A Cake and a Tuba...who could ask for anything more?

Day 60.

A Cake and a Tuba...who could ask for anything more?

Let me begin by explaining the reason that I have been baking a cake... For over ten years I was the co-director of a children's theater program for deaf and hearing students to be able to work together to present an original play in both spoken and sign language. I was actually with this program for fifteen years in total (three as a student and two as an assistant before stepping into a director's role). I had some amazing and very rewarding experiences working with the kids, learning sign language to communicate with the students that couldn't hear and helping to facilitate interaction with all students using a variety of facets of drama and music...yes, lots of music was incorporated into every show we presented. My co-director for this group is actually a music teacher at the state school for the deaf. She leads a group of students from her school (some of whom I've known for many years through our theater program) in a bell choir and they are absolutely PHENOMENAL. The students perform during the holiday season at community events including the annual Tuba Christmas where musicians playing all varieties of brass instruments essentially come together from all over to "jam" on an evening of Christmas carols. It's a very cool show to watch, especially to support the involvement of these kids who I have watched grow up over the years. Now, back to the cake...to support the students' involvement in the Tuba Christmas the local Grange (where I am a member) does an annual cake auction at the show. So I want to prepare a very cool cake to take with me tonight that will not only be tasty for whomever takes it home, but of course it will be made with ingredients from here in the USA. I found a great spice cake mix made by Namaste Foods (namastefoods.com) and baked it in the coolest bundt cake pan (also made in the USA by Nordic Ware...read about how they are keeping jobs in America at http://www.nordicware.com/about/made-in-america) that is shaped like a gingerbread house.

I'm excited to take the cake to the show tonight. I hope it goes over as well as the music is sure to. After all, with a cake and a tuba...who could ask for anything more?

There's one more thing I'd like to share with you. If you've been following along with this blog you'll notice that today is day 60 of our 60 gifts in 60 days made in the USA. What happens from here? Well, I still have lots of cool gift ideas to share with you, so I'm ready to start a second round of 60 days with a slight shift in focus. Of course we'll still look at gift ideas for the holidays right now, but then we'll segue into sweet gift ideas to treat yourself or your sweetie as we head into the new year and on towards Valentine's Day. So the 60 days blog will continue to go strong with another 60 gifts made right here in the USA. Thanks to everyone who has been checking out my blog over the last two months. I am so appreciative that you are here and hope you continue to stay with me for the next stretch of my journey. 60 more days...see you back here tomorrow! 

P.S. Totally random, but awhile back I put together "60 videos in 60 days" (to learn and get some hands-on practice with various video production techniques) and here's the culmination of that project. It seems fitting to revisit this today...enjoy!