Kittens From The Dark Side: 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.