National Immigration Law Center
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‘the greatest nations are defined by how they treat their weakest inhabitants.’
-jorge ramos, global refuge
Dec27
Author Archives: beth
Dec26
yes, you can eat your christmas tree.
How to Eat Your Christmas Tree: Delicious, Innovative Recipes for Cooking with Trees By Julia Georgallis
This cookbook explores Christmas trees and features recipes for cooking with pine, fir and spruce. It encourages reflection around food waste in an age of deforestation and climate crisis, and asks how we might be able to celebrate nature in an alternative way.
Pine needle tea is made from white pine needles chopped, added to boiling water, steeped, and strained. The drink can be enjoyed hot, iced, or blended with other herbal teas, notes registered dietitian nutritionist Kate Spurgin. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reports that the tea is rich in antioxidants, vitamin A, and vitamin C, which can boost immunity and soothe colds.
Tea isn’t the only way to utilize your leftover pine needles. They can also be used to flavor other dishes.
“The way that generally I cook with Christmas trees is to use the needles like an herb, in the same way that you might use rosemary,” said UK baker and cook Julia Georgallis you use the rosemary to flavor a dish but you don’t necessarily eat the rosemary itself.”
Her book includes over 30 recipes that use different parts of the Christmas tree, from drinks to ice cream to “Christmas tree ash”—which is exactly what it sounds like.
“That’s basically when you char the tree in your oven, so you blacken it and then blitz it down into a black powder, and that’s actually really flavorful. It’s very delicious — you just need a tiny bit of it — but it’s quite chef-y,” she explained in a recent interview with Christoper Kimball’s Milk Street.
Part of Georgallis’ motivation in writing the book was conservation. More than 25-30 million Christmas trees are disposed of each year. While the author and chef knows 30 recipes aren’t going to save the world, she hopes her book can “start a conversation. It’s absolutely huge what leaving one year’s worth of Christmas trees globally in the ground could do,” she explained.
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*Disclaimer: I’ve never read the book, so this is not a review, but the title is interesting, an idea I’d never considered. (If you still have room left after all of those Christmas meals, you might want to take a closer look at your tree.)
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‘you ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas.’
i’ve only ever had one.’
-albert einstein
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Source credit: Meredith Kile, Vice
Dec25
santa math.
Santa math – To reach an estimated 238 million homes worldwide in 34 hours, Santa must visit 7 million per hour—116,667 per minute or 1,944 per second. Explore the Christmas science that might make it possible. Or is it magic?
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‘it is the month of cakes and candles, snow and songs, carols and joy, laughter and love, it is December. wishing you a Merry Christmas.’
-author unknown
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source credits:discover, factsite
Dec24
heading off to Christmas Eve.
‘december is a simple wish that brings spectacular moments.’
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art credit Alissa Adams, Reindeer Games, gicllee print on art paper
quote credit: fillingthejars.com
Dec23
wish I was here.
What do you get when you mix young adult nerd romance, suspense, mystery, humor, sci-fi, and action? You get ‘Wish I Was Here’ the first book in author, Ilsa Rey’s series, The Wish Trilogy.
High school is a time when everyone tries to find themselves, but as you follow Ana and Isaac throughout the novel, they quite literally disappear, each in a different way. In this adventure, Ana, who has never had much confidence at all, has to muster all her courage to find a way to save Isaac before it’s too late.
There are many ups and downs along the way, especially when an old flame enters the picture, along with their dysfunctional families, and things get even more complicated. The stakes get higher, there are secrets, hard decisions have to be made, and things get more dangerous. Who can be trusted? What to do next? Will Ana find her confidence and use her wit to outsmart everyone? Can things be solved in time? You’ll find yourself cheering her along, and even laughing at times, but there are no guarantees and everything is on the table. You won’t be able to put this down until the very end. It’s definitely a page-turner and a great escape!
