Christmas Day

I’m a little sad that Christmas is over already and this year was especially tough since I had to be back at work bright and early this morning, no relaxing day at home enjoying gifts this year. Yesterday was an amazing day that started with hubby and I sipping coffee and tearing into our gifts.

Leela preferred to stay toasty in her bed and blankets.

While the cats had a ball inspecting all the presents and playing in the wrapping.

I scored lots of new reading material.

Gourmet treats.

And a pressure cooker which I can’t wait to master!

I already have a recipe using dried black eyed peas in mind for New Year’s Eve, but first I need to read the manual!

Miko played hard with his new toy and crashed hard.

And the pups even managed to share a bed without snarling at each other.

After gift opening, I threw together my simple vegan pancakes since pancakes seem to be a Christmas Day breakfast tradition for us. Then I experimented with a curried quinoa dish for huge family gathering at my dad’s that included lentils and scrambled tofu to make it a hearty main dish for me. My dinner plate was a beautiful display of fresh color!

And the quinoa was a hit! Luckily I remembered most of the recipe and will be perfecting it to post soon. :-)

For dessert, I brought a huge batch of candy cane dessert balls that are always a hit.

And we had the family gift exchange after dinner, but did a Yankee Swap this year so everyone only needed to buy one gift. It was so much fun to gather with the adults, sip wine, and fight over gifts with plenty of goofiness and interesting gifts.

After having a few gifts stolen, I ended up with a Walmart gift card which will be interesting since I haven’t been to one in years. I’m tempted to try a grocery shopping run there to see they’re selection of healthy foods which should be, uh, interesting. We’ll see!

And now it’s back to the grind and high raw eating this week since I’ve probably consumed my weight in Earth Balance the last two days from decadent vegan cookies and recipes!