Your Nativity, O Christ our God,

has shone to the world the light of wisdom!

For by it, those who worshipped the stars,

were taught by a star to adore You, the Sun of Righteousness,

and to know You, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory to You!

-Nativity Apolytikion

Well November flew by....and so has December. We've been spending more time indoors these days, reading Chronicles of Narnia together, baking, and taking shelter from the 30-40 degree F days. November had some pretty big undertakings, so feel free to read on!

• Our primary focus this month was taking on our crawlspace under our house. After many expensive quotes, Ephraim decided to learn electrical skills, mold remediation, and dehumidifying our crawlspace all on his own. He did a phenomenal job and saved us tons!

• For Thanksgiving, we celebrated with some friends and a few other families. It was a joyous time together and I got to make a few fun dishes, which I'll explain below.

• My niece, Carmel, Trinity was born! First baby girl of the Ford family.

• We hosted a young adults Christmas party which included a gingerbread competition, ugly sweater contest, white elephant gift exchange, caroling with the guitar, and no lack of silliness and fun.

• We got the kittens all their vaccines, so now we've integrated them into the farm, aka let them leave the barn. They love wandering around, climbing up trees and chasing each other. However, I will say they are way more shy than I thought they would be when it comes to adventuring. Some of their favorite spots are our porch rocking chairs, the dock on the pond, and the drainage pipes that run under our driveway.

• We dug up our Christmas tree! Yep, you heard that right. We were going to cut one down from our backyard, but I figured, why not re-plant it after the season is over? So we now have a cute Charlie Brown tree in a large pot that will get to re-join his friends in a couple weeks.

• We spent some time exploring more of our local city, Winston-Salem. There's a really unique part of town called Innovation Quarter that used to be industrial but has since turned brewery, pizzeria, and cafes. We also found a new favorite biscuit eatery and cafe called Krankies and a chocolate cafe we will definitely frequent in the future.

• A few new recipes I made: sourdough naan bread, sourdough bread rolls, Italian sourdough focaccia bread with roasted garlic cloves and fresh herbs, homemade pesto, hummus, and guacamole (the usuals), giardiniera (pickled vegetables), sorghum crinkle cookies, caramel corn, Greek tomato orzo soup, strawberry lemonade and pineapple ginger kombucha, pumpkin spice rooibos tea using the mulling spices from last month, and an almond-glazed cherry marzipan sweet bread.

Holistic Nutrition Counseling

Want to get healthy in the new year? For information on one-on-one consultations or health coaching, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at 925.315.7032. It is a privilege to support you in your health needs.