Last week I got to do something very special, something I know a lot of you would love to be able to do.  Believe me –  I don’t take this for granted because each year it becomes more and more precious. You see I spent several hours with my mom celebrating her birthday.  Isn’t she beautiful? 

Let me tell you a little about my mom – She is a woman who cares deeply for others and that inner beauty radiates.  This year she decided to make some big changes to her nutrition and which increased her energy and memory.   She is an amazing example of how important sound nutrition is to our health and she will tell you it’s never too late to make changes.  In June, she and my dad began to follow the 21-Day-Fix Nutrition Program as well as a daily dose of nutrient-dense Shakeology.  That increased energy allowed her to go for walks and exercise in her pool this summer.  These  changes helped her drop some weight, lose some inches and build muscle. Within weeks we began to notice a positive change.  I get a bit choked up because this was an area that I worried about – my mom has struggled with her health and there have been times when she has been unwell and been unable for us to have a day like we did today.  But this year, we had a blast.

I decided to document our special day together and hopefully let my mom know how much I love and appreciate her.  When I was a child, she lovingly sewed clothes for me, refinished furniture for a bedroom makeover, dried my tears, stroked my forehead when I was feverish, and laughed with me.  As a teenager she bought me my first Seventeen Magazine and told me about Bonnie Bell, took me for my first appointment with a hair stylist and told me I was pretty when everything in the mirror told me I was awkward.  She encouraged me by buying me two high-end dresses when I was hired for my first big-time job, took care of me when I brought my babies home (always magically refilling my glass with Cran-Raspberry juice), and consistently used her talent to create one-of-a kind Halloween costumes for my children each year) and oh so much more.

So back to our day – First we made cookies – not any ordinary cookie but one that has been in our family for generations – a persimmon spice cookie.  Now you need to understand that my mom has embraced eating healthier (except for today at lunch because we believe in celebrating) and knew that several ingredients in the cookie recipe could be improved on so my work began to give my mom a new cookie recipe for her birthday. Persimmons are only available for a short range of time in the fall – ask my mom and dad and they can tell you where and who has the best price.  The cookies can also be made with canned pumpkin.  Learn  more about persimmons – HERE

My mom arrived at 10:00 a.m. with her defrosted prepped persimmons and we were ready to get started.  Now I had tried the recipe with pumpkin as my dry run but now was the true test – would it work with the persimmons?  We got our  ingredients out and started measuring…

Then there was a knock on the door with a special delivery for Nana.

 After hugs and kisses we got back to the recipe at hand.  I learned from my mom about what the consistency of the dough should look like.  Mom learned about precut parchment paper and a cookie scooper.

Then we took a break to capture a birthday photo with 3 of her favorite people.  My grandson was trying to hold the mirror so I could be in the picture also.

We were pretty happy being in the kitchen together baking those cookies.

Then it was off to lunch for some crepes.

Oh and the cookies – here is the recipe in case you want to give them a go using pumpkin or persimmons.  They turned out great.  We added chopped hazelnuts in this batch.  Click HERE

It is a gift to share our love for candy and instead turn to recreating the recipes of the past making them healthier for the generations to come.  PS – Now my mom enjoys organic fruit-sweetened lollipops.

I’m not telling my mom’s age but I’m 57 and I hope I have this joy for life when I’m her age, don’t you?

When I asked my mom what was one of the sweetest changes from applying a healthy lifestyle, she said she had thought that she was too old to make changes and now knew that wasn’t true and also that my dad called her cute.  Can you blame him?