Based on numbers picked by this truly random number generator, the winners are Lacey (comment #6) and Lisa K. (comment #11)!! Yippee and congrats, ladies! I’ll be in touch to get your addresses and send the cards out asap.

Thanks to EVERYONE for entering. I loved reading all of your comments and I will definitely be trying some of those treat recipes (chocolate chip cookies with peppermint? yes please! Brownies with peppermint ice cream? YUM! Hot chocolate with a candy cane? ok! …are we sensing a theme here?) and will have to get some of the songs I don’t already have — I’m always looking for new holiday music!

I’m really excited that you were all so willing to play. I have been thinking about doing a giveaway for a calendar, too — look for that around New Year’s or right after (for all of us who realize we are without a calendar on Jan. 1!).

I know it’s hard to choose just one, but since I asked you to comment with your favorite holiday song and/or treat for the giveaway, I figured I should ante up with my own (yeah, not choosing just one, either).

My family was never really into any of the religious aspects of Christmas, but that said, we totally get into this holiday in a BIG way. It was all about Santa and Rudolph when I was a kid, and of course lots of candy and cookies and homemade deliciousness and a big sparkly tree full of special handmade ornaments and cute little critters.

We watch the stop-motion version of Rudolph (”Herbie doesn’t like to make toys!”) together every year, as well as Garfield’s Christmas, and our #1 family favorite, The Muppet Family Christmas.

“Be careful on the icy patch!”

As for music, the tradition that I always remember was listening to Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer with my Grandma, my brothers and my cousins a few weeks before Christmas when we gathered at her house to decorate gingerbread and sugar cookies. We’d also crank the Chipmunk’s Christmas and have a good time trying to imitate them, while decorating our decapitated gingerbread men with buckets of icing, chocolate chips, sprinkles, marshmallows, and even licorice (I have a bunch of morbid-sense-of-humor boys in my family, what can I say?). Grandma would always follow that with ice cream sundaes for everyone, and we’d all go home in a sugar-coma and listen to the Carpenters Christmas Portrait while we helped mom decorate and clean and bake more and more cookies! sugar!

As an adult, though, my tastes are still in the sugar-loving realm, but my musical taste has calmed down a bit, and right now I’m totally completely in love once again with the Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs, featuring lovely lady singers such as Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, Fiona Apple, Lenka and Meiko. Very pretty and modern takes on traditional songs. I’m also a sucker for Vince Gauralidi’s Charile Brown Christmas.

As for treats, the chex mix (we add potato sticks, too) never lasts long around here or at my mom’s, especially if the bowl is placed in front of me or any of my brothers, but my all-time favorite is what we called “Air-heads”; chocolate chip meringue cookies. YUM (I might just have to make a batch one of these days)!  I also love the cinnamon rolls my mom always makes on Christmas morning, just to tide us over until we can dig into a big brunch or dinner.

::::sigh:::: This is getting me excited for the season! I can’t wait until we have a chance to get our tree this weekend, and get things all festive around here. I’ve been so busy getting ready for all those holiday fairs and orders, and John is finishing up his semester, so it’s been a bit crazy around here. We did manage (well, John did!) to hang lights outside, and finally got all the pumpkins off the porch; the chickens are enjoying them now!

Thanks for all your comments so far; be sure to enter the Holiday Card giveaway by midnight Wednesday by leaving a comment with your favorite holiday song/album or tasty treat!

As I write this, I’m just over 12 weeks pregnant. It’s true! A baby! Making it’s way into our lives at the end of April (2010!)!

I have been soooo tired these last few months, and thankfully that has made it a *little* easier to keep this secret, since it takes all my energy to sit down and get anything done, including this blog post. I haven’t been doing much making, and therefore not a log of blogging, but as Penny’s hubby said about her first few months of pregnancy in this post, I need to remember that I have been busy creating something completely different. I might look like I’m just sitting on the couch, but darn it, I’m working hard!

So far everything is going great with out little bean, and we will get to see much more at an ultrasound at 18 weeks. We got to hear the heartbeat a week ago, and let me tell you that was quite an amazing thing. We had an ultrasound at 6.5 weeks, too, but weren’t really able to see anything but a little blur and a flickering speck of a heartbeat. {Little flickering speck, how I can’t wait to meet you!}

I spent the last 4 days in Pennsylvania with my cousin Becky and her twin boys who just turned one on Wednesday. What a fun time that was — they are quite possibly the cutest and happiest children in the world. It was a nice for me to get some baby practice, too, even though they are technically toddlers — both walking now!

