Reverb 10 - Day 30 - Gift

Gift. This month, gifts and gift-giving can seem inescapable. What's the most memorable gift, tangible or emotional, you received this year?

It's a cliche at this point in this month long exercise, but being a dad is the best gift I could have ever hoped for. It was somewhat of a long time coming, Katie and I tried for a while to get pregnant. We finally did. I'll never forget that day, and I'll never forget the day she was born.

Being responsible for the growth, development and safety of a little human being is so much more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. I enjoy her so much. It's really melted away a lot of the concerns in my life and gives things better focus. It's hard to describe to someone who's never had kids of their own, but other newly minted parents completely understand it. I really think that thinking what parenthood will be like before you have kids, and what it's actually like afterward are such different things.

Abby got an ornament from my Aunt Sue with a letter saying that she'd get one every year until she is 18. It was very heart-felt and I really appreciated it. The ornament was very pretty too.

We chose not to give gifts in my family this year, other than stocking stuffers. We still got a little carried away, but Abigail got the mass of gifts, and that was perfect. Gift giving tends to be such a pain in the ass sometimes, but when it pays off, it pays off. We got everyone in our family a book of pictures of Abigail via Shutterfly and this was one of the funnest gifts I've ever given to anybody. Very emotional and I think people appreciated it.

Reverb 10 - Day 26 - Soul Food

Soul food. What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?

It's fresh in my mind, so it might be causing some bias, but my mom's Christmas dinner last night was probably the highlight. It was pretty great. Standard Christmas fare - Beef Tenderloin, carrots with chive and red pepper, Rosemary Parmesan Potatoes (which are the bomb, and I'm not a big potato guy normally. A cranberry-orange jello salad with a delicious topping and pies for desert.

I helped mom find several of the recipes online using a couple of sites that I know well. We used her new iMac in the kitchen, which I hope she continues to use for such purposes (and even had an Apple touch mouse lesson).

The food was good, clean, American Christmas food.

Since I'm biased about this, the runner up is some of the dishes I cooked using CSA materials. We cooked a lot of new things this year, including pea shoot pesto, which was probably my favorite, and Katie liked it a great deal as well. Our food processor got a good workout this year.