Christmas Bounty! Holy COW!!!

Thank you to all who contributed to the veritable mountain of Christmas Cheer. I haven't had a Christmas this amazing since I got my cello in 2005. So here are the unbelievable gifts that my family and friends got for me for Christmas. I still am in shock!

• an Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator (thanks, Mom & Dad!)
  


• a food slicer (like the deli meat kind, but it's AMAZING for use with veggies when you want to quickly slice something for dehydration, salads, etc.) (Thanks, Dave!)



• a Food Saver vacuum sealer - best on the market, IMHO (Thanks to Dave for this, too! I'll slice, dehydrate and store lots of yummy stuff for you! Hey, you're advancing from just green smoothies and chocolate now. I'll turn you into a raw foodist, yet!) ;o)



• a 25-piece glass bowl set with lids. I can use these for salads, leftovers, food prep, making un-cooking videos for GRNC, etc. SO glad to have moved up from plastic to tempered glass. No more guck in my food because there's no guck to leach from glass like there is with plastic. (Thanks, Jason)



• Ecstatic Beings, by Shazzie and Kate Magic. Probably the best book I've ever read. (Thanks to Jason for this, too!) And thanks to Shazzie and Kate for being such great cake mates that you could write this hilarious, wonderful, fun and profound book!



• Evie's Kitchen, another book by Shazzie about how to raise a kid on raw food. (And thank you yet again, Jason for such generosity and consideration.) Well, it's actually about you going/being raw and detoxed before you even conceive, then goes through breast feeding, then moving a child to solid-but-raw foods. Then it just keeps going, giving all KINDS of amazing tips and info about how to raise a healthy, ecstatic, raw kid, all the way through to adulthood. I don't want to give birth to a child of my own, but it's very helpful info since there's already a child in my life, through Jason. Special thanks to Shazzie for taking the time to write this. All our paths will be exponentially easier for your having written this book. And an EXTRA special thanks to Evie Popple Cake, for being such a brilliant, radiant little Ecstatic Being, and for allowing your Mummy to get all public about you and your eating habits.

Like I said, a veritable mountain of gifts. Thank you so much to all who gave these to me. They will make my raw food consumption, and that of those who live in my home, a whole lot easier, complete, and healthy! :oD

Year In Review, Happy Anniversary, and Engagement

Wow, what a whirlwind of a year it has been. January 1st, 2010 was the 1 year anniversary of my family having a raw household! Now, did we slip up and have a cooked bit of food here and there? Well, all you have to do is look at our clothes, bodies and/or scale to know that the answer to that question is, "yes". Or you could just ask me. I'll tell you the truth. We ate cooked food. But we followed the premise set forth by Go Raw, Not Crazy of doing our best to stay as raw as possible without driving ourselves (or those around us) nuts! And we kept our kitchen raw, eating cooked food only when we were out of the house, with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we were entertaining. We did still serve raw food though, and I was able to be 70% raw on Thanksgiving and about 55% raw on Christmas, so no leucocytosis set in. We're going to a late Christmas party tonight, and with the new year comes new vigor and resolve to stay raw. I'm taking peppermint and lemon raw cacao truffles as the white elephant gift, and as a fabulous potluck dish, too. Hmmmmm ... I'd best get to work, eh?

So let's review the big stuff for the year:

• On January 1st ~ our house went raw, and we resolved to buy and bring home only raw food for home consumption. Raw lunches for the little one continued, as they have since kindergarten.


• January 20 ~ Obama was inaugurated! What a fabulous day! (Too bad the guy's hands seem to be so tied by all the freakin' money in DC! I still believe that he means well and wants to help, but as I age, I find that I believe more and more that the entire system must fail globally in order for real change to occur.) I will always hold out hope that Obama and all of us can enact real change in the world in which we live.


• February ~ Don't remember the date, but I lost my job at Lairmont Manor -- one of the best things that ever happened to me! Really gave me the push that I needed to start Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• February 14th ~ We moved into our first home. It's a starter, for sure, but it will be paid off in only 11 years. Well, in 10, now!


• March ~ Can't think of anything of consequence that happened, except that we were starting to slip into some bad habits of eating too much cooked food and making the excuse that it wasn't being eaten in the house.


• April 16th ~ I decided to try to eat nothing but raw cacao for 30 days after reading all the fabulous pros and hideous cons of the stuff. Wrote a blog about it called 30 Days of Chocolate ~ One Woman’s Experiment With Weight Loss, Raw Food and Happiness. A VERY successful 30 days, although I didn't eat exclusively cacao.


• May ~ Finished my raw cacao/chocolate stint, and moved on to starting a garden.


• June ~ Got the garden installed, the fruit trees happily transplanted, and Red Russian Kale going (3rd time's a charm). Started building Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• July ~ Can't think of anything of note that happened that month, except that I stayed raw for a holiday. Not hard to do in the summer though, when one of the main dishes for the holiday is watermelon. Made a delectable watermelon "cake" for the family that was promptly devoured! Lots of kale to eat and freeze. Set up Twitter and Facebook accounts for Go Raw, Not Crazy.


• August ~ Serious harvesting of kale, tomatoes and cherries.


• September ~ Jahn turned 8 and we threw a raw birthday party for him! Big step for him to ask for a raw party.


• October ~ We had a raw Halloween for Jahn, and he dressed up as Indiana Jones. He even stayed raw when the other kids were mowing through mounds of gunk right in front of him at school. VERY proud of him!


• November ~ I was the lucky winner of the Inspired Raw website redesign contest! Caryn Ginsberg selected Go Raw, Not Crazy for a revamp, and the site has never looked better. This gal knows her stuff! She took my ideas and theme and made them blossom. If you have a raw website and need some direction, this woman can really help you!


• December ~ Got engaged! This, after "coming out" to our respective families about being polyamorous. That was a bit scary, but everyone has been very supportive. Jason and I have always known that we would be life-long anchor mates and have been proposing to each other for about 2 years now in a very informal way ("Ya wanna get married?" "Ok! Sure!") He bought me a beautiful ring that's on its way. Can't wait to see it for real! Should be here in a week or two. We picked it out together. :o)After my birthday, when the whole family was together for a joint birthday party (celebrating my 40th late, and my sister-in-law Jamie's 30th early), Jason gave me a ring with an orange cubic zirconia in it as a "placeholder" until my spessartite one arrives. Put in on my finger in front of the whole family and everything. Don't think there was a dry eye in the house, unless you count the 5- and 8-year old boys who were chasing each other about Grandma and Grandpa's house, oblivious to the goings on. ;o) Too funny! We're shooting for an October wedding, but don't know if that will happen. Depends on that whole money thang. I'll keep you updated. I'm just so glad that I'm with a man who is so full of Love, kindness & generosity, and who is also all for eating raw food! I'm a lucky, lucky girl.
  
  ***Also ordered Markus Rothkranz' new DVD set, Free Food and Medicine. Can't wait for that to arrive either!
  
  ***Got the most amazing gifts for Christmas, when I really didn't expect even one of them. We had such a tight year, what with the economy and all, I didn't see how anyone would be able to get anyone anything. But the Universe provided all kinds of sneaky, fun ways for the people who so generously love me to materialize the most precious things that will help me and my family stay raw. Photos are in my next post.

So that was 2009. What a wild ride! Can't wait to see what 2010 brings my way. Here's hoping that you and yours have the most marvelous, raw, happy, healthy, love-filled, ecstatic year ever!