Surviving the Excitement

The older I get, the more I appreciate the day after Christmas even though I don’t have kids. I used to hate the day after as a kid – no more gifts or exciting family gatherings. Now it’s a relaxing start to a quiet week of limbo before the new year where I can catch up on house projects and get a list of goals and resolutions together while reveling in the happy holiday memories without the shopping and planning stress. And I have plenty of house projects to tackle today, the TV room still looks like a wrapping paper bomb went off which the cats have been loving.

But back to the excitement of Christmas day! Hubby and I tore into the stash of gifts under the tree pretty early and I got tons of goodies including some new reading material.

While Smokey enjoyed the wrapping paper and ribbon mess more than her actual gifts.

I also scored another vegan cookbook that should keep me busy for awhile.

And something fun, not sure how much success I’ll have with this though. :-P

Lots of healthy and fun goodies from family.

And something that proves I’m a big kid at heart, a Nintendo 3DS with the latest Mario game. I’m a Mario addict and spent a good part of the day burning through levels when I wasn’t preparing food in the kitchen and getting ready for another family gathering.

The whole gift opening process exhausted Shadow who spent most of the morning parked on his favorite couch.

Later we headed to my Dad’s house for a Christmas Day family dinner where hubby helped cook vegan green bean casserole – always sexy! :-)

And we had a wonderful vegan spread for this dinner, except the main meat, everything else was vegan – score for me!

I prepared Gena’s Raw Corn Polenta to bring which is simple to pack for parties, just prepare the corn polenta part in a food processor and pack in one container. And prepare the cherry tomato marinade mixture in another container to pack. Then just assemble in a serving dish at the party, not heating required. Yet it looks gorgeous, the colors are perfect for the season.

My Mom made a veganized version of a savory eggplant pastry recipe she found in the paper topped with pine nuts that came about wonderfully.

And my sister brought the ingredients for Mama’s Peas Green Bean casserole which we threw together and came out great.

Can’t complain about my packed full vegan plate! All the dishes were a hit among non-vegan diners and like last time I made it, the corn polenta disappeared quick with no leftovers which is great!

But the end of the day, we were wiped and crashed early after all the gift, food, and family excitement. Miko tuckered out early with his new Christmas squeaky toy.

Today I’m looking forward to getting back to green smoothies and monster salads while getting the house back in order!