Home for the Holidays

Well, I suppose it is a rather inaccurate title seeing as how I won't actually be home for either of the holidays this season. But I'm home now, and I think it is technically still "the holidays".

I spent Christmas this year in St. Louis with Jonathan and his family. It was the first time I've ever spent Christmas away from my family, which was a little strange for me, but it was a very nice trip. It was good to get to know his family better and of course to not spend Christmas apart. There was even snow for Christmas! I'm not used to much snow, especially not on Christmas, so I was really excited about that. The snow just makes everything more beautiful.

I was hoping that I could share some about the vegetarian restaurants in St. Louis (they exist! www.happycow.net is a life saver for traveling) however all three of them were closed while I was there. Some luck. Maybe next time I guess! Traveling sure does make me appreciate how easy it is for me to eat at home. It is a very rare occurrence to find myself at a restaurant here without vegetarian and vegan options - and more often than not there are numerous options!

My most exciting St. Louis discovery was company called Match (www.matchmeats.com). They are a St. Louis based faux-meat producer selling everything from vegan crab cakes to vegan meatballs. Jonathan's family does a seafood feast for their Christmas Eve dinner, so I got some of the crab cakes for myself. I've never actually had real crab, and I doubt these taste anything like the real thing, but they were quite good! I don't think they sell them out here, but if you live anywhere in the Midwest I would definitely check them out!

I am happy to be home now, and I think Pixel feels the same. He meowed for about two hours straight once we got home and then slept on top of me instead of at our feet. I love to travel, but I think the older I get the more I realize that I'm really kind of a homebody - I enjoy just spending time here working on this and that and hanging out with the cat. It's really a pretty nice life. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a happy New Year! We are very excited to get to celebrate it with our good friends up in Portland!

-C