Christmas countdown: Gingerbread cookie making

Hello Gentle readers

As preparation for Xmas Lena has been making traditional Gingerbread cookies.

We made a video of the process and it will be posted on Youtube on our channel Thomsons World. As ever we try to be entertaining and educational so please if you enjoy the video please dont forget to Like, Comment and Subscribe.

The first batch

As long time readers will know I regularly post recipes on the blog and I would love to know if you have tried them yourselves.

You can comment here or on the Youtube channel.

Ingredients (quatities are approximate)

400g brown sugar
330ml water
180g butter
4-5g mixed spices (cloves, nutmeg, cinammon, white pepper, ginger)
4g salt
4g baking soda
2 egg yolks
600-700g flour.

If you want to know the method for making the gingerbread dough watch the video.

The dough goes in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Roll it and cut the shapes and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 9-15 minutes.

Enjoy.

The video is coming soon.

Harry Potter!!!

#gingerbread #christmascountdown #recipes #thomsonsworld

Today in History: 7th December

Hey Gentle Readers.

Lets jingle the bells of history as we kiss under the mistletoe of time.

43BC: Roman poet, philosopher and politician Cicero is assasinated.

1930: The first ever TV commercial, for a fur company, is shown in the United States.

1941: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. The US join WW2 afterwards.

1972: The most published photo of all time 'The Blue Marble' is taken by the crew of Apollo 17.

1988: Armenia is hit by a massive earthquake. Around 50,000 people are killed.

#todayinhistory #december7 #cicero #tvcommercials #pearlharbour #thebluemarble #armenianearthquake

Wednesday Thought: Kindness

As it Xmas season Gentle Reader. I wanted to get you thinking about what it means to be Kind.

Christmas is a time to be kind to all.

Merry Christmas and remember...Be kind to each other.

#kindness #wednesdaythought

Top 10: Christmas Adjacent Movies

Hello Gentle Readers. Its Christmas time and soon our TV screens, movie theatres and Netflix etc will be teaming with cute kids, men in elf costumes and more fake snow than you could ever need.

Yes...Christmas movies...most of them suck!

So here for you is my top 10 Christmas adjacent movies.

Christmas Adjacent

Wait a minute....I hear you cry....what are christmas adjacent movies?

Good question. Christmas adjacent movies are films that have a link to the holiday season but the fact its Xmas has no real impact on the plot.

10. Gremlins. Joe Dante directed this family friendly mini monster movie. Its set at Xmas but its not essential to the plot. Cool and funny.

9. Full Metal Jacket. Grim and hard going but the scene where the drill sergent makes them sing Happy Birthday to Jesus is awesome.

8. Toy Story. YOU ARE A TOY!!!

7. Batman Returns. Penguin, Catwoman, Christopher Walken and the Caped Crusader. Jingle Bells.

6. Trading Places. When Ackroyd still had hair and Murphy was funny.

5. Its a Wonderful life. Amazing feel good movie at any time of the year.

4. The Nightmare before Christmas

Tim Burton again. Mr Christmas Adjacent maybe?

3. Lethal Weapon. Jingle Bell Rock

2. Monty Python's Life of Brian. He's not the Messiah...he's a very naughty boy!

1. Die Hard. Yippee ki yay. Could it be anything else?

#christmascountdown #christmasadjacent

Top 10 fun filled facts about....Xmas

Ho Ho Ho gentle readers. Here as part of my Christmas countdown here for you are 10 very strange Christmas facts.

1. The song Jingle Bells was actually written about Thanksgiving.

2. Rudolphs red nose is probably caused by a parasitic infection.


3. A spider web on a christmas tree is considered a symbol of good luck in some countries.

4. In Holland Santa comes from Spain and he has helpers who kidnap bad kids to take back to Spain.

5.  The 2 weeks before Christmas is one of  the 2 worst periods for couples to break up.

6. In Armenia the traditional Christmas eve dinner is Fish with Spinach and Lettuce... yummy.

7. In Japan it is very popular to have KFC at Christmas.

8. The X in Xmas is based on the first letter of the Greek name for Jesus.

9.  Iceland has 13 Santas snd an old lady who kidnaps children.

10. In the United States around 15,000 people have to go to the hospital every year due to Christmas decorating related accidents.

#christmas #funfacts #thomsonsworld

Countdown to Christmas: The Tree

Hey Gentle viewers

As promised here is our YouTube video of us decorating our Christmas Tree. We got it from a great place called Petak here in Yerevan yesterday. We actually got lucky. We wanted a smaller tree but was given a 6 footer for the price of the 5 footer and we got it at a discounted price. The decorations are also all new as we had to leave our old ones and our old tree in China.

Happy viewing and Happy Advent.

#christmascountdown #petak #yerevan #thomsonsworld

Christmas Countdown: December 1st

Welcome Gentle Readers to my Christmas countdown.

Over the next 24 days I am going to post about Christmas and Christmassy stuff.

Its important to me because it is important to my family. We love this time of year and for us  it has been a way to travel and go to places we have never been before.

There will be more Youtube videos and other fun and intetesting stuff so keep coming back for more every day.

#christmascountdown2019