Last year, we started a new tradition for Thanksgiving that turned out to be a lot of fun. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner followed by a White Elephant Party. It was hilarious to see the gifts were and everyone was trying to NOT go home with the ‘The David Hasselhoff CD in Spanish’. It was a great way to enjoy each others company after dinner and we laughed a lot. It was really nice and something that I look forward to.
This year, I have decided that I want to start a new Thanksgiving Tradition. I am thinking of starting a gratitude jar. I am going to place a jar on our kitchen counter that my family can write down random things that we are thankful for. Then at Thanksgiving next year, it will be fun to take turns reading the notes.
What Thanksgiving traditions does your family keep?
P.S. This year someone is going home with a set of ceramic mariachi band members.
Before my family leaves the house to go for a bike ride, a hike or even to just run errands, the first thing we do is refill our stainless steel water bottles. This way when we are out and about, there is no, “I’m thirsty, can we stop to get a drink?” I love a good stainless steel reusable bottle that is made with food grade stainless steel and absolutely 100% BPA free. With the recent Sigg bottle debacle, I am glad that the stainless steel bottle that my family uses are from EarthLust.
Allison the owner of EarthLust was inspired to start the company when her first child was born. Protecting the health of her newborn baby as well as the environment became her top priority. EarthLust bottles are hand made from high quality 18/8 food grade stainless steel, which is naturally safe to use unlined. The caps are BPA free and made with safe polypropylene #5. You can download their lab test results here. All of the bottles from EarthLust come in 13, 20 and 1 liter sizes, which means you can find the perfect size for any member of your family. My favorite part of EarthLust bottles are the designs, they are fabulous and so unique. I get compliments on my EarthLust bottle everywhere I go.
Wouldn’t you love to have a fab stainless steel EarthLust bottle to clip to your bag? You can have an ice cold beverage with you wherever you go and people will be asking you, :where can I get a bottle like that?”
Allison @ EarthLust has been a dear to offer ONE of my readers, your choice of any bottle from their entire collection. Wow, the selection is fabulous.
{How to Enter}
1. Subscribe to Sweet Greens (if you haven’t already) and confirm the subscription in the email you receive from FeedBurner.
2. Visit EarthLust and tell me which bottle you will choose if you win.
{Additional Entries} please leave a separate comment for each that you do.
* Share EarthLust on Twitter and follow @SweetGreens. {you can do this everyday, just leave me a separate comment for each time} * Share EarthLust on Facebook and join Sweet Greens Facebook Fan Page. * Digg, Kirtsy or StumbleEarthLust. * Email a friend about Sweet Greens: Fab Green Find:: EarthLust {Giveaway!} * Add Sweet Greens to your Technorati Favorites * Add Sweet Greens to your blogroll.
{Rules for Entry}
* Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win. You do not need to leave your email address if don’t wish to share it. Just make sure to check back at the bottom of this post after the contest ends to see if you won.
* Contest ends September 21st @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. (I will announce the winner, if I do not hear from you within 72 business hours, I will pick another winner.)
* You must leave a comment telling me which item you love in order to qualify.
Good Luck and Enjoy.
* UPDATE: WINNER:: #30 Sonya Park. Congrats and thank you to everyone who entered.
Well, all of the snow that piled up last week is almost gone. Can you believe it? I was completely ready to pull out the holiday music and spend the next 4 months snuggled in my favorite blanket by the fireplace. However, today I woke up to a beautiful ray of sunlight peeking through my curtains, so I will enjoy Autumn again.
Here is what I want to do before the big snowfall happens – you know the one that will leave several feet of snow on the ground for the entire winter.
Our family loves to hike – we usually hike a few times each month and really look forward to traveling on trails that we have never hiked before. Last week before our big snow storm, we spent the day at Lory State Park and hiked the Well’s Gulch trail. It was a great trail for a leisurely hike, which is exactly what we desired for the day.
It was a moderate hike so talking while we walked was easy. We played “searching” games, where one of us would name something to look for and everyone would search for it, such as, a purple flower or red berries.
It was a beautiful day and the mister had packed us a lunch. We hiked for a few minutes and quickly decided it was time for lunch when we came upon this enchanted little waterfall. It was probably the tiniest waterfall that I have ever seen and Eben was especially smitten with it.
We sat and enjoyed our lunches and the sounds of the water and bumble bees. It was quite lovely. Eben collected rocks with ‘gold’ in them. I looked for perfect pine cones and round pebbles. A hike is a great way to getaway for the day. It is so nice to be somewhere beautiful that is peaceful, quiet and makes a lovely destination to reconnect with your loved ones after a busy week at work and school.
Do you love to hike? Where are your favorite hiking trails?
Since it is the harvest season, I thought it would be fun to host an organic wine and cheese tasting party. Doesn’t it sound lovely to invite a few of your friends over on a chilly fall night to try different types of cheeses and wines from all over the world? I think it would be fun to choose a region of the world and ask each guest to bring either a bottle of wine or a wedge cheese from that region to share. A wine and cheese party is a simple and fun way to spend the evening. Read on to learn how I am preparing for this fun night.
Here’s what you will need:
4-6 bottles of organic wine
4 ounces of organic cheese per person
organic plain crackers
water
Set up:
Pour 2 ounce tastesfor each of the wines and serve the water and crackers as palate cleansers. You could also serve other appetizers. The organic cheeses that I chose for this particular night include; organic Brie, Gouda and Le Gruyere.
When setting up this party, I used items from my own kitchen including dinnerware, silverware, stemware and linens. This party had almost zero landfill waste since the bottles are recyclable and most of the packaging was too.
Would you host an eco-friendly wine and cheese party?
What are your favorite types of organic wine and cheese?
Our family loves to hike – we usually hike a few times each month and really look forward to traveling on trails that we have never hiked before. Last week before our big snow storm, we spent the day at Lory State Park and hiked the 
It was a beautiful day and the mister had packed us a lunch. We hiked for a few minutes and quickly decided it was time for lunch when we came upon this 
We sat and enjoyed our lunches and the sounds of the water and bumble bees. It was quite lovely. Eben collected rocks with ‘gold’ in them. I looked for perfect 