Moonshine Junkyard

Polly has been singing that song from the Grinch lately and it's so cute. We got our tree at Indian Rock Tree Farm again this year, a beautiful and welcoming family-owned operation on North Canyon Road in Apple Hill that also offers fly fishing lessons in the summer. We have made it a tradition to not only pick out our beloved tree and have candy canes by the outdoor fire, but to take some time to wander the grounds a bit, down to the cascading river in the mossy woods.  The girls were really into assigning ages to all the trees, "I think this one is about a four year old." "This one is a newborn!" "Here is a big kid, an 18 year old!" We did have some slips in the mud, some tumbles down hillsides, but the whole day was so jolly that no one seemed to mind.  The fairy world around us breathed and watched. First candy canes of the season! As for me, I was most excited about the rustic homemade crafts I w...

My birthday this year, November 13, 2016, I turned forty. Forty flickering candles on my Texas chocolate fudge cake, my favorite cake made for me by my sweet mom Susan almost every one of those 40 years. I'm grateful to have never been too far from my mom, and if you know her, you know what I mean. I like to think about her the day I was born. When my dad took her to the hospital to have me in the fall of 1976, they had a 13 month old baby child, my sister, back at home with Grandma Cherie. My mom birthed five children naturally, something she was proud of although she never held back the scary details accompanying this fact. She always said she labored 24 hours with my sister, was miserably sick with the flu when she had me, and screamed and tore badly when she pushed out my brother Matt.  By the time Mikie and Joey were born she was straight up a pro. Although she had little breastfeeding success, I always knew she was just a natural childbirthing baby mama. I bet she was polite...