Some FAQ about the baby bean?

• No, we don’t have any names picked out (tho some front-runners, which we will probably keep a secret)
• We still aren’t sure if we want to find out the sex until the birth, but I think I would like to, as I am not a very patient person!!
• Yes, we had been trying off and on for about a year, but it finally happened when we relaxed about it and really believed “whatever happens, happens” (my hubby’s favorite mantra). And then it happened! I really didn’t believe it when I saw that plus sign on the test, and I had to wake John up at 6am to tell him! It has been so hard not telling everyone in the world, and we started telling select friends and family pretty early — at 5 weeks. I decided I didn’t want to go through any of it alone, and especially if something bad happened, you know? You know. And also wanted to share the joy and excitement as soon as we could!
• Thankfully I have been feeling pretty good. Super tired and a little moody, but I have been soooo lucky not to have any morning sickness. I am just constantly hungry, but I get full really easily and nothing really sounds good to eat. I have had some heartburn, which is not terribly fun, but I am so lucky not to have much nausea at all that I really can’t complain. I do pee about every hour, and there are lots of other “symptoms” of pregnancy that I’m not going to get into here, but I’ve got ‘em! It’s been quite a ride so far, and I really can’t believe I’m already a third of the way through!

: )

P.S. Just listed my 2010 calendar in my Esty shop! This year it’s “Birds of the Berkshires”; a whole collection of hand-painted likenesses of our favorite New England avian friends. They’re pretty pretty, if I do say so myself. I’m so happy with how it came out!

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Hah, I really can’t even call it a harvest, our largest carrot was about 3 inches long, and it was by far the largest — many weighing in at a few centimeters, and the largest beet was about 2 inches in diameter, the rest about 1/2 inch. But, I patiently cleaned and chopped the bunch of them for dinner last night, and they were tasty {added to some potatoes, parsnips and carrots from our first Berkshire Organics box, that is}.

Normally I would listen to my mother’s advice and leave them in the ground until after the first frost (tonight?), to add some sweetness to the roots. But this year I had to get ‘em out sooner, because the plot where they were planted was all part of the big landscaping project (remember Operation Rain out of the Basement? It’s about done, I’ll show you soon!). There are some grass seeds there, now trying their best to sprout before the long winter.

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I also had to cut these bad boys down, to make room for landscaping. These three were all that came of an entire package of seeds, though I have to say that bottom sunflower was mighty impressive. Dinner-plate-size!

I got to go apple-picking with some of my favorite folks, too. A perfect fall-in-new-england activity.

This lineup is a few of my apple-picking finds, plus some pears, apples and plums from the afore-mentioned Berkshire Organics box. Not sure how often we’ll have a delivery from them, but I’m thinking every other week will keep us eating well through the winter. I missed visiting a CSA this summer, and being forced to cook something healthy with all that produce that I didn’t even pick out myself. Having to look up recipes and try new things, it’s really one of the best ways to learn to cook, don’t you think?

These last few weeks I have been quiet here. I have been in a kind of transition that is not easily discussed with the world. Nothing huge, but mostly internal and in ways not easily seen or expressed.

I have been doing a short yoga practice most mornings, and cutting back on things like refined sugar and baked goods, in an effort to jump-start my health, loose some weight and maybe just maybe not get sick this winter. I’ve also started taking a probiotic and boy oh boy I think it’s super great. I really miss chocolate and chocolate chip cookies, though. I haven’t been super strict, and I have a problem saying no when ice cream is placed in front of me (it was John’s birthday last week, and while I managed not to bake a cake (he said he didn’t want me to!), some very lovely family members did provide us with the requisite Birthday treats!). But all in all I can report that I feel better all around. I’m more able to wake up a little more easily in the morning (another thing I have always had a problem with) and my skin seems noticably clearer, at least to me. So far so good.

Now if I can just find the best refined-sugar-less dark chocolate, I’ll be in business. (suggestions appreciated!)

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-George Bernard Shaw