White Christmas

We have a very white Christmas ( 2 feet of white!)
Its been beautiful, fun, and frustrating at the same time. But I am ready for the big thaw and some good ol' rain. The confinement really forces you to take things slow.

Christmas Story - Part 2

I have to keep reminding myself that we are non-practicing Buddhists!
Nevertheless, we have a Christmas tree. We shelved our environmental philosophy on this one...
I really wanted to go out and cut a tree from a farm in the woods but the process was producing more frustration than fun, so I compromised on driving to a tree lot 10 minutes down the road and finding a pretty perfect Noble Fir (these are the best, not a needle has fallen!). The excitement and look on Anjali's face was worth it! She was so glad she kept kissing and hugging the tree! I think I am going to start a tradition of getting her a favorite ornament too. This year I got her a Nutcracker (more about that later).Thankfully, she has not associated that Santa + Christmas Tree = Gifts. But, we are making a list and updating her stash of games/toys. We haven't quite decided on how to present them to her.

Christmas Story - Part 1

After a lot of back and forth, we finally decided to give in to the Christmas holiday this year. After all, Anjali is three, and it’s a very impressionable holiday (why don’t we have Christmas lights? can Santa come and stay with us for a month?).

It all started with a friends Gingerbread house party. Quite honestly, I was equally excited as it was something I had never experienced. It was at her friend’s grandma’s house and she has been making gingerbread houses for a good 30 years. We all had so much fun and only a minimum amount of candy went in the kid’s mouth (more ended up in my mouth)! The whole party ended with the kids bouncing on a trampoline.

The Cinderella introduction

After making up oral versions of the Cinderella story, I decided to introduce her to some written versions. Since I am anti-Disney (but I am secretly planning a 'some day' Disney trip!), I decided to go a more traditional route and asked our children's librarian for help. Unbeknown to me there are many cultural iterations of Cinderella. So I picked these three for starts. My favorite was the Native American Algonquin Rough faced girl. Its a little dark but comes through strongly conveying good vs. evil. We also loved Cendillon a Caribbean Cinderella story for its fun French creole words which we now use in our everyday conversations. Its close to a Disney though. The Indonesian version The Gift of the Crocodile was my least favorite. I don't like violent depictions of any kind in kids books; And in this case the Crocodile eats up the evil step-mother.

Curry and Rice Girl

Anjali calls herself the curry and rice girl at the dinner table. The child loves curry, spices and all. Her consumption had me concerned about growth hormones and antibiotics given to animals. So this fall we got a CSA (community supported agriculture) membership with the Deck Family Farm in Eugene, OR. We order the meat online and they bring it to our Farmers Market every Saturday, and during the winter, will even ship it. You can also go to their farm and pick up the meat. Albeit, its expensive, but you can taste the quality of the meat and feel really good about how the animals are raised (and slaughtered) and the environmental impact. The meat and the lamb are amazingly tasty and much better for you than mass processed ones. The chicken comes as a whole bird, and the farm sent this urban gal a YouTube video on how to cut a chicken (never done it)!

Check out Eat Wild for information on local grass feeding farms and why it’s good for your body. What started the change was Michael Pollans’ eye opening book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. The catalyst was the melamine contamination in China (aghast).

Obama's Time

The Oregonian had a great cover on Nov 5th. We have been celebrating all week! I had too much wine and chocolate cake on election night. It was awesome!

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween complete with a home made costume, a carved spooky pumpkin and trick o' treating! This is my favorite US holiday and its not quite Hallmark'ish (yet!). Some folks in our neighborhood went all out... with buried coffins in the yard and wandering grim reapers on the street. It was spooky! My least favorite part was all the candy we got. Especially those with things like high fructose corn syrup and red # 40. I asked Anjali to pick 5 pieces of candy and said she could eat them over 5 days. On the first day she picked a cherry sucker (with red #40 no doubt) and on the second day she forgot all about the candy!