations in your community
• 5:19
  that are already doing this work, and you can team up with them.
• 5:23
  Let's dream big together for a minute.
• 5:26
  What's something good that you'd love to see happen?
• 5:30
  Not just in your family, but in your community?
• 5:34
  Maybe it's a block party in your neighborhood or at your apartment complex.
• 5:38
  Or maybe it's a gingerbread house festival in your town next Christmas.
• 5:43
  Or maybe it's making sure that every student in your school
• 5:47
  has food to eat at home.
• 5:49
  Especially during times when school is out, like Christmas break and the summer.
• 5:53
  Take a moment to share your peacemaking idea with each other.
• 5:57
  If you need more time, you can pause the podcast
• 6:00
  and I'll be right here when you get back.
• 6:34
  Oh man,
• 6:35
  I feel like there were some good ideas popping up out there.
• 6:38
  That would be another cool thing you could send in for
• 6:41
  listener mail:
• 6:42
  The good stuff you want to see happen in your community.
• 6:45
  Okay, it's time to go and have an amazing Friday.
• 6:48
  But before we do, let's pray together.
• 6:51
  As always, if you want to, you can close your eyes and fold your hands.
• 6:55
  But I know I'm buzzing from all this talk of gingerbread houses
• 6:59
  and good things happening,
• 7:00
  so if this needs to be a wiggle prayer day,
• 7:03
  no worries.
• 7:06
  Dear God, we thank you for this week.
• 7:09
  We thank you that peace can mean being still and quiet,
• 7:12
  but it can also mean being super excited about making good things happen.
• 7:17
  As we head to school or work or errands one last time this week,
• 7:22
  help us to see where we can team up with others to build something good together.
• 7:28
  Amen.
• 7:29
  All right, Grace Harbor, have a great Friday,
• 7:31
  and we'll close out the week together tonight.