Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve dinner we wanted to do something that was no cooking and no fuss involved since we would be gone for Christmas mass from 4:00 until 6:30 or so. So Brett and I decided to try to duplicate an awesome meal we'd had in New York at a restaurant called "Artisinal". They specialize in cheese and have cheese plates that you can eat for dinner or to share as an appetizer. We LOVE cheese, so we copied Artisinal's meal and really enjoyed it! We stumbled upon bamboo cutting boards at Southern Season on major sale, so we couldn't resist serving dinner on them just like they do at Artisinal. We chose six cheeses and had the cheese monger order them for us from mild to strong and we paired three different wines with the cheeses. We added all the yummy sides that accompany cheese so well like cornichons, seasoned olives, pears, dried salami, dried fruit and of course bread. We also had escargots! It was oh so tasty. Sydney stayed up with us for the special "cheese party" and had her own plate with a bubbly apple juice so she could be like the adults. Her favorite parts of the meal were the juice she got to drink out of crystal, the dried fruit, the cornichons, the goat cheese and the brie. She also tried escargots. Love her adventurous spirit!

Gift Giving: a few ideas

I recently posted about how we are trying to make more meaningful decisions about what we buy, consume and give as gifts. I couldn't give concrete examples of gifts we purchased because it was before Christmas, but now I can share a few ideas. Here are a few things we purchased for friends and family this year.

• Locally-made and hand-made soaps, lotions, and bath salts. An awesome and affordable gift for any occasion. (www.moondancesoaps.com)
• Maple syrup from a small family-owned organic farm in Vermont (actually owned by a friend of mine's dad). (www.maplesyrupvermont.com)
• Coffee from a local company that only sells organic fair-trade and shade-grown beans in compostable bags. So yummy! (www.larrysbeans.com)
• Personalized photo books from Shutterfly. These are a LOT of work, but they are such a personal and wonderful gift and a great way to preserve memories. (www.shutterfly.com)
• Keva planks. These are high quality, made in the USA wooden building blocks for kids of all ages. This is the kind of toy you never throw out and can pass on to the next generation. (www.kevaplanks.com)
• Book-marks hand-made by Sydney for all the readers in our family! These were a big hit!
• Ornaments that the kids painted at a local pottery place called Paint Your Pot.
• Hand-made earrings from my mom and her "Penne Panache," also a big hit!

There are lots of other great gift ideas, but these are just some of the ones we gave this year. I think charitable donations in someone's name are also great gift ideas, especially for that person in your life who already has everything!!! If you have a garden then you have endless options of things you can grow yourself and gift to others (dried herbs, canned veggies, jams, dried fruits and veggies). I got a breadmaker for Christmas, so you can be sure people will be getting freshly made organic bread as gifts from me in the coming years! Mmm...

Happy New Year, everyone!

A REAL Snow...and technically a white Christmas!

Although it didn't start snowing in Cary until about 9 pm yesterday, we technically had a white Christmas! What a treat. When we woke up this morning the entire neighborhood was covered in white and it was still fluttering down out of the sky. The world was silent and still. What a beautiful sight and sound. Sydney has croup, so unfortunately she was not in shape for sledding or snow man building today. So sad. We couldn't not let the kids experience the snow, though, so we bundled them up and took them for a wagon ride around the neighborhood. They loved it! It was perfect for Sydney because the cold air quells her coughing and she didn't have to exert herself at all. The only problem was finding appropriate clothing. Since we are southerners it doesn't make much sense to invest in expensive snow suits that our children will outgrow each year. So we don't bother, but when the snow comes we are always saying, "I wish we had ski or snow clothes for them so they could go out and have fun without getting cold and wet!" Well, we did have ONE snow suit, size 12-18 months from when Sydney was a toddler in Paris...only problem is that it is PINK. Oh well, Brett said it was ok, so Pierce went in the girly pink snow suit and had a good old time! He didn't care what color it was, but I was quite hesitant to put him in it. He loved his snow ride and even loved the pink snow suit. SO CUTE! I love these monkeys!

