Hey everyone! I’m finally back from my little break. It’s been really nice spending so much time with family for the holidays. We are fortunate that almost all of my dad’s side of the family and my husband’s family live within 15 min. of each other, with the exception of my sister one state away, and my aunt and her family two states away. Every year we all get together for the holidays.

My family’s tradition is every Christmas morning we all get together at my grandparent’s house for breakfast and exchanging gifts. Now, when I say “we all”, I mean ALL of us: grandparents, siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. The pile of gifts takes up the entire room! We take our turns, from youngest to oldest, opening presents. It’s quite the ordeal. And it’s the most fun ever! I love my family!

It’s always funny to me to see how every gift reflects the receiving individual. Gadgets for the computer whiz, expensive perfume for the chic, cooking supplies for the chef, and homesteading stuff for me!!

Really, my own wish list cracks me up. Two years ago my list was made up of designer makeup, Gap and Old Navy clothes, cute shoes, and home decor. This year some of the things I asked for were: a cast iron dutch oven, a clothes line, lye (for making soap), and mud boots for tromping through the pigpen!! My family probably thinks I’m nuts! They just laugh though, and happily scrape their Christmas breakfast leftovers onto a plate for our pig.

I have such a great family, and am always so blessed by their generosity. We are never able to do as much for everyone as they do for us. I have to fight off feeling badly for not giving expensive gifts, or even gifts off of wishlists. But I do feel good knowing that what I give definitely was a time intensive labor of love!

This year I made food gift baskets. The baskets were woven out of newspaper, I even made newspaper bows to top them off! I filled them with jam (either Strawberry-Fig Jam with figs from my mother-in-law’s fig tree, or Cherry Jam from Adelia’s cherry trees), cream cheese and crackers to spread the jam on, Pumpkin Spice Bread from a pie pumpkin my friend brought me, a jar of dehydrated peppers from my friend’s organic farm, homemade candies and fudge. I used empty plastic vented containers (you know, the kind blueberries and strawberries come in) to hold my candies and stuff. I think they came out well. I had planned on including some sugared pecans from a bucket of pecans Adelia gave me from off her property, but oh my goodness they took FOREVER to crack! And getting the nut meats out whole… forget it! I ended up soaking them overnight, then dehydrating them, to get them to crack better. That worked well, but then shelling them took so long I only got enough to fill a jar full for my father-in-law’s gift before I gave up.

I think the gift baskets came out well though. I was proud to pass them out.

We had a great Christmas. Though, sadly on Christmas day we lost Lucy, our goat. We just found her in her house, dead. Not sure what got her, though we suspect maybe bloat or worms. Poor Lucy. And poor Mocha. She’s sad without her friend, once again. I don’t think we’ll get another goat for quite some time. I hope to breed Mocha soon, so hopefully she’ll have a baby to keep her company before too long.

So, now it’s 2010. I’m anxious to see what the new year has in store for us. I have SO many plans. So many ideas. So many goals to strive towards. I hope to keep better track of our finances, and actually keep a spreadsheet of every dime we spend. I hope to cut our electricity bill in half this year. I envision a much hardier garden, and hopefully our fruit trees and bushes will come back in Spring! We need to fence in our yard to keep stray dogs out, and the animals in!

We plan on finding local sources of produce, meat, grains, and milk instead of getting them from the grocery store. I’d like to weed out the kids plastic-made-in-China toys and replace them with US made wooden toys, eventually.

I am determined to be out of my PJ’s before lunch time. I’ll try to do better staying on top of household chores, and limiting time on the computer. I’m really going to be more diligent in spiritual training for the children; praying as a family every day, reading from His Word, and memorizing Scripture. I hope to stick to our budget, and freeze meals ahead of time so as not to have any excuse for an emergency run to the drive through.

Sorry. I could go on and on!!

Anyways, lots to do! I hope to fill this blog with tons more info and fun personal stories as we travel this still very new road to self sufficiency.

Glad to have you along! Happy New Year!