Emails have been coming in with thoughts on everyone’s favorite part of A Green Christmas, the ebook I released last week.  THANK YOU!  I’m so glad that so many of you are finding the tips and projects so incredibly useful.

(some sample pages)

Not only that, but many of you are discovering the exact same thing we have: you don’t have to spend a lot of money to wrap beautiful Christmas gifts.  In fact, you don’t need to spend any at all.

Then there are your comments on how cool the which-tree-is-greenest discussion is and how eager you are to apply the solutions to after-Christmas activities (like sending thank you letters and donating used cards).  THANK YOU!

For those of you who haven’t picked up your copy of A Green Christmas, there’s still plenty of time.  The 37-page book includes a table of contents, a strong flow of content, and easy to follow instructions – all for $10.95.

Purchase A Green Christmas here.

Happy reducing, reusing, recycling… and rejoicing!

With all my thanks,

Katie

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tomorrow, I have a German exam… it’s not quite the way I envision a perfect Thanksgiving.  Yet there are so many things to be thankful for.

1. I am thankful for witnessing the strength of the Vietnamese girl who sits next to me in German class.  We are the same age.  She recently became a single mother to her three-year-old.  She speaks German as well as me (ie barely) and has no family here.
2. I am admiring the tolerance of the Turkish girl who sits beside us.  She worked in a sock factory for seven years before she married a Turkish man who runs a kabob stand here.  She moved to Germany two years ago.  She is 23.
3. I am valuing the friendship of these girls even though we can barely communicate.  We can laugh and smile.  They can show me pictures on their cell phones and gasp when I tell them I don’t have a cell phone.
4. I am thankful for passing around the food we bring with one another.  They are often shocked by the things I snack on like raw almonds.  And when I was eating a regular old mushroom from the grocery store, the Vietnamese girl panicked.  She thought I was poisoning myself.  Over and over, she kept telling me that I had to cook the mushrooms first.  I said it was okay to eat raw.  I patted her hand.  She shouted for the teacher.
5. And tomorrow, instead of sitting down to turkey and mashed potatoes, I’ll be sitting with these girls.  They don’t even know what they’ve taught me.  But if they could understand the American Thanksgiving tradition of tomorrow, I would tell them thank you because I am so thankful to know them.

Have you found yourself being thankful in a non-traditional way or for non-traditional things this season?

(Image of a German courtyard from about a week ago)

One of the great autumn mysteries has always been – at least at our house – whether you can eat squash seeds.  It’s not really something that’s easy to look up, so I’ve sadly tossed seeds with the thought that maybe seeds are like mushrooms.  Some are edible; some are NOT.

A few weeks ago, I found the answer… you can eat all winter squash seeds.

So here they are, the remnants of the three large squashes that once decorated our table (American jack-o-lantern pumpkin, German squash, and butternut squash).  The German squash seeds – not so addicting.

Their mamas used to grace our table.

The squashes are pureed and patiently waiting to become pies and other Thanksgiving classics.

Do you eat your seeds, too?  It’s our first time pureeing pumpkin – anyone have experience or advice?

Cue the Little Drummer Boy.  Ask the trumpeting angels to play along.  Today I am releasing my very first ebook:

A Green Christmas

Over the last few years, I have been consciously changing my holiday habits without wanting to take away from the season’s spirit.  You’ve probably caught a lot of these projects in this blog.  This ebook offers ideas for you and your family to create a holiday with a lot less consumerism and a whole lot of really fun DIY & green solutions – some that you have seen on this blog; most that you haven’t.

And I promise – all of it is based on not changing the meaning of your holidays or the things you do. It’s about rethinking and creating even cooler (greener!) solutions to bring your family together.

What this book will help you with this holiday season:

~ Repurposing & creating beautiful wrapping paper without purchasing brand new materials

~ Sending beautiful, eco-savvy cards and invitations

~ Hosting greener parties (while spending far less!)

~ Designing truly appreciated personal gifts that won’t break the bank or Mother Earth

~ Really, truly appreciating the greenest Christmas tree… and discovering if you’ve already got it

~ Decorating like an eco-diva – from handmade ornaments to updated decor and treasured keepsakes

~ Adding “green” to your yummy with simple tricks to green your baking

~ Wrapping up the holidays – from what to do with used cards to how to send the most beloved (cheap! green!) thank you notes

~ Spending less and embracing more

The book is organized by chapter and subchapter for quick and easy reading.  I’ve included pictures from our apartment… including a sneak peek at our solution to a Christmas tree!

I also include an entire section of tutorials for crafts and computer tricks to make your holidays greener.  The book is 37 pages long.  The price is $10.95.  A family-friendly crafty project you might like from the book (it’s all recycled materials):

What this book does not include are the obvious, cliched  green ideas like stringing popcorn and buying organic ingredients.  We’ve heard those things a million times.  In fact, after I wrote this book and it came in at 50 pages, I went back and heavily edited.  I pulled out:

~ All of the things that weren’t practical for most of us,

~ Everything that was too expensive,

~ Anything that left me feeling depressed, and

~ Of course, any of the obvious popcorn-stringing stuff.

I don’t want to be the Lorax, preaching about what we all need to do.  Christmas is about feeling holly and jolly.  And that’s what this book represents.  It’s a holly jolly holiday with a splash of festive green.

Hope you enjoy my very first book and get as much out of the ideas inside as our family has!

I spent the weekend crafting, creating, writing, sharing and listening, and putting the final touches on a fantastic project.  You all know how I love green and DIY and rethinking.  Tomorrow, I just know you’ll love this: