Now that the holidays are over, here's a wrap-up of how we made our Christmas fun a bit more environmentally friendly.

For the second year in the row, we got a living tree as our Christmas tree. Last year, we got a more traditional fir, and planted it in a corner of the back yard in January. This year, we picked up a kumquat tree. It's really great-looking, covered in tiny orange fruit and will nicely replace the old kumquat tree that didn't make it in our back yard. (I think I've learned enough about taking care of trees in the last year to make sure this one survives.) Here is our kumquat decorated for Christmas in a sunny corner of living room.



For additional decoration, I took some fallen branches, spray painted them gold and strung them with some tiny lights I got at Ikea a few years ago.



That was about the extent of our decoration, except for a wreath on the front door, which I made last year out of spray-painted zip ties, and some colored LED lights on the front porch. We kept it simple, but our house still felt festive.

Gift-wise, Dakota and I received several excellent items that will make 2008 our greenest year yet. These included some gardening and green roofing books, a log with which we can grow our own shiitake mushrooms and, most exciting, a chicken coop! I should say, a custom-made chicken coop, hand-crafted by Dakota from left-over cedar pulled from his workshop. Check out its lovely design.



Before Christmas, we had been talking about getting chickens, but hadn't really officially decided whether to get them or not. So, the coop was a complete surprise. But, a great one.

You'll be hearing a lot more about backyard chicken prep on this blog in the coming months.

In terms of gifts for friends and family, I tried to make as many as possible. I went on a knitting frenzy--mostly hats--and sent those off to various cousins and friends in colder climates. I also got a wood-burning tool, which I used to decorate wood picture frames and a cutting board. Wood burning is hard, but some of them came out okay. And then we gave donations to relatives who have all the "stuff" they could ever want. Dakota gave my mom a gift certificate to the micro-lending site Kiva.org, which has been getting tons of press coverage lately. It was actually started by some guys I know from Stanford, and it's great that they're doing so well. (I think Kiva was even on Oprah!)

Christmas is getting really close now, so I thought I'd do some holiday-related posting. First up, office gift giving.

For my coworkers, I love to give donations and other do-gooder-style gifts. I find this is a good call because:
1) I don't know everyone I work with well enough to get them the perfect personalized gift. And I don't want them to be stuck with some piece of junk they don't want.
2) It allows my co-workers to gently mock me about my tree-hugging, do-gooding ways. Good times.
3) I always get a really positive response from these types of gifts.

In the past, I have given my coworkers "animals" from Heifer International. It's kind of fun because you can give everyone a different animal, and, you know, try to pick an animal to fit their personality.

This year, I did the following:

For the assistants in my department, I got SIGG bottles. These are snazzy metal-lined reuseable water bottles with cool design. I have one that I use every day at work. I highly recommend a SIGG bottle as a gift for an office mate or for a friend who does a lot of outdoor activity. It's are a nice accessory of sorts that also elimintes the need to use disposable plastic water bottles. And, as we all know, plastic bottles are evil!

For the other executives I work with, I gave a two-part gift. First, I made a donation in their names to America's Second Harvest. Then, I extended the grocery theme by taking some cotton shopping bags and personalizing them with paint and letter stamps. I think they came out pretty cool, and people seem to like them.

Both these gifts were simple and fairly inexpensive, and both will hopefully make a long-term impact by getting my coworkers to use fewer plastic bottles and fewer plastic shopping bags. At least, that's the hope.

A week after I made the hot pepper vinegar, I tried drying as a second way to preserve all the hot Red Thai Peppers from my garden. Basically, I cut off the stems, strung them together with a regular needle and thread and hung them up in the kitchen.



It was pretty easy, although I think I should have worn gloves. That pepper juice can burn! And it stays on your hands for a while even after you wash them.

The peppers have been drying for several weeks. They look good, still red, and aren't molding or anything. So, I think I have succeeded.

I am not sure if I'll eventually put them in a bag or jar and use them whole. The other option would be to grind them into a powder and use them as chili powder. That might be cool. We'll see. Maybe I can do both. There are still two plants outside that haven't ripened yet.