Feeling Inspired

A Field of Trees on a Gray Day

Anni walking down the trail

A snaggly tree with a Medusa-do

Today was a very grey morning, but the sun broke out this afternoon - glorious! We did some holiday decorating around the house. We are incorporating rosemary sprigs from the two bushes out front and a few of the remaining roses from our garden.

A reader asked, "Are you going to have a green holiday?"

We are going to have a greener holiday. We've been saving the newspaper comics and store protective paper to use as wrapping paper. We also have saved some packing material that have arrived on our doorstep. We're skipping the cut trees and opting to get a real tree the last few days of the holidays so we can plant it in the backyard. We are making our own cards this year. We are also buying much less. We've decided to third our holiday fund. One third will purchase a couple of family gifts and one individual gift for each family member. The second third will be used for a donations to our favorite charity and to make a gift for each family member. And the final third will be used to purchase holiday experiences; theatre tickets, festivals, etc.

Alex made a terrific noodle soup for lunch today. He put in seven different veggies! For dinner, we made turkey gravy with some of the left over turkey breast from Thanksgiving and served this over mounds of mashed potatoes (or smashed potatoes as Anni likes to call them), along with caramelized baby carrots, and cranberry sauce. For dessert, it was mini pumpkin bites, yum. So far, one small (3.25) free-range, chemical free turkey breast has provided the basis for 3 meals (Thanksgiving, turkey noodles soup, and tonight's.) We froze enough to have turkey enchiladas, turkey potpie, and turkey noodle casserole at a later date. Not bad for a little bit of bird.

This evening I got to rejoin the Earth Institute group which I'm very happy about. We got to enjoy the most incredible slide show of photographs taken by two members on their 11,000 mile journey all across the US and back. They stayed in a tiny pop-up trailer for much of the trip in the most amazing campgrounds! I'm feel inspired to start thinking about our spring in-state travel itinerary.