MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful couple of days filled with lots of family, friends, food, love, and a gift or two 🙂
I know things were absolutely fantastic on my side. I thought for this post I would combine a little WIAW/Thinking Out Loud/Christmas Day recap. It was really nice to unplug for a day or two but I really need to get my thoughts and goings on written down before I start to forget the details. Before I get to it I want to say thank you to Jenn and Amanda for hosting.
1) I love Christmas Eve food! It’s usually such a mash up of delicious yet random foods. For example…
Here we have a healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with PB and banana, caracara orange, and coffee.
Remnants of left over salad with balsamic dressing
Greens smoothie made with 1 banana, about 3/4 cup of frozen fruit medley, a couple of big Kale leaves, milk, and greek yogurt
And the main event….
Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner. This was plate number one and then I went back for seconds. This is actually the only day of the year that I usually eat Chinese take out and it is so good!
The above are just a sampling of the foods enjoyed!
2) I don’t know if I can look at another cookie for a couple of days. I think I may have overdone it and now have a couple of cankers on my tongue
3) I can’t even express how good it was to have my immediate family all together for the last couple of days. I love them all so much 🙂
4) We had a great chance on Christmas morning to chat with John’s sisters and their families. I LOVE facetime. It was so much fun seeing everyone and to experience a little of their day with them. It looks like all the kiddies were having an absolute blast!
5) I loved catching up with my extended family as well. My grandparents have been without power for the last couple of days due to the ice storms in Toronto. I really hope things get back to normal for them today or ASAP! I am just so happy to know that they are all safe and sound. It’s just sad that it was a little bit of a downer Christmas but they all really did seem to be making the best of things. I hope everyone else with families effected by any storms are safe and warm.
6) Christmas morning was so much fun. John and I woke up in our house and went to check what Santa left us in our stockings 😀 I have some wonderful teas that I am dying to try plus many other goodies (inc. some new Almond butter… how did Santa know ;)). After opening those we decided to break for breakfast…
Smoked salmon, tomato, red onion, and cream cheese on a pumpernickel bagel (X2) and a cara cara Orange.
We then took off to my parents where we kept on feasting on cheese, crackers, left over Chinese food (BEST), and homemade goodies and…
Champagne and orange juice. Christmas morning just doesn’t seem right without it!
Eventually we got around to opening gifts!
7) Another couple of the highlights of our Christmas day were going for a lovely walk in a park by my parents. It was such a nice and almost warm day and it was fun to see everyone else taking a pre Christmas dinner walk. After we got back we played a few rounds of Settlers of Catan. Has anyone else played this game? If not I highly recommend it!
8) Christmas dinner was absolutely amazing as always. I don’t think anything can come close to the Turkey and trimming my parents can prepare. My dad’s stuffing is absolute gold. I think I could just eat a massive plate of that with a side of my mom’s cranberry sauce. I really wish my camera didn’t die by this time 😦 But picture golden turkey, plump stuffing, heaps of peas, lovely mashed parsnip and carrots, fluffy mashed potatoes, and this all topped with home made gravy. Makes me so sad that we won’t see this again until Thanksgiving.
9) I am currently of two minds of whether it would be smart to brave any boxing day sales. I am thinking I might have better things to do but in the back of my mind I can hear the bargains calling!
10) This was the first Christmas in 16 years where my dog Teddy wasn’t present. We had to put him down in the summer at the ripe old age of 16. There definitely a little empty spot felt this Christmas…
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Questions
1) What do you look forward to the most on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day?
2) Do you have Turkey for Christmas dinner?
3) Do you like board games? Have you ever played Settlers?