Living Light celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2007, a landmark year for the business, as well as for our founder and director, Cherie Soria, who turned a smashingly fit and beautiful 60 in 2007. Cherie celebrated this happy occasion by completing her new book, The Raw Food Diet Revolution—Feast, Lose Weight, Gain Energy, Feel Younger, co-authored by well-known writers Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, of Becoming Vegan and Becoming Vegetarian.The book will be on bookshelves by June! Many of you will be glad to hear this—it's been a long time coming!

To better showcase our four eco-friendly businesses, we designed a brand new website in 2007, with great photos, drop down menus, online video demos—a clean, fresh look that's easy to navigate-and a way for all of you to keep up-to-date on our latest classes, projects, and events! We've also launched a new program: Gourmet Raw Food Chef Certification, which takes our students to a new level of confidence and expertise!

Our collaboration with Raw Food Doctors™ Rick and Karin Dina has been both exciting and rewarding during the past year. With the Dina's as facilitators, we've offered 2-day workshops on the Science of Raw Food Nutrition prior to every Associate Chef Training Series throughout the year. The Dinas are now offering an extended 5-day course, as well as a 2-day teacher training course each August and December!

In the events department, we shone in the Costa Rican sun February 11-18 with a Raw World Festival and Adventure Tour. It was a great place for lovers of raw food—a tropical paradise of flora, fauna, and fun! Living Light's 3rd Annual Vibrant Living Expo was the best! Many of our favorite world-renowned raw food experts and culinary artists were here, and we hosted our first ever mini film festival, facilitated by Dorit. We are looking forward to an even more exciting Expo in 2008, with keynote speaker Dr. Gabriel Cousens, and other outstanding leaders in the raw food movement! Living Light Inn hosted its official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and open house on September 5, with beautiful décor, a delightful menu, and delicious organic and biodynamic wines. Chamber ambassadors, guests, and Living Light staff mingled on the lawn, and took a tour of the elegant redwood mansion, which has been fitted with all organic bedding, a state of the art water filtration system, and beautifully redecorated rooms to accommodate eco-minded travelers to the Mendocino coast. At the Mount Shasta Living Food Expo Dan and Cherie presented divinely inspired desserts to the awed audience. Living Light staff prepared a fabulous gourmet raw meze meal, to benefit the San Francisco Vegetarian Society for World Vegetarian Day in Golden Gate Park, and Dan and Cherie were featured presenters at the event. At Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona, Arizona, Cherie was honored with the Golden Spoon Award for training more chefs and instructors in raw culinary arts than anyone in the world, and for her role in helping gourmet raw foods go mainstream. Cherie, Elaina Love, and Jeannie Moffitt wowed a huge crowd with their super scrumptious raw desserts demo, and raw food revolutionaries were popping up all over during Cherie's exciting keynote address at the event! Viva la Raw Food Revolucion!!

We wrapped up the year with our favorite Living Light family celebration, New Holiday Traditions, on November 17 & 18, with wonderful culinary presentations, delightfully festive meals, beautiful holiday décor, and a reunion of many of our students and teachers from around the globe. Living Light Inn is a featured stop on this year's Candlelight Inn Tour in Fort Bragg on December 7th. We've decked the halls and are ready to offer a warm reception.

Don't Forget: Living Light Classes and Workshops make great Holiday Gifts, and we're excited about the lineup for 2008 and beyond! Attractive Gift Certificates are available for all Living Light classes, and for the great assortment of wonderful gifts available at Living Light Marketplace.

Everyone is jazzed about the new Pastry Arts—Unbaked course, featuring famous dessert divas Cherie Soria and Vinnette Thompson, and favorite desserts reinvented and re-imagined as raw confections! Class debuts August 18-21, 2008, and is open to all Associate Chef Graduates.

You can read this and previous newsletters in web page format at www.RawFoodChef.com.