We headed to Broad Ripple's Christmas in the Village with friends. What a great time. The kids got to tour the firehouse and have dinner at the Brew Pub (while us parents had brew at the pub!).
George, Willow, Drew and Autumn (not pictured) on their best behavior. Poor Nora had a mommy-imposed ban from the festivities due to her refusal to nap that day!
The kids even got to meet REAL LIFE reindeers!
Oh...to get a tree or not get a tree. So used to be the question. Matt and I have resigned to getting a real tree and celebrating while doing so. We just don't have all of the answers. The tree is probably one of my favorite traditions to adopt from our childhood Christmas. We have collected ornaments from our various trips domestic and abroad, and the girls have already started to make some awesome ornaments. Decorating the tree is a mini walk down memory lane. Live trees are just not a viable option here in Indianapolis. For one thing, they can only be indoors a maximum of 5 days. Also, they so detest the indoor dry heat for that short amount of time that many do not even make it. We buy our tree from a local farm, where it is serving the environment during its brief life (reducing carbon, providing wildlife a home, etc. etc.), and then our tree is picked up after Christmas where it is turned into mulch to be used at the city parks. I feel that, so long as the tree farms are lucrative, the land will not be turned into yet another strip mall or suburban neighborhood.
The girls loved decorating as well (and decorating and decorating...as they KEEP taking off the ornaments and rearranging them!).
Once again, we embarked on Christmas cookie-making. I have been eating vegan for over 12 years now and still find it a joy--selecting local/organic/healthy foods, striking the balance each day, knowing that I am contributing to healthy kids and a healthy environment. If there is ONE time when I get frustrated with the vegan options, however, it is with Christmas cookies!! While having much success with cakes, muffins, brownies and other cookies, there is just no substituting for the egg and butter in these cookies. The dough is so dry and almost impossible to roll out. But, roll out we did! And, yes, they are at least edible!!
Top Chef and Top Mommy--constantly keeping little hands out of the flour, the batter, the icing, the cookies...
Thrilled with her "tootie bread man". The Gingerbread Man has been her favorite bedtime story for a while now.
Voila! The final product. I bought the natural food colorings which gave us the selection of gold, pink, yellow and white (not so Christmas-y) BUT I did cave and get the sprinkle selection. Compromise :)
2 comments:
Yum! You're right about the christmas cookies. Actually, we've never tried gingerbread cookies but i've got a pretty good recipe for vegan sugar cookies that you can cut and decorate. They turn out pretty nice. I use the cookbook Sinfully Vegan. Recently I've been using youtube to find great vegan recipes.
I like how you find a balance with tradition and modern environmentalism. We rebelled and put up outdoor christmas lights this year! A waste on energy but they are beautiful to come home to:) We compromise by using the same norfolk island pine tree every year and only using one strand of lights inside. Anyway, thanks for sharing and have a wonderful holiday! love, jen
another idea is to lean the tree outside and hang pine cones with bird food on it...but then we may miss the mulching at br park...hmmmm...Christmas is especially hard on green practices, I am already dreading the influx of paper, cardboard and plastic, and that's just the packaging!!
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