Finishing Off 2009

Yes…I have been MIA!  I really thought with the kids out of school I would have time to relax and enjoy…instead I have still been on the run.

First came our weekly yummy produce delivery!

This was a really great one!  (I think I say that about all of them).

Once that was sorted out I dealt with the kids, using up gift cards with coupons before they expired; trying to get some transcription work in; and trying to use up produce before it went bad (sometimes that is a job in itself!)

New Year’s Eve Day was spent at home…working!  FabHubs actually had to work all day and at the fireworks shoot so we didn’t see him until late night when we got to the shoot.

I put FabTeen to work making dinner while I finished working….we tried a new recipe for a lentil loaf.   I am still trying to get more processed foods out of our diet…and even though the Gardein and Boca Burgers are not meat, they are processed, so I am looking to beans to alternate for the processed soy. 

And this was the result…since FabTeen cooked and we were in a hurry to get to church, this was the only picture we got!  That is homemade ketchup glaze on the top but it was not glazy enough.  Good recipe but needs some tweaking.

After inhaling dinner, we dashed off to church for the burning bowl ceremony.    Last week at the Christmas Eve service we could barely find seats and I wanted to make sure we got some this time!

We were meeting my friend Sandra and her two daughters there.  This  was their first time at a burning bowl ceremony…although Sandra had also come to Unity with me last week for the Christmas Eve service.

The burning bowl ceremony is a beautiful two-step ceremony.

First you do a meditation, and then you take some time write everything you want to release from 2009 onto a piece of onion skin paper.  

Then row by row, we walk up to the bowl and put the paper with what we want to release, into the bowl.

They we say a blessing of release, and they set the bowl on fire!

 

The papers burn up in a giant flash!

This is Sandra and me after the ceremony

Part two of the ceremony, now that you have released what you don’t want to keep from 2009, you fill the void left by creating your vision  for 2010.

I had lots to create!  Front and back!!!

 

We put these in an envelope and addressed them to ourselves.  The church then collected them and will pray on them for three months…and on April 1 will mail them back to us!

Here we all our with the kids after the service….

Then it was onto the fireworks!  We got there really early, around 9:45, and had to sit around and wait…but these were the results!

I found  a “fireworks” setting on my camera and had to try it out!

This last one is a sparkler the kids were doing…it looks like a firework too!

At midnight we popped open our bottle of sparkling apple cider and ate 12 grapes!  It is a tradition of good luck to eat 12 grapes at midnight and we have been doing that since I was a little girl.

After we got home, FabTeen and I played on the WII until  about 3:30 a.m.!  We canoed, sword fought, bicycled, played ping pong, and archery.   After all this I was exhausted and went to bed!

For more good  luck today I will be making vegetarian Hoppin’ John…I will post the recipe later…along with my goals for 2010!

 

Happy New Year and many blessings to you all for a wonderful and prosperous 2010!