December in the Beloved Community House

Hello all! Helen here. It's been a snow-filled December here in Newfield. We recently hosted a Christmas Party for nearby members of our community, and enjoyed listening to Christmas Carols, making paper snowflakes, drinking hot cider and eating tasty treats.
We've been battling the cold with delicious food made from fruits and veggies from our Community Supported Agriculture Share. We recently experimented with crepes (which are harder to make than my mom made them look) topped with peaches and blueberries from our winter fruit share, which provides us with frozen fruit, apples, and cider every other week. Special thanks to Purchase Meeting for funding our winter vegetable CSA share. We are well supplied with root vegetables, squash, and even broccoli!
Our next retreat is this weekend, an AVP workshop led by Jens Braun. It will be a great experience for our attenders, as well as us - I've never done AVP, and so I'll be learning along with our youth.
Three new exciting additions have been made to our household this month. We have a beautiful tree, decorated with homemade ornaments. Thanks to a kind donation to our house, we were able to buy a new vacuum cleaner (it's light-weight, specially made for households with pets, has a five year warranty, and it's purple!), as well as a large white board. On the white board, we have an outline of things happening in the upcoming week, as well as individual to-do lists. It feels good to cross things off of the list that I've accomplished, and having it there for everyone in the house to see makes sure that I am held accountable for the responsibilities I've taken on.We wish you all a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Thank you all for your support in 2010.