Christmas Celebrations And Food!

How wonderful it is to be able to spend holidays with our favorite people!

Above, from left to right:
My Dad, my niece Cora, my sister-in-law Jillian, my brother Mark, my niece Esme, my Mom, me, Greg

During the build-up to Christmas celebrations, I spent a lot of time buying, chopping, assembling, cooking, and baking special food.  Since I wasn't very happy with my Thanksgiving foods (I tried new things and they didn't really turn out how I expected), for Christmas, I decided to make only things I had made before that I knew would turn out great.

Fruit salad isn't great for me (I don't do well with raw fruits and veggies), but it's delicious and it's usually a hit.  I put in bananas, raspberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, golden kiwi, green kiwi, and mango.  I added a drizzle made from maple syrup and lemon juice (this keeps the banana from turning brown!)

I did make one thing that I hadn't made before: avocado dip.  I don't know why, but I wanted to make some sort of healthy dip to eat with corn chips to add something salty to the feast. And I thought this might be well-received because, while it IS vegan, it has no weird vegan ingredients.

I mashed up 4 ripe avocados, then added a can of corn, a half can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes, a can of black beans, a mango, salt, Italian seasoning, some lemon juice, and some maple syrup.  Easy-peasy and it was delicious!

I also made little gifts for our neighbors.  I made chocolate peanut butter crunch balls, spritz cookies in the shape of wreaths and trees, and almond-stuffed chocolate-covered dates.  I found a bunch of beautiful glass candy dishes at Goodwill (over lots of trips!) and gave them as part of the gift.  Greg and I delivered them on a snowy, blowy, cold, dark winter evening and I felt very happy!

We had three potential Christmas celebrations I needed to plan food for.

1. Christmas Eve morning
2. Christmas Eve evening
3. Christmas Day

Christmas Eve morning was going to be a brunch-style meal.  I made waffles and a cherry sauce, but they didn't sound good on the day, so I took over spring rolls, the avocado dip with corn chips, plus the fruit salad and chocolate peanut butter crunch balls.

Christmas Eve evening my family always has a "traditional" (for us!) Tex-Mex meal we call Chalupas.  It's typically a flavorful bean and pork slow-cooked mix, served on top of Fritos corn chips and topped with fresh veggies, cheeses, sour cream, and salsa. I made my own mixture from mushrooms, onions, sliced peppers, black beans, herbs, and tomatoes and ate that in the same manner (it wasn't even very noticeable that I was eating something different from what everyone else was eating, which is fun for me!)

Christmas Day
After all that cooking, and preparation and fun, I was sadly exhausted on Christmas Day to the point that I thought I was maybe getting sick.  I wasn't, but I didn't particularly want to push, so we stayed home and laid around.  Thankfully, we had lots of delicious food still!  For this day, I had pre-made a big shepherd's pie and it was tasty!  Greg had his family's "traditional" Christmas meal of corned beef on rye with sour cream and ripple potato chips.  Unfortunately, this year I didn't find the dark rye and Greg said the corned beef wasn't quite right, either.  We don't bring meat into the house very often - only if we get a take-out pizza or it's Christmas, when Greg gets corned beef.

Shepherd's pie prep:

Yum!  Bubbly shepherd's pie!

Chocolate covered dates:

Esme with weird Uncle Greg:
 

Cora with Auntie Christie:

Christie & Esme:

The family in jammies and plaid:

We opened presents and had a lovely time.  Then Greg and I went home, watched the church service online, and changed for the elegant evening party!

My Mom and Dad decorate, making the evening magical and festive.

I wore this and felt very cute and sparkly!

It's a pine green sweater with SPARKLY buttons and a pine green dress with polka dots.

Here we all are!

From left to right - 
Back row:  my brother Mark, my sister-in-law Jillian, my cousin Jared, Ryan's wife Jennifer, my Aunt Cindy, my Dad, my Mom, me, Greg, Jennifer's son Elijah

Front row: Mark and Jillian's daughter (my niece) Esme, Jared's wife Maria, Ryan and Jennifer's daughter Caylie, Jennifer's son Gavin, Mark and Jillian's daughter Cora

What a lovely tablescape!

Here are some gluten-free pita crackers with the avocado dip:

Fruit salad:

Gluten-free vegan desserts:

Toppings for chalupas:

Here's my plate!

Then a large group played Dutch Blitz, our favorite family game.  Mark doesn't like to lose, but he really likes to win. 

A few days after Christmas, some of us went to see The Grinch at the Children's Theater in Minneapolis.

We drove by the famous cherry on a spoon sculpture at the Walker Art Center.

I really liked my outfit!
I wore a dress with a tiny leaf pattern, my pink moto jacket with a pink puffer over the top (which I left in the car because it was a fairly warm day), and my over-the-knee boots.

Greg's Dad and Step-Mom came over for a Christmas celebration, too!  We got to see almost all our family members for the holidays and it was lovely.  One of the gifts I got was this great shower stool so it's easier to have a stable base when shaving.  I love it and it's working perfectly.  Greg and his Dad put it together right away for me.

We ordered pizza, but I made a side salad for health and fun. This salad set is new to me from Goodwill.

I also put out some treats:

It was fun!

I hope your holiday season was as nice as ours!

Build-Up To Christmas

Happy Near Year!

We've had a lot happening around here, but I'm excited to update you on everything.

We've had cold weather and quite a bit of snow.

I'm getting to use the shovels quite a lot!

After I shovel, I usually sit down in the backyard and enjoy the view for awhile.

I enjoy snow!

And ice!

Snuggles are especially nice when it's chilly.

I found these little bitty sorbet cups at Goodwill.  Except for size, they exactly match some beautiful cups my Mom gave me!  These are just a bit tinier.

Look at the cute ball feet!

It's wonderful to have a home that accommodates our interests and where there's room for things!  The cats enjoy yoga, and being able to do yoga with them BY THE FIRE is lovely!

One traditional Christmas cookie my family made when I was growing up was Spritz.  After I had to switch to a gluten-free diet, I couldn't figure out how to adapt the recipe, but after going vegan, I learned some new baking/cooking strategies that made me successful!  I even have a wonderful cookie press!

I like the tree shape.

But my favorite is this wreath!

You can see our stockings in the background!

My Mom and I had one last shopping day together before Christmas (and before she and my Dad left for Arizona for the winter).  We browsed a number of places and picked up my groceries.  It ended up being a wonderful day because of what we found as well as because of the time together.

I wanted to stop by at least one Goodwill to check out the Christmas decor, and we found the perfect tall skinny dresser I've been looking for since we moved in!  I found a cute one at a Stillwater vintage shop for $300, another one in a vintage shop for almost as much . . . but the timing wasn't right, so I never purchased.  And I'm very happy about that, because this is the one!  We found her without a price tag, but a young gentleman came out and asked if $20 sounded reasonable.  And then we discovered that all furniture was 50% off that day! So we got this lovely dresser for $10!!!

I also bought some more covered glass candy dishes that I'm planning to use for treats for neighbors.

Here she is, installed!  We rearranged the drawers.

Later, I styled it this way:

Since moving to a darker part of the country, I want candles everywhere, especially in the winter.  I've been looking for second-hand ones. This noel one from Goodwill was great around Christmas!

I put it in the window in the living room.

I also found these cut class angel candle holders for Christmas.

These little angel ones I put on the shelf above the TV.

I found some vintage glass balls for the tree.

A Blenko-style blown-glass fish to remind me of the one my parents had when I was growing up (though that one was cooler and blue).  That one got broken, but now at least I've found something similar to make me smile.  It's BIG and they're worth quite a bit of money.

I also found this cute little pottery bowl - it's in my desk storing paper clips at the moment.

Here's some more of the beautiful snow that we've had lately.  It's been magnificent!

From inside our beautiful home:

This particular snow was sticky, so we made a snow person!

Snowperson, part I:

Snowperson, Part II:

Snowperson, part III:

Enjoying the snowfall!

Snow is beautiful on a sunny day, too!

Brrrrrr! 

My hair got wet and froze!

I guess this is how I'll look when I'm a bit more grey!

Here's how the cats enjoy the snow!

Next up: Christmas celebrating!