Books go on sale today at the following locations:
Black Rose (Publisher) https://www.blackrosewriting.com/youngadult/p/wishiwashere
* About the Author: (blogging friend and martial arts master)
At age twenty-one, Ilsa Rey packed everything she owned into her little red Ford Focus and drove from Cleveland to California for good. She is now a recovering chicken owner and a martial artist with a black belt in Taekwondo and a blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu. Her favorite things are writing, training, and teaching self-defense to young women. She lives in southern California with her husband, four children, and the ghosts of chickens past.Find her online: X: @IlsaReyAuthor; Instagram: @Ilsa_Rey; Blog: IlsaRey.com
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“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
-Albert Einstein
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Wish I Was Here: Even When Invisible, There’s No Place to Hide
(Book 1 of The Wish Trilogy) for Teens and Young Adults
- Publisher : Black Rose Writing
- Publication date : December 23, 2025
Dec22
the gift of nothing.
The Gift of Nothing considers two main subjects:
the concept of nothing and the value of friendship.
What do you give a friend who already has everything?
Why, you give them nothing at all.
One of my favorite books, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, ‘The Gift Of Nothing,’ explores the meaning of friendship and the meaning of gifts.
What is a friend and what is a gift? Things might not be what actually make people happy. Perhaps it is the people and our relationships with them that really make us happy.
Why do we give gifts? Is it to show that we care about the person and that we are happy to be with them? If so, is the gift truly important or could the real gift be spending time with them?
Originally written for children, but loved by all ages.
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Author/Illustrator: Patrick McConnell, New York Times best selling author and Caldecott honor artist, creator of the popular comic strip Mutts.
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
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“the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.
because when you give your time,
you are giving away a portion of your life that you will never get back.”
-author unknown
Dec21
on the solstice.
made a solstice crown
to teach the tiny ones
in my old school
the ancient stories
still hold true
the light, the dark
seasons, nature, circles
words, dance, music
children twirling with snow
earth tilts
sun goes down early
light is short
on solstice day
earth rests
next day awakens
the light returns
each day longer.
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‘the shortest day and the longest night
a reminder that dark times give birth to astonishing light”
-tanya markul
Dec20
if fairies may.
heading to our longtime friends’ fairy castle house
for an early christmas celebration
on a cold, snowy night
lots of warmth inside
food, drink, cheer, stories,
meetings, memories
singing with the piano
twelve days of christmas
part of each room
sang a different number
everyone tried
some got lost
some forgot
some sang lots
some sang little
piano played on
all were laughing.
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“Lady, dear, if Fairies may / For a moment lay aside /
Cunning tricks and elfish play, / ‘Tis at happy Christmas-tide.”
-Lewis Carroll, capturing fairies joining the Christmas spirit.
Dec19
the doing.
oh, the joy of looking through the christmas catalog
asking santa and opening up
exactly what i’d hoped for on christmas morning
I was going to make my own candy!
eat as much as I wanted
start selling it
make my fortune
I was just ten
the world was my oyster
while it didn’t work out exactly as planned
i had a blast creating my incredible edibles
they didn’t taste great
a cross between sugar and rubber
forgot I needed an income
to buy more of the stuff to make the goo
similar to my ill-fated earlier business plans:
1. my bakery plan when I got my easy bake oven
with no funding for more cake mixes
and it took a long time to bake a cake with a light bulb
2. my spider breeding in my garage plan
when no one wanted to buy them
after seeing lots of webs in the corners there
but I didn’t actually
know how to breed spiders
3. my stamp collection plan
where I licked them to put them in my book
because they were pretty
and they immediately lost all value
4. my taking things from my big sister’s’ room to sell to my neighbors plan
except that my sister saw them for sale on the table in our driveway
the stand quickly got shut down after my mom was alerted
and I got in trouble.
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all of this has not dampened my entrepreneurial spirit however.
perhaps
I have just not hit upon quite the right business model as of yet
and it was probably good that I got a job as a teacher.
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‘the gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.’
-james dean
Dec18
snow worries.
on a warmish sunny winter day in the park
down by the water’s edge
looking at the snowman’s face
seeing his arms askew
wondering if he has
read the sign and is considering
taking a quick dip in the river
hoping he might be rethinking it.
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‘old snowmen never die, they just melt.’
-author unknown
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dexter-huron metropark, dexter, michigan, usa, december 2025
I didn't have my glasses on.... 