Bagging the Bag

I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but this year I am trying to live greener.

My first big move has been to try and use reusable bags for shopping trips -- all shopping trips. So that means groceries at the regular market, going to the Farmer's Market, even buying toys at the toystore for Birthday Parties.

I buy a lot of groceries, so the bags had to be big, strong, washable and small enough to stash in my purse. There were quite a few options, but oh so few that actually looked hip. Enter the Envirosax. Endorsed by Oprah! I'm toting the retro bags, you can see them here, just scroll down.

Turns out these bags are handy to use for everything... and they look good too. Yay.

I've also been trying to use my reusable water bottle as much as possible. I still keep regular bottled water in the car as back-ups though.

Clear Skies

The weather has been epic this past week. It's been so lovely that I've been enjoying every minute of it and haven't had a bit of time to write... OK I could have made time, but I preferred to sit in the sun and play with my kids or read/doze in a sunny spot.

Today we went to the Griffith Observatory where you could see all the way to Catalina. It was so lovely we stayed for hours. We saw the really cool Planetarium Show, held a meteorite and had a raucous picnic lunch on the front lawn while enjoying the spectacular view of the Hollywood sign.

I'm so kind I offered to take many tourist couples' pictures with the Hollywood sign in the background... it really was a kick.

It was so much fun that I can't wait to go back... perhaps tonight we'll even hit the Farmer's Market!

Welcome 2008: A Recap of the Holidays

Well the holidays have come and gone and we are still completely intact. I managed to make it through holiday parties, holiday meals and many holiday gifts of food without gaining a pound! I managed to sneak in short sessions on the treadmill just about every other day, with the exception of our trip to Mammoth.

Speaking of holiday gifts of food, we got a lot of them. Among other goodies we got a giant box of cheeses and cured meats, a large selection of English muffins, a big box of steaks, a giant tin of chocolate covered cookies (so good!), a box of truffles and a big basket with all kinds of goodies including four bottles of wine. Clearly I liked the wine basket the best, but I'm surprised by how much of that food we have gone through. I realize now that food is actually a very practical, useful gift and I thank everyone who contributed to our holiday bounty! Hmmm... now that I think about it, did everyone think we were like so broke we couldn't buy groceries?

My Holiday Highlights included:

• Our annual hike to Sturtevant Falls to mark our anniversary. We got married there eight years ago. Wow. Time flies.




• Jared's Holiday Program: this was memorable mostly because Jed was late, and then was made even later when he got pulled over for driving like a lunatic. Lucky for him, the cop was a dad too... he let him go!




• Jared's first ski class. This involved an awful lot of time getting him outfitted into an awful lot of gear for a rather short amount of time out on the bunny slope. But I guess it was the first step right?



• Snowboarding with my brother higher on the mountain than I have ever been. All I can say is adrenaline + fear + snowboarding = FUN!




• Having a white Christmas and getting to make a snowman.




• Most importantly, we had lots of family time to do things like go to the playground or sit around in our PJs!