Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 7

 If you're new to the Foodie community and don't have many ideas on where to start, then might I suggest this edible Advent calendar from the Tilz Collection? In it, you receive 24 different spices and blends to craft an array of culinary delights from countries such as Turkey, Vietnam and Pakistan.

Unfortunately you don't get a recipe card or booklet giving you ideas on how to use your daily gift. But the tins that the spices and herbs come in as reusable as well as labeled. For the retail price on Amazon of $45.99, this is an affordable way to start a spice rack for your kitchen.

When I decided to get serious about learning how to cook 25 years ago, I didn't know where to start. Mostly because at that time, I didn't know what I liked and disliked. Now a professional chef, I've got a repertoire that I feel pretty confident in. But man how I wish I had one of these when I was first starting out. I would have had a blast.

If you do decide that this is the Advent calendar for you for next year or you want to get this as a gift for someone else, websites such as Epicurious and the Food Network homepage will help you figure out how to use these ingredients in any skill level recipe from beginners to advanced.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: The Graphic Novel (Family Comic Friday)

The holiday classic is presented in graphic novel form for the first time ever in this 2020 graphic novel from 2020.

I'm kinda familiar with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet. I've attempted to watch it a couple of times. But by about the time the Nutcracker shows up, I would get bored and go to something else. What I didn't know was that The Nutcracker wasn't originally a ballet. It was a novel written in Germany and later adapted into English by Alexandre Dumas. This graphic novel takes its inspiration from the original German text by E.T.A. Hoffman.

On a snowy Christmas morning,  a young girl named Marie discovers a wooden Nutcracker underneath her Christmas tree. Nobody seems to know how it got there. But that doesn't matter to Marie. She's completely enamored with it.

Later that night as Marie plays with the Nutcracker, a mouse in Royal garb attacks. The Nutcracker comes to life and beats back the Mouse King. However, the war is far from over. During the skirmish, Marie injures her arm, which becomes infected and she's afflicted with a terrible fever. As she recovers, an old family friend regales Marie and her brother, Fitz with a story of a faraway kingdom besieged by mice. 

As the story unfolds, Marie begins to suspect that there's a hint of truth behind the fairy tale. Nightly, the Mouse King torments her with threats against the Nutcracker. Final conflict is looming. Can Marie break an antique curse and save not only the Nutcracker but her own family from the threat of the kingdom of mice?

Written and illustrated by North Carolina native Natalie Andrewson, this was a delightful holiday tale that started off kinda weird. I don't blame Andrewson for that. I think it's the fault of E.T.A. Hoffman. Plus whatever prior knowledge I had of the ballet was probably tampering with how the story unfolded for me. For years I always thought that the weird old family friend with an eye patch, Herr Drosselmeyer, was in love with Marie and thought it was kinda creepy. Man, did I get that part of the ballet wrong...

Andrewson's art was wonderful. I was saddened to learn that some of her childhood art teachers didn't encourage her more cartoonish style. As a culinary teacher, I try to teach my students the basics. But I then try to encourage their creativity with the dishes they practice to thrive past the set guidelines of their recipes. I'm glad Andrewson didn't give up on her personal style. This book would have been severely lacking without that  attention to detail that I just loved. I also marveled at how traditional 1800s German Yule time she made everything look. 

This adaptation is recommended for readers aged 6-10 years old. I think 6 might be a bit too young. 7 too. This is a very wordy book. So unless there's an older trusted adult helping, this might seem like a mighty task for a first grader to read on their own. 

Parents have been bringing younger children to performances of The Nutcracker for generations. However, with the graphic novel, there's several scenes of war and violence. The Nutcracker and Marie get bloodied. A lot of mice die as do a couple of toy soldiers. Plus Marie and her brother Fitz are pretty disrespectful to their parents and they tease elderly Drosselmeyer for his ugly appearance. Christmas stories are filled with horrible people learning the true meaning of Christmas. So parents and guardians: take that into account when presenting this to the young reader in your life 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 6

Today's featured Advent is from a brand that intrigues me as well as one that I have to resist spending my money on. Actually, it's not just one brand. It's literally dozens of brands in extremely small form and I want them so bad...

Toy company Zuru has been selling a line of collectible tchotchkes called Mini Brands for several years now. They produce mystery packs of microscopic representations of product franchises such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Crayola, Kellogg's, Kodak, Reebok and MasterChef- all in the same kits! For a fan of crossovers, Mini Brands is the ultimate joiner of products and franchises never in a million years would I have thought possible. 

Last year one of my students gave me a blind box grab bag. I got a tiny, WORKING, View Master, a game of Life and a couple of Star Wars toys. I ended up making of them into magnets. (The View Master was too big and clunky.) They're treasures little keepsakes in my office at work.

With the Mini Brands Advent Calendar, there's 24 mystery collectibles to unearth. Unfortunately, the element of surprise is missing here because a image of each item is partially behind the corresponding day on the Advent. For example on Day 5, your supposed to get a miniature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figure, in package. You just don't know which character you will get. Despite that obstructed view, I'm disappointed that the sense of wonder has been removed from this Advent calendar. Maybe the images are giant fake outs to throw off the user of this countdown to Christmas. But I doubt it.

Sadly, the one brand I don't think we'll see is Warner Bros. properties. I bet Disney has put the kibosh on any sort of pairing with the gang from Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo and the DC Universe. Big Bullies!!! Speaking of DC, let's take a look at my Batman Advent prize for today...

Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 5

Today's Advent calendar is a novel concept. It's the My First Advent Calendar from Step2. Designed to look like a snow covered house, this plastic Advent has 25 plastic bins. Fairly large in size, these bins can be filled with surprises teaching children about the progression of time as well as building the anticipation and excitement of the coming of Christmas. 

