Our First Christmas at Peace. Love. Home.

We put up a Christmas tree this year, which is noteworthy because it is only the second time we have done this in 19 years. Nanook was completely beside herself over this new development. Nearly every other day she burst in here like a bandit, brandishing her glue gun. I threw my hands up in the air in surrender while she added more bling to the tree or embellished this and that with some sort of glitzy thing.   She bedazzled the banister with poinsettas, ornaments, tinsel, lights, and sprigs of unidentified festive objects. She hung bells, tied up mistletoe, and spangled stars around my light fixtures. She decked the halls with bows galore. Seriously. There are bows on every available surface of the entry hall. There are bows on surfaces that aren’t so available.

Christmas Pup

Moo-Moo’s confused expression over Nanook’s exploits

 ~*~

Xmas 2012 009

With so much tragedy and violence to face this month in the community and arugula, spinach, strawberry, walnut & mandarin orange saladnation, we opted for a Christmas without the slaughter. It is a small thing, but I believe in the good of doing small things. We hosted vegetarian dinners on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The menu included chili; cornbread; arugula, spinach, walnut, strawberry, and mandarin orange salad; a vegetarian version of Hiram’s cheesy macaroni; potato salad; green bean casserole; sweet potato cookies; sugar cream pie; and German chocolate cake.  Thank you family for being so sweet and accommodating!

Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. We nourish all those things when we eat well…In your choices about food, you express what matters to you.

— Michael Pollan