Ten Little Celebrations – December 2025

December is always a month with a lot of celebrations – Christmas…my birthday…the end of the semester for my daughter…a great time to travel.

Oak wood chips to create a new native plant area. The branches trimmed from daughter’s oak (stabilizing an old tree) were chipped and I celebrated when I got the whole pile moved to my front yard – creating a great bed that I will plant with native plants in the spring.

Sweet potato soup. I celebrated a soup with of sweet potatoes, chicken, apple, fresh ginger, and a little lime…toast cubes on top. It was probably the best soup of the month!

New docking station. I had been having problems with my monitors becoming disconnected from my Mac…and an external drive not being available. There were work arounds that no longer worked consistently to fix the problem. I celebrated when my husband provided a new docking station….and the problems were resolved.

Rorra water filtration system. In my quest to reduce the microplastics in food, I bought the Rorra system and celebrated the step to reduce microplastics (and some other things) in our water. Now I can move on to other aspects of my kitchen/grocery shopping.

Great blue heron from my hotel window. I celebrated that the view from my hotel window in Lewisville included a great blue heron for a second month in a row.

Home before dark. I knew that December was the hardest month for me to get home before dark on my return from Texas…but I managed it…about 5 minutes before sunset.

Dickerson Park Zoo. There were some cold days in December but we took advantage of a day that the temperature reached into the 70s to visit the zoo. I always find something the celebrate there – either an animal seemingly poising for a photography or the different noises they are making (or not).

Daughter’s tenure. The major hurdles in the tenure process for my daughter happened in December. It won’t be formalized until the spring, but we are celebrating this milestone of her academic career.

Christmas time goodies. December is not a diet month. I’ve celebrated with goodies I bought for myself and the ones my sister provided! January will be the diet month.

Another birthday. Celebrating another year…and the experiences that surrounded my birthday this year – several out-to-eat events, a trip to the zoo, a trip to a wildlife refuge. My present was an electric tea kettle made of glass and stainless steel – replacing a coffee maker that had a lot of plastic components.

Plastics Crisis – Rorra Countertop Water Filtration System

After reading a lot about municipal water quality, I realized that the water filtration I have been using the past few years (Brita Elite) was not good enough. Yes, the filters claimed to remove some microplastics (I guess they would be considered ‘Particulates (Class 1)’, but I was unclear what testing had been done on the filter). Then there were the issues of the filter housing (plastic) and the pitcher it was installed in (plastic). I started looking for possible upgrades.

I opted to replace my Brita pitchers with a Rorra Countertop Water Filtration System. It is a 2.5-gallon countertop unit that has stainless-steel parts. I bought the unit along with a filter subscription since it will probably need a new filter every 90 days. The company has results from NSF and NSF/ANSI accredited testing showing that system reduces over 50+ contaminants including Total PFAS, Lead, Microplastics, and Estrone. It is engineered and manufactured in the US.

The set up was relatively easy once I got it out of the box! There were an outer box and several inner boxes. I am still working to segregate the recyclable parts from the (relatively small) amount that is not cardboard. They recommended washing all the parts with soapy water which was a little daunting because of the size (like a large mixing bowl). I had to watch the video a couple of times about how to get the filter in properly but – in the end – it was easy.

I have enjoyed the Rorra so far although I am thinking about moving it to another location around the sink, so I don’t have to reach all the way over the sink to fill it from the top. I have carafes that I am using to put water in the refrigerator and to carry downstairs for use for tea in my office. I also use the carafes to fill the reservoir as needed. The spigot is very convenient!

Looking back, I am glad I started filtering our drinking water several years ago. The water supply to our house is from our municipality and it is hard to address the potential of plastic water pipes in our city, community, and house (they probably would shed more microplastics they older they are)…or the microplastics that come from the source of water to our city (wells). Now – with the Rorra – we are upgrading that filtering. It is an investment for our long-term health – not eliminating microplastics (since there are so many other sources of microplastics in our environment) but a dramatic reduction in this one source is a good thing.

Plastics Crisis – Black Friday Purchases

I did my black Friday shopping online this year…and it all involved reducing plastic at my house!

I bought three stainless steel mixing bowls with handles (replacing plastic mixing bowls), a shampoo bar (to replace plastic bottles of shampoo), and replacement filters for my air purifiers that I have in my office and bedroom (get microplastics out of the air).

Those purchases were small compared to the Rorra Countertop System for water filtration. I have been using a Brita Elite filtration system for the past few years, but the filter housing and the pitcher is plastic, and I was never quite sure how much of the microplastics/‘forever’ chemicals the filter removed; I did discover that I like drinking filtered water all the time…I can taste the difference. The testing for the Rorra is impressive and I am looking forward to having it on my countertop and not lifting any big pitcher; I can use the sprayer at my sink to get the water into the system to be filtered.

…Now to take the boxes of plastic stuff to Goodwill. I feel a little guilty because I really don’t want this plastic around at all – but maybe it is better to not send it to the landfill.