Pierce's First Snow

Well, as most of you know it has already snowed twice here this year and it's not even Christmas! Pierce enjoyed seeing his first snow last week and as soon as we told him what the white stuff was called he quickly added the word "snow" to his very limited vocabulary. It may be his most used word now even though there is no more snow on the ground to talk about! He can't say the "s" so he makes a sort of "s" sound out of his nose and then says "no". So funny!

Sydney Louise

My sweet little girl is in her last year of preschool, which is really hard to believe. She had a Christmas performance at school today and she was so excited to sing all her songs for me and Pierce. We loved watching her and her classmates perform. My favorite song was the Little Drummer Boy! Great job, Sydney!

Eggs!

I am a big proponent of buying local farm fresh ("free range") eggs. There are numerous reasons to do so, especially nutritional ones since they have more than twice the omega-3's found in "conventional" eggs and half the cholesterol. Not to mention, the conditions that "regular" eggs come from are frighteningly unsanitary and the things they are fed are disgusting (think chicken cannibalism).

But today I learned something new about eggs. The farmer I bought mine from this morning told me that conventional eggs sit in cold storage on the "farm" where they are collected for up to 21 days, at which point the USDA requires the "Use By" date to be stamped on them at 65 days from that day. So the eggs you buy in the store are generally 86 days old by their "use-by" date! 86 DAYS! Yikes. I have noticed that every time I have to buy store eggs (if I missed the farmer's market that weekend), the "use by" date seems to never be more than 2-3 weeks from the day I purchase the eggs. That means that the store bought eggs you / we are buying are 9 to 10 weeks old already! Yikes! Where have they been for those nine to ten weeks? And why are they so old?

The eggs I bought this morning are exactly three days old and I met the man who gathered them for me, so I feel pretty good about their nutrition and freshness. I paid $4, which some people consider extremely expensive. But the way I look at it is that I am willing to make other small sacrifices in order to spend $2 extra on eggs each week. It really isn't all that much money anyway, even for someone on an all cash food budget each week. Our health is worth it!

Gift Giving: a new challenge

We are working in our house to put more meaning into the overly-commercialized and often meaningless Christmas holiday and the traditions that go along with it. The advent Calendar drop-ins I made and sold were one example, but there are lots of other ways to make Christmas a more meaningful time for your family. One other thing we are doing this year is to change how we buy gifts. Every year I feel more and more strongly about the overabundance of gifts exchanged and how many of them don't represent the values we hold. Many of the kids toys are produced in China with unsafe ingredients and do not hold up for long. Gift cards are impersonal. Electronics seem to outdate before you can even get them unwrapped. And so on and so on... I'm sure everyone has some aspect of the gift exchange that they feel is wasteful or impersonal. So, this year, we decided to try to purchase gifts that embody the values we hold as consumers and as a family. We are purchasing things that are one or more of the following (for about 75% of our gifts):


1. made locally (or at least made in the USA)
2. made by a small family-owned business
3. organically or sustainably produced
4. benefit a charitable cause
5. educational
6. recycled
7. made by us!


So far, we have found some great gift options that fit one or more of these criteria! I can't share them yet (for obvious reasons!), but I wanted to post my thoughts on gift giving so maybe I can inspire others to change some of their gift giving practices. Of course, there are a few items we just can't seem to get to fit these criteria, but for the most part we have found some great gifts!


A few suggestions:

• your local farmers markets and craft fairs are great resources
• each region of the country has local specialities - find out what yours is and find a small local supplier to purchase from
• a number of not-so-local and not-so-sustainable companies are at least donating a portion of their profits to charities
• tickets to local cultural performances and educational classes are a great way to spend your money
• buying art or pottery from a local artist makes for a unique and personal gift
• auctions are a great place to pick up some unique gifts (just ask my mom!) and give something a second life instead of using more resources to buy it new
• use your own talents to share with others (painting, photography, writing, baking, gardening)

Here's to a more meaningful holiday season and more meaningful consumption throughout the year!