Tu B'Shvat

Tu B'Shvat is the birthday for the trees, sort of a Jewish Arbor Day. Princess and I celebrated by drawing pictures of trees. After that, we then went for a walk that included the "secret forest" near our house and the two of us singing happy birthday to the trees.

What a lovely day we had!

Winter Tree

In all this construction, we promised Princess that we would still put up the tree. Hanukkah starts Sunday evening, so we had to get going!

The wall behind the tree isn't fully painted (mudding still has to happen to a wall repair), but the tree is up. The Lizard King put up the lights, Princess put up all the ornaments. Our tree topper has fizzled after 15 years. We're hoping it's just bulbs, so LK is going to try that to see if that's the issue. Although, it would be odd for all the bulbs to go at once, right? Still, I love that tree topper and it seems to be a bit of a challenge to find a light-up snowflake tree topper that we like.

I still can't believe how big Princess has gotten!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Annual Baking - Happy Purim!

I hate to bake, but I love hamantaschen! These are a traditional treat for the holiday of Purim.

Purim is a lesser Jewish festival held in spring (on the 14th or 15th day of Adar) to commemorate the defeat of Haman's plot to massacre the Jews as recorded in the book of Esther.

Princess loves to bake and is always ready to help. We made these grain free, using almond flour and arrowroot for the dough. The filling is homemade poppyseed filling. So yum!

King Peace on Earth

Princess' best friend and his family have a collection of nutcrackers that they put out every Christmas. Princess has wanted one for a couple of years now and this year we finally got one. 

Princess has named him, King Peace on Earth. He has joined our festive holiday decorations in storage, waiting for next year. Of course, we had to wait until the best friend got back from his trip to Germany to show him before hiding him away until next year.

Our New Year Getaway

We went to the

 We brought some entertainment . . .

a few board games . . .

and spirograph! I've been looking for this forever and it's finally available. I loved this when I was a kid.

Because of our food issues and the need to avoid gluten, we bring our own cooking supplies with us.

 

There was a lot of down time, something the Lizard King needed. You'd think I would have gotten a shot of that, but no. 

How did you celebrate the new year?

That's a Wrap!

In our effort to live more sustainably, we use fabric and fabric ribbon for our gift wrap. My hope is to eventually make gift bags of a variety of sizes. It will certainly make gift wrapping easier, as fabric wrapping can be more challenging than paper.

My sewing machine is in working order again. Now I just need a space to work. I think I will set a goal to make all the bags by November 2013. Ooh...sounds like my new year's goals are growing! I've got 2 things on my list now.

1. Send out cards for birthdays.
2. Make gift bags in time for next Hanukka.

I wonder if any more will pop up between now and the new year . . .

And a big thank you to Mom-mom and Poppo for this gift. As you can tell, Princess was very excited to receive it.

Hanukka 2012

We had an amazing Hanukka celebration this year. I'm so grateful, because it could have been such a disappointment. With the Lizard King out of town for almost the entire holiday, it just wouldn't have been the same celebrating without him. Thank you to my friend, M, for the suggestion to move it. Here's a little collage glimpse at our holiday.

Happy Hanukka!!!

Photo Shoot

I haven't sent out holiday cards in years. My family and friends can attest to the fact that I am horrible at sending and giving cards for any occasion. (Sorry!)

I think my new year's resolution is going to be to send cards out to friends and family for birthdays. Now I just need dates and addresses. ;)

Anyway, I decided to start with holiday cards and wanted to do photo cards. I called on my best friend, who also happens to be a wonderful photographer. She came over and did a quick shoot with us and by the evening we had these beautiful shots.

We wish everyone the happiest of times during this holiday season!

Ho, Ho, Ho?

As we do every year, we went to visit Santa so that Princess could ask him for her Santa gift. This year was just a little bit different than past years. This Santa was rather snarky, rude and grumpy. What ever happened to jolly St. Nick?!

Santa asked Princess if she was "minding her momma" and she said no. She had no idea what he meant, so I explained to her that he was asking if she listened to me. He asked what she should do if I tell her to jump and when she said "Jump?", he said no,  you should ask how high. He asked her if she ate her vegetables (she doesn't). He asked her if she cleans up her room when I tell her to (I don't tell her to, although I may ask her to.). He told her that if she wants to be on Santa's "nice list" she needs to do all these things otherwise she'll go on the naughty list . . . or maybe Santa will just come whoop her because he's "old school".

Finally, Princess got to ask Santa for what she wanted from him. We explained that we celebrate Hanukka, but also that LK would be out of town during Hanukka so we were moving Hanukka and would he please bring her present during the time we are celebrating. He then started questioning if we "go to Shabbat" every week. Well, Shabbat is a day, not a place. I didn't bother explaining, I just said yes.

WTH?!?! I jumped in throughout the conversation, trying to move past what he was saying and make light of it. I don't want Princess' memories of Santa to be a bad experience.

Santa obviously had no clue who he was talking to. If I told Princess to jump, I would certainly hope that she would ask me why and not just follow random and ambiguous requests. After all, we are the radical unschoolers. We believe that being a child doesn't mean that she isn't a complete person. If I told LK or a friend to jump, I would certainly expect them to question it. Princess should question these things as well. I certainly don't want her following requests of adults simply because they are adults. Question everything.

And I'm assuming he was asking about going to synagogue every week, well being Humanistic Jews and atheists, no . . . we don't. LK said Santa was lucky he wasn't there. My goal was to keep the whole experience a positive one. I think I did that.

Winter Tree 2012

Our Hanukka celebration begins tomorrow!! 

A Glimpse at Our Thanksgiving Day

 Princess worked on the new Thankful Tree . . .

and we all put up leaves sharing what we are thankful for.

 As is our tradition, pumpkin roll "appetizer".

Lovely flowers from our friends.

 Football, of course!

I found this turkey cooking method online that worked beautifully! Why has nobody else thought of cooking the turkey breast down? It was juicy and delicious!!

 Just a few of the sides.

 

It was a lovely Thanksgiving with our dearest friends. We did miss having the Pittsburgh Royals (kids and grandkids), but they will definitely be with us next year.

How was your Thanksgiving celebration?