Christmas Celebrations

As a kid I found the day after Christmas depressing with all the gifts and festivities over. As an adult, I love it and view it as a second Christmas, a time to slow down and savor the holiday without all the planning, rushing, cooking, indulgent eating, and chaos. A time to enjoy all the new gifts, maybe watch a Christmas movie or two, get the house back in order, maybe nurse a slight hangover, and get back to green smoothies and my usual healthy eating routine. I had to take a vacation day to get today off work with the strange holiday work schedule this year, but totally worth it.

We partied hard on Christmas Eve at my sister’s house this year because that was the night our entire family could get together, lots of wine, food, and our new Christmas gift exchange tradition. Hubby sweetly prepared the Mac N’ Squash recipe for the gathering which was a huge help since I didn’t have much time between getting off work and having to hurry out the door.

And we had a decent amount of vegan options at the gathering that included rice and salad.

My plate was actually pretty healthy for a holiday celebration.

On Christmas morning hubby and I had a quiet gift opening at home with all the pets who were very spoiled themselves. They got new toys and treats thanks to my sweet mother-in-law.

Smokey enjoyed her favorite fireplace show.

Miko got another new toy which he loves and has been trying to play with them all equally.

Skipper was very content to relax on the couch during all the gift opening excitement.

I am a very lucky girl because I scored a lot of loot this year thanks to family and friends, lots to be thankful for!  Here’s just a few:

• No Meat Athlete book – looking forward to diving into this as I continue running, but my “to read” pile is huge currently!
• Fifty Shades of Kale – Not all the recipes are vegan in this one, but tons of inspiration and just about any recipe is veganizable.
• A cute Keep Calm and Go Vegan shirt.
• A Moleskine Recipe Journal for recipe ideas!
• One-Dish Vegan recipe book for more inspiration, yum!
• Candle 79 recipe book with some amazingly gorgeous and decadent recipes in it.
• A new Canon flash ring for my camera
• Natural home cleaning books and new kitchen toys

And the dogs received some new fruit and veggie treats from Loving Pets.

 

Skipper is loving both the apple and sweet potato treats.

The chihuahuas are still getting used to them, but Skipper is happy to clean up what they don’t eat!

We also had a late breakfast of pancakes, a Christmas morning tradition for us. But instead of creating a new recipe, I used the Simple Vegan Pancakes recipe I created two years ago since hubby likes that recipe and I wanted to keep things simple. But it was a great excuse to try out the new flash ring for my camera which is powerful!

The texture of the pancakes came out hearty and fluffy and I only messed up one of them.

We drove back to my sister’s house later Christmas day for another family gathering with different family and truthfully we were a little tired by this time after the Christmas Eve party, but it was great seeing more family and having fun. We had an early afternoon dinner before wrapping it up of a vegan chili my sister prepared over wild rice and pineapple for dessert.

It’s been a wonderful Christmas, we’re very blessed to have such a great family and wonderful gifts! But today I’m ready to relax, tinker with gifts, and have an extended workout session at the gym.

How was your Christmas?