Advent Reflection: A Big Batch of Ordinary

“A quart of peanut butter?  Are you kidding me?  Are you making peanut butter balls for the whole county?”

Twila’s words come smiling over the telephone lines (or is it waves now?  Who can keep track of these things?)

This morning my hands are still soft from the butter and peanut butter mixing workout they got yesterday.  That part of my Advent observance is done – check.

The satisfaction of the job done and done well is large; the soft hands a bonus.

But how on earth does this relate to Advent and Christmas?  I try to stretch some meaning out of the making of things, but nothing comes.  I try to link chocolate (a great love of mine) to Jesus’ coming, but come up empty.

All I know is that this is part of tradition for me – so deeply ingrained that it’s almost genetic, this gathering of the ingredients and rendering them into the form of edible art.

So maybe the Advent connection is in the creativity, the making of something delightful out of a batch of the ordinary.  Isn’t that what God does with us?  – making something delightful out of a very big batch of ordinary?

2 Clerk Helpers, 1 New Friend & ½ a Bar of Paraffin Wax

The other day I went to town (a big deal where I live) and while there did some shopping for the necessary ingredients for my Christmas baking.

Rendering up Christmas goodies is part of my personal Advent observance – my own waiting and preparing looks an awful lot like cooking and baking.

In years past, I’ve done these rituals in the company of others – family and friends – but now, I am alone in my kitchen – or so it would seem to the outside observer.

But I know I stand in the company of the saints who have gone before (some of whom might be surprised to hear themselves described as saints, but saints to me, nevertheless).  As I made the first batch of fudge the other night (Fudge recipe), it was as if I could hear Dad and his sister Bonnie squabbling over my shoulder about the age-old fight: to beat or not to beat, while Grandma stood behind them just smiling on her brood.  At one point, I actually turned around, half expecting to see them.

But I digress.

In the grocery store the other day, I was looking for the paraffin.  A woman was perusing the pastas with the help of one of the clerks, a young man clearly not knowing what she sought.  Being me, when I heard her asking about whole wheat pasta, I stepped in and pointed the boxes out to her.  We spoke briefly about diabetes (my mom’s and hers).  Then I asked the hapless clerk where I might find the paraffin.

He looked confused.

“Wax,” I offered, trying to be helpful.  At the same time, the woman declared “peanut butter balls”, to which I nodded my yes.

Still confused, he went off for help, guided by the woman’s offer that the paraffin would be with the canning supplies.

He came back with another clerk who had two large boxes of jars in her hands.

I smiled at the confusion, bid the woman good luck and went off with the second clerk to canning supplies.  Sure enough there was the paraffin.

Later at the check-out line, the young man was bagging my groceries and was delighted to see that I had indeed found the paraffin.

Today the supplies are all out and sometime in the evening I will make hundreds of peanut butter balls to the delight of my family past and present.  I know Bonnie and Grandma will be there.  I’m not too sure about Dad – he loved to eat them but never bothered to help in the making.

And from my recipe book with the handwritten note, “verified with Bonnie 12/91" (which I can now do by memory, but always have the recipe on hand just in case), I will proceed.

PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

1 quart peanut butter 2 large packages of chocolate chips
1 pound butter (softened) 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 pounds confectioner’s sugar ½ bar paraffin
3 teaspoons vanilla

Mix together chocolate chips, oil and paraffin and heat in double boiler while mixing remaining ingredients in large bowl.

Mix softened butter and peanut butter.  Stir in sugar (although I’ve never been able to stir this.  I just put my clean hands into the mix and do it the old-fashioned way).  Add vanilla and mix it in.

Make into small balls (about the size of walnuts).  Dip the balls into the melted chocolate (I use a fork rather than a spoon so the excess chocolate will run off easier)  mixture and put on wax paper to cool.

Enjoy.