With Day 9 of our 12 Days of Christmas Tea Tasting we celebrate chocolate with our Chocolate Hazelnut Tea. I haven't met a lot of women who don't love this delicious dessert. I know it's always been my favorite and always will be. The darker the better for me.
The viewpoint of this delicious treat has changed drastically since I was a kid. Remember those days when we were told not to eat chocolate because it was bad for our health? I jumped for joy when I found out new studies now declare chocolate as a healthy choice! Some health benefits of dark chocolate are:
High in antioxidants
Helps in heart health
Helps brain function
Protection from free radicals
Helps with blood pressure and blood sugar
A vision booster
That's great news for the chocolate lover! Since our chocolate tea has some hazelnut pieces, I thought I'd mention the fact that hazelnuts are also good for heart health, brain function, and loaded with antioxidants. If you need a little glow in your skin and hair, hazelnuts can help with that too. A great nut to add to our diets!
The nine ladies dancing in our Christmas song must have been doing the waltz. That's the image that comes to mind every time I hear that line in the song. So I thought I would share some history about this graceful ballroom dance. After all, what's not to love with the gorgeous flowing gowns and tails! It took some time for onlookers to view this dance as beautiful. The elegant dance was first considered vulgar in Vienna as it appeared too close for comfort. I'm so glad the viewpoint of the waltz has changed since then. My daughter learned this dance at her cotillion class and it was so wonderful watching a room full of young men and women learn it!
"Waltz: from the old German word walzen to roll, turn, or to glide."*
The waltz was first danced in the United States by a Boston dancing master, Lorenzo Papanti, in 1834. Since then, there are many other forms of this dance including a Country Western Waltz, the Tropical Waltz, the Cajun Waltz, the Mexican Waltz, and many others.
I have loved learning little snippets of history as I take a closer look at our age-old Christmas Song.
But most importantly I'd like to mention that the Christian symbolism for Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas song is the nine fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
I pray that each of us live out these fruits and shine brightly in this world.
As I end this blog post, I'd like to leave you with the beautiful Cinderella waltz demonstrated for us by a couple on YouTube. Truly lovely!
Enjoy this video with Chocolate Hazelnut Tea.
Resources:
*https://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/waltz.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2017/11-12/history-waltz-dance-vienna/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlQIF_sVl-s
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-dark-chocolate#section2
https://draxe.com/benefits-of-dark-chocolate/
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+5%3A22-23&version=NIV
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