There's an element of magic to this Advent because you don't have to pre-fill all 25 bins. In fact, what you do is fill one bin a day and let the kids play with the house and the prizes from the previous day. Then the next morning, the kids come downstairs and open up the corresponding day's bin to find a new surprise. You could say that Santa or one of his helpers or even the mega popular Elf on a Shelf was behind the filling of the Advent bin.

I know this would have been something my mom would have bought for me or my sister. Instead of having to wrap 25 days worth of presents for us to open each day, all she would have had to do would be to fill the bin. Though I don't think my mom would have had as much fun with this and she would've gone ahead and wrapped everything... with way too much tape!

21st Century Santa Stories #1

I meant to read this book last year when it came out. But for some reason I didn't get to purchase it until after the holiday. Maybe it was a shipping delay. But for some reason, I was late to the party for this one-shot anthology from American Mythology. 

There are 4 stories in this book. The first story ponders what would happen to Santa if Christmas was cancelled. Now, normally, you'd think that St. Nick would have an early vacation. But the twist on this story is that Santa only gets paid if there's a holiday. So without his annual stipend, Kris Kringle is forced to make ends meet until next year's holiday season. 

Then a bunch of homemade ornaments meet the newest decoration on the tree, a cute little puppy. But when an accident causes Santa's milk and cookies to be ruined, the baubles panic thinking that they've ruined Christmas.

Then a young boy is taught to pray to Saint Nicholas for protection over his father who's at sea on a merchant vessel. Unknown to the child, dad's praying too because his ship has just sunk and he's about to plunge into the bring deep.

Lastly, a pair of brothers, and one sleepy sister, use modern technology to try and capture Santa Claus.

This issue ends with a couple of interactive one-pagers for kids. I particularly liked the form letter to Santa. That was kinda funny. An unexpected addition was a glimpse at all of American Mythology's Three Stooges books over the years. I greatly appreciated it as I saw that there's a couple of holiday themed specials that I don't have yet. (I'll need to update my wish list.)

Overall, a very good book. The prayers to Santa story was a little weird. But then again, I don't live in a predominantly Catholic nation where intercession with Saint Nicholas is common. So I learned something there. But I also experienced some heartache inside this book.

In the opening tale, there was a single panel that just broke my heart. In need of cash, Santa has to sell his reindeer. The look on Donner's face just killed me. He looks so loving and proud at Santa, who's refusing to sell one of his team for no less than $500. I just couldn't tell if Donner had no idea that someone was about to buy him or if the reindeer was hopeful that for such a large sum of money, Donner isn't going anywhere. The whole swirl of mixed emotions and uncertainty over the outcome of that scene just made me so sad and I just can't shake its effect on me.

The main cover by Roy Allen Martinez is just so wonderful. It should rank up there as one of the best holiday covers of all time. However, I don't think that's going happen with this being an Indy book that flew under a lot of comic book lovers radar.

I wouldn't mind a second volume. Just don't play with my heartstrings when it comes to Santa's reindeer.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 4

Today's feature Advent is rather intriguing. In fact, it's marketed how I think all Advent calendars should be advertised. 

The Star Trek Borg Advent calendar promises 24 days of holiday themed collectibles and accessories. But just what those items are, I couldn't tell you. That's because in every listing I have seen for this Advent calendar, the promotional pictures don't show you any of the goodies! And I say hurray for that!

Ads that show you everything you get in the assortment just ruins the Advent surprise for me. Double for the Advents that shows the entire contents on the back of the box. I like that the Borg Advent is done up as a massive black cube, just like the ships that house the Borg on various Star Trek franchises. Efficiently packaged, you have to pull one of 4 sleeves out of the Borg ship to find the correct day in order to receive your Star Trek themed prize. 

I really wish more companies would advertise their Advent calendar like manufacturer Eaglemoss has done. I'm okay with the packaging and the seller post showing an example of one item that awaits inside the box. Two tops. But to show everything laid out like the spoils of war is just too much of a party pooper for me and it puts me off buying them as much as I want them! I almost want to pay the $85 MSRP to find out what's inside. I said 'almost!'

It's taken every bit of resolve to not cheat and look up what lies in store with my Batman Advent calendar. Speaking of which, I wonder what I got today...

Krampus! #5

The final issue of this series wasn't supposed to be this way. Writer Brian Joines had intentions for this 2013 5-issue miniseries to be an ongoing series. Issue #5 was supposed to end the opening story arc. The real villain behind the theft of Saint Nicholas's remains would have been revealed and the next story arc would have Krampus going after them. Some new Santas would be introduced. A new holiday would be added to the mix. 

However, sales after issue #1 began to slump. For a series about Christmas to drag on into February and March, the fan base just fizzled out. Things just end with the big reveal. There was faith that a one-shot special would be forthcoming in the 2014 holiday season. However, jump ahead 10 years and we're no closer to a resolution of that characters original plans or what Joines had in store for Krampus. 

These days, we see publishers issuing seasonal miniseries on a weekly basis. Last year, DC Comics released the Batman/ Santa Claus: Silent Knight miniseries over a series of 4 weeks. They're looking to capture lightning in a bottle with a 2024 sequel. Then you've got Image who hasn't seemed to learn it's lesson issuing the Christmas themed serial killer horror title The Deviant well into the Spring and early summer of this year. I've been told that sales really dropped off after January as fans felt like the series was taking forever to complete.

I thought that Krampus! #5 ended well. But that setup leaves me wanting a completion. It's possible that Image might green light a conclusion. But after a decade of silence, I really doubt it will ever come to pass. You at least get a conclusion to the main story line. But if you want to have a definite conclusion that doesn't leave you in a perpetual wait for an ending that will very well never come, skip the last 3 pages of this story and head directly to the letters page 

Worth Consuming!

Rating 7 out of 10 stars.