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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2019)
DECEMBER 20, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9 This holiday, remind the adults what it means to spread kindness BY LAUREN MURPHY Of No Adults Allowed Okay kids, gather round, we’re taking a break from our regular scheduled holiday fun to have a serious talk. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. In fact, it’s the adults I’m upset with. This week I was observing adults, trying to understand how to be one, and I was shocked at how they were treating one another. I vividly remember my mother telling me, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” and apparently none of these adults heard the same. Did none of them have mothers who told them to be polite to others? Maybe they grew out of the dirt, like a fl ower, and didn’t have mothers at all. While the image of people-fl owers makes me laugh, I think it’s much more likely that they have forgotten the simple lessons they tried so hard to teach us. Which is why I think we need to remind them. Now I am not telling you to go up to your responsible adults (parents, g ra n d p a re n t s , aunts and uncles, etc.) and tell them they need to wash their mouth out with soap and apologize to their friends. Please don’t do that. What I am suggesting instead, is that we show them through our actions. Families don’t always get along with one another during the holidays. It can be diffi cult to enjoy being around each other. When this happens adults will sometimes argue and say things that are defi nitely not nice. Why do they do that, you ask? They argue for the same reason everyone else does, because they disagree. You’re all very smart, so I’m sure you know by now that disagreeing with someone is okay. And I’m sure you also know that just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean you can’t love them. Armed with this knowledge we can now go out and model kindness for our responsible adults. For example, when your little cousin refuses to admit that Frozen 2 was a zillion times better than the original, or when your uncle tries to make you eat your veggies, or when your parents start to tell the most embarrassing story ever, remember to be understanding– our adults are watching. Maybe your cousin hasn’t seen the second movie yet, maybe vegetables are actually good for you and maybe, just maybe, your parents aren’t trying to embarrass you, they just want to bring a little laughter to the conversation. I don’t want you to think all adults are terrible and rude. Because I am one of them I know that sometimes when one is trying to “adult” the busyness of life overwhelms us. We get spread so thin, our tempers fl are so quickly and often we just forget to think before we speak. Adults ask kids to remind them of a lot of things, stopping at the store after practice, the name of that one song they heard four years ago, maybe it’s possible they need us to remind them to be kind, too. Every Christmas goes better with gingerbread, so make some Gingerbread men. Inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning while I stared at the wall trying to think of something to write. “Make gingerbread men cookies,” said the tiny voice in my head, and who am I to argue with tiny voices? Off to the store I went to gather the needed ingredients for my latest creation– then I headed home to cook up a batch of real journalism. If you want to recreate this recipe you’ll need to arm yourselves with the following: 3 cups of fl our 2 teaspoons of ground ginger 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon of baking soda ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg ¼ teaspoon of salt ¾ cup of butter– softened, not melted ¾ cup of packed brown sugar ½ cup of molasses 1 egg 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract And adult approval and supervision (I know this page says “No Adults Allowed,” but we’ll let it slide just this once) Cue up some music while your adult preheats the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix the fl our, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Put it to the side, we’ll come back for it later. In slightly larger bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the molasses, egg and vanilla and mix it up. Ask your adult to help you mix the fl our mixture in slowly. Wash off a clean place to work, I used parchment paper to keep the dough from sticking to the counters, but sprinkling a little fl our onto the counter should work, too. Use a lightly fl oured rolling pen to roll out the dough. It should be about ¼-inch think; if it’s not perfect that’s okay, I won’t tell. Use a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter to cut the dough into a gingerbread men shape. Then place them on to a baking sheet (I could fi t eight to a pan) Have your adult put them in the oven for 9-10 minutes. Let them cool on the pan for a minute or so and then ask your adult to move them onto cooling racks until their completely cool (pro tip: if the cookie isn’t as cool as you, it’s too hot to decorate.) Now here comes the fun part, decorating. There are tons of creative ways to decorate • The same person who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. His name was Thurl Ravenscroft. • The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn. • In the 1870s, a Belgian village attempted to train a fl eet of 37 offi cial mail cats to deliver letters. Sadly, the feline express never became a thing. NO ADULTS ALLOWED gingerbread men, I tried to keep mine simple but I’d love to see what you come up with. I used white icing, black icing for the eyes, red gel for the mouth and to hold the buttons and white pearls for the buttons. Send news tips and pictures of your fi nished projects to noadults@ keizertimes.com.
