Sophie in the Christmas Tree

Early Saturday morning at the park

In good company

Being a vegetarian is not new. A lot of people in history practiced vegetarianism at one time or another in their lives. Some just for a while, some stayed with it their whole lives.

In addition to some of our good friends who are veggies, like Angie and James, Catherine-Eugene and family, Kara-Eliot and family, Giana-Todd and family, Annalisa and family, Bobby and family (who is vegan), and Im sure Ive missed a few...here is just some of the famous people who at one time or another were vegetarians (for a longer list go here):

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and inventor

Thomas Edison, inventor

Albert Einstein, physicist

Ben Franklin, American statesman, philosopher and scientist

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence leader

Jerry Garcia, musician, member of Grateful Dead

Bob Marley, musician

Sir Isaac Newton, physicist

Plato, philosopher

Pythagoras, Greek philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Dr. Spock, author and pediatrician

Henry David Thoreau, writer

Leo Tolstoy, author

Vincent Van Gogh, painter

Voltaire, French writer

HG Wells, author

Steve Jobs - CEO of Apple

John Coltrane - jazz musician

Paul McCartney of The Beatles

Saint Francis of Assisi - patron saint of animals

and these are possible based on quotes about vegetarianism:

Charles Darwin, author and scientist

Mark Twain - author

Abraham Lincoln - US president

Vegetarian

Today is our 10 years anniversary of being a vegetarian. The last time I ate any animal was at my mom's house on Thanksgiving in 1999. I stopped cold turkey (I know, bad joke) the day after that.

I remember getting lots of questions such as, "Dont you miss eating meat?" "You don't even eat fish?" and so on (the answer to both of those is no by the way). I would always love to answer any questions anyone had but have always made it a point not to be a missionary about it. The easiest answer I could give would simply be, "I don't eat anything you have to kill".

I can say it was a great decision for Nikki and I. I feel healthier and cleaner inside than I ever did eating meat. Now we have 2 girls who we are raising as vegetarians and this gives them extra thought to what they are eating, teaching them compassion and empathy in the process.

So happy anniversary and congratulations to Nikki and myself, 10 years meat free!

Thanksgiving

Today we had a wonderful thanksgiving feast prepared by Nikki. It included Quorn Veg-Turkey Roast with cranberry-blueberry topping, broccoli, pears and raisins, mashed yams with cinnamon, pecan and pumpkin pies. Thank you Nikki!

Afterwards we went to Zilker and climbed around on what we call "Zoe's boulder", because she is the one who found it.

Photos from Zilker Park

Photos of Fall

The Capitol Building

Zoe and I visited the Capitol Building here in Austin the other day. Zoe likes all the statues inside. On the way out we collected acorns in the grass for a while.

Vacation Truckster

One of the cars used in the movie Vacation was in front of Wholefoods this morning for a promotion. It was fun to see it in person.

Photos of my cuties playing