Glory Acres: Tidings of Joy

Merry (belated) Christmas! While it always seems the Christmas season gets busy and a bit overwhelming, our goal was to keep the true meaning of Jesus' birth at the center and enjoy some fun traditions. Here's a little snapshot of some things that happened this season.

Christmas Cookie Decorating:

I tried something a little different this year. While trying to have our family eat a little "cleaner" and eliminate food dyes, we used natural coloring for the frosting (still had red & green sprinkles).

I sprinkled in spirulina for the green, cinnamon for a reddish-brown, tumeric for a yellow/orange, and kept white, white... I added in a little nutmeg to each.

And guess what? They actually tasted really good! The boys would agree.

Cracking Black Walnuts:

Instead of chestnuts roasting over an open fire, we were cracking our walnuts by a closed fire. Ryan collected some walnuts last year, dried them out and we got a little morsel of delight. Those tough little buggers put up a fight, but we won in the end.

Tuck helped too.

Gift Giving:

This was the year I told myself I wasn't going to do homemade gifts, then I went to a class at our health food store on natural gift making, got inspired and this is the result.

4 batches of soap

3 flavors of lip balm and hand balm

2 varieties of bath teas

and pure beeswax candles.

(tidbit of info: I just found out that beeswax candles purifies the air of toxins in your home the same way some plants clean the air, neat - huh?)

Ski Vacation:

My parents (generous) gift to our boys (birthday & Christmas are 1 day apart) was skiing... in Vail! Watch out they can stop, turn and look for any little jump they can go over. It was a great break and beautiful spending time in the mountains around Christmas.

Tidings of Joy: