Birthday Giveaway

The wonderful Alisa of One Frugal Foodie and GoDairyFree.Org was generous and sweet enough to offer not one, but two cookbooks for a dairy free giveaway here at Dinner at Christina's!

While I don't have to cook completely dairy free due to Johnny's whey allergy, I do often incorporate dairy free and vegan dishes and ingredients into our diet for convenience and guarantee. I really appreciate healthy, tasty recipes that both of us can eat and enjoy, without feeling like we're missing out on anything! If you want that too - then you're at the right place!

Up for grabs is Alisa's cookbook, Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living


Also available to snag is the full color My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert cookbook, guaranteed to satisfy every sweet tooth you might have!


There are three ways to enter the giveaway:

Entry 1: Leave a comment below. Need something to talk about?! Tell me what your birthday is, since today is mine!

Entry 2: Re-blog, linking back to this post, and leave a 2nd comment below telling me you've done so!

Entry 3: Tweet the giveaway, linking back to this post, and leave a 3rd comment below telling me you've done so!

Contest will run through Friday, October 30th. I will select the winner using a random number generator and announce the lucky winner Saturday, October 31st! All anonymous commenters, please leave a way for me to get in contact with you!



Now onto my birthday... which I often try to name as my favorite holiday, until people remind me that it isn't a holiday. It is in my head at least!

A few years ago my mom copied some pages from my baby album to mail to me. I think it's pretty neat to look back on. Her water broke October 20th, but she didn't have contractions, so they put a fetal monitor on her. Late October 22nd the real contractions kicked in! After driving an hour in rainy weather, my parents arrived at the hospital and I was born 6 hours later, at 3:12 am, October 23rd, 1984.

Here are some first comments of some of my relatives after seeing me that my mom wrote down:

Maternal Grandma: "She has long fingers, arms, legs, toes. She's going to be like Carrie" (Carrie is my aunt and it's true - here's the two of us!)

December 2008

Aunt Heather: "It's a good thing she doesn't look like you" (Said to my mom, but we eventually did start to look a lot alike!)

April 2008

Aunt Carrie: "I hope you don't teach her piano lessons" (My mom is a piano teacher, and yes indeed I was taught piano for many years!)

Summer 2000

Here are some pictures of mine for you guys to giggle over:

2 months old

2 years old

Between 2 and 3 years old with my cousin Anne-Marie

3 years old with my cousin Anne-Marie

4 years old with my little brother and his bandaged finger

First Communion, 7 years old

12 years old (is it me or Fran Drescher!?)

I think maybe 13? Again, with my cousin Anne-Marie (why are you in all my pics!?)

Last year's birthday (24) riding horses with Johnny

Johnny's treating me to lunch at Sabor do Brasil, one of my favorites! It's a Brazillian style steakhouse, complete with gauchos coming around with skewers of grilled meats. Their salad bar to die for, too!

Later tonight I'm cashing in my Free noble birthday fellowship ticket to cheer on some knights and eat my heart out at Medieval Times!