Looking back at 2008

So, this was part of our Christmas letter that was never printed off...

Ten things we are grateful for in 2008

1. Saturday mornings watching birds on our bird feeder and naming our UK bird friends.  I love it when Jonah says “oh look, a starling on the bird feeder” or “oh a great tit - or is that a blue tit?”

2. Books, books and books! - always something our family is grateful for.  Some of our favorites this year are “The Creative Family”, “Raising the Emotionally Intelligent Child”, “The Series of Unfortunate Events”, “Paradise Wars”, anything by Richard Scary, “The Big Picture Bible”, “First the Egg”... ... ...

3. A slower pace of life - no car and a 20 minute walk to town is a great way to be aware of the distances we travel and the gift of beautiful surroundings.

4. “The Moosewood Cookbook”  I have a goal to cook at least one new recipe from this cookbook every week and since being here we’ve done it so far.  Such yummy vegetarian meals that are good for us and good for the world.

5. The yard we had in Seattle and the fact we could canoe whenever we wanted through the arboretum and look for turtles, herons, kingfishers, ducks and geese.

6. Canned Pumpkin, tollhouse (or any other) chocolate chips, american style marshmallows, coconut flavoring, non-oil based vanilla, blue corn chips, Annie’s organic mac and cheese white cheddar shells, peanut butter cups and hershey kisses (didn’t miss these until I went to make Christmas cookies)... all ingredients that are hard or impossible to find in the UK.

7. Sewing Machine, Expresso Maker, books, and toys... after hemming and hawing over whether to ship some of our goods we were so glad when our eight boxes arrived several weeks after we did.  

8. Fudge doughnuts (Jim), Chocolate Towers (Emily), and Gingerbread men (Jonah).  Our favorite treats at the bakery in town.

9. A 9-5 (or 7-4) work schedule for Jim.  We are loving evenings to read, watch star trek and just hang out!

10. Christmas cookies in the freezer, paper snowflakes in the windows, and a tree with all homemade ornaments