Happy Holidays 2009!

Happy Holidays! This is a great time of year. The one time where our individual faiths culminate into a collective spirit of celebration. Although it's often a commercial spirit, the undertow of kindness and holiday cheer tug us along through the season, and (hopefully) overshadow the stress of gift-giving, food preparations and traveling.

We enjoyed a nice couple day prelude to Christmas by taking a short ride up to Grandma's on Wednesday afternoon for a little holiday celebration and gifts for the kids. Then yesterday, Darren went to work in DC in the morning, and we went to the evening service at church before coming home and opening the gifts from Darren's parents and sister, with whom we have a tradition of exchanging every year.

Thankfully, the kids got to bed by 11, so Santa could make an early rounds, and they slept in until 9am! Bonus! So, we started off the day with opening Santa's gift and a few gifts from Mom and Dad, then a simple breakfast of fruit, tea, and cereal for the kids. We listened to some holiday music, I took a quick stroll on the treadmill while watching Oprah's holiday music special and Darren took to the task of helping Joe assemble his new Lego toy.

Later, we dug out the five pounds of organic broccoli we had left from our produce co-op, and made a steamed broccoli with garlic sauce and a raw broccoli salad with a creamy hemp dressing. We purposely didn't plan a holiday dinner, just to give ourselves a reprieve from meal planning. I made a huge batch of gluten-free vegan chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies yesterday for the kids, so they're covered for holiday sweets, along with all their stocking goodies, too!

We rounded out the day by watching The Polar Express and I'm now hoping Zofia will soon feel the weighty pull of fatigue. She's a handful these days! I'm looking forward to checking my email, catching up on some writing and hopefully relaxing a little with Darren before we're both too tired to communicate any further today. At least we have a full weekend with nothing on the calendar. That's a great holiday treat!

Seven Years with Joe

Seven years ago today, Joe was born in the tiny bathroom of our home in Connecticut. He had a rough start in his first year with some major health issues, but he rebounded beautifully and continues to thrive. We are so happy to have him in our lives and look forward to watching and participating as his life unfolds.

Joe is very excited to be turning seven. We're celebrating simply this year with a homemade allergy-safe lemon ginger cake, a couple nice gifts from us and Grandma, lunch out at his favorite eating spot (Chipotle) and hockey practice in the evening. He'll continue his birthday weekend fun by going to Reston, Virginia on Saturday for a hockey game, and hanging out with friends on Sunday at a vegan potluck we're hosting.

Happy Birthday Joe! We love you!