CELEBRATE!

"The more you praise and celebrate life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

I'd like to dedicate this post to celebrating our life throughout the month of October!

My almost done
magical tree costume. :)

• First, how fun, creative, and exhilarating this Halloween has been for us! We planned and made our costumes from June to the beginning of October. We spent countless weekends sourcing and playing with all sorts of stuff while making our costumes. I was a magical tree and SO was a pyro magician. Basically, I was one giant, glowing, and eclectic tree, while SO set stuff on fire with propane gas. We also planned and choreographed a live performance for the family friends we visit in upstate NY every Halloween. We picked the music, choreographed the show, and practiced a number of times. All  of this anticipation and preparation led to a memorable and fantastic experience with our family friends who also had a surprise for us. They unveiled a ginormous spaceship in their garage, and played all kinds of awesome music while aliens, zombies and wolverines danced at the top of their driveway.

Beautiful fall leaves that I
found on one of the trails.

• Second, how wonderful it was to be camping and hiking in the Shenandoah National Park during autumn! After our long weekend in upstate NY, we worked 3 days and then left for a long weekend in Virginia. SO's parents came along too, since this camping trip has been a family tradition for them for many, many years. We hiked, cooked and hung out at the campsite, shared all sorts of stories, read together side by side in the tent, and had the pleasure to see and hear the one and only Charlie Maddox sing at the Big Meadows Lodge. SO has seen Maddox perform almost every year since he was a baby. Watching him and his parents sing all of Charlie's songs in unison was a beautiful and really fun experience. 

• Third, that I succeed in making creamed spinach taste just like my Mom's! Creamed spinach is one of my all-time favorite foods, but that's really only true if it comes out of my Mom's kitchen. So finally, I decided I was going to try to learn how to make it and it turned out great! It was so satisfying to breathe in the familiar aromas of cooked spinach and garlic, and to realize I could continue the Serbian recipe tradition! 

"Lifetime" compost tumbler

• Forth, we got a big, awesome COMPOST TUMBLER!! This is super exciting for us. In my earlier post on composting a few months back, I described the time-consuming and not-so-green way we were going about composting our kitchen scraps at the time. For a while my SO and I have been discussing getting a composter of our own. So we did some research about what works best for apartment dwellers, read customer reviews on Amazon about different compost bins and tumblers, and decided we were going to get one by November 1st. Between last month and a week ago, I had been tracking local ads on craigslist. Finally one showed up that looked good and voila, it's now sitting on our balcony. Loving it!

• And lastly, toasting to the 20 year anniversary of the California Desert Protection Act! The Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, and the Mojave National Preserve were established in the California desert as a result of this Act that was signed on October 31, 1994.

And now I'd like turn to the whole idea of celebrating holidays and traditions, and why my SO and I decided to make up our own.  

So much of what we celebrate is prescribed by the society and culture we happen to live in. Most people follow along because they get a day off work, believe in (materialist) reciprocity, and/or because everyone else is doing it. Having realized all this, and primarily because we've come to despise the "biggest sham holiday of them all" - Xmas, my SO and I wanted to start celebrating things that we actually felt joyous about and that made a difference in our lives. 

Source

Along the way we also realized that in order to keep peace with the family we needed to make the best of all the consumerism-driven events such as Xmas and birthdays. That said, we've adapted by making homemade foods and crafts for Xmas gifts, and treating our friends and family with quality experiences. 

While we can't wait for the day when we no longer have to deal with the religious and retail tyranny of Xmas, we will go along to keep family peace by treating it like a family breakfast that we bring homemade treats to for our loved ones. 

On the other hand, we're big fans of Thanksgiving, which will get its own post at the end of this month. As far as we're concerned, and everyone we've every talked to about this, Thanksgiving is the best "official" holiday ever. 

Happy Celebrating!

~Modern Akhmatova