Christmas review

We had a really lovely Christmas. We are in the learning phase for vegan eating. It turns out that vegan bacon and vegan ham both taste an awful lot like veggie dogs. I like veggie dogs, but don’t think we will get the vegan bacon or ham again. One batch of cookies tasted good the first day, but by the next day they were so bad we threw them out. In fact, I ended up really not liking the vegan butter we used (Earth Balance) even though lots of people recommend it for baking. It has a weird flavour, which seems to build over time. It’s just as well, because it is made using palm oil which I have learned recently is highly problematic both environmentally and ethically. So for most things in the future we will try to use olive oil or canola oil.

I want to be clear that I am trying to eat a mostly vegan diet, not becoming vegan. It feels nearly impossible to live up to a perfect standard, to take an all-or-nothing stance on what ethical eating is.  I was getting really stressed about trying to be completely vegan, and felt like giving up. But I find that if I say that I am not vegan, just eating a mostly vegan diet, I feel less stressed and make more vegan choices. When you are stressed you default to whatever is familiar. When you are not stressed you are more free to consider alternatives.

In any case, we had a fun Christmas with toys and chocolate and wearing pajamas all day. I didn’t get  great photos, but here are a few:

Today is a beautiful winter day. While Jeff and Maren went grocery shopping, Linden and I took a trike ride. It makes so much difference to me to be able to go outside in the winter independently. It is much easier to enjoy what is enjoyable about this climate. This is just four blocks from our house: