i hope you all had an amazing holiday celebrating Jesus' birth (if you celebrate)! i had a wonderful time with my family.
my Christmas Eve was full of the usual traditions, which i love!
pictures with Santa... at 18 and 20 years old. we're just cool like that. ;-)
lunch at in-n-out with daddy
and then my brother and i baked a batch of my grandma's sugar cookies - they're the best sugar cookies in the world! they disappeared so fast that they evaded my camera.
after that i went to church with the fam
and then we came home and had our (unpictured) traditional crackers + cheese + meat tray for dinner!
Christmas morning was i was up bright and early to get cooking on a special breakfast. i LOVE breakfast so Christmas morning breakfast is always one of my favorites! i made
Martha Stewart's Mushroom-Cheddar Fritatta with a few modifications. since my dad & brother aren't so keen on broccoli
in the morning, i split the recipe into two square pans and put all the broccoli on my side. i also added 2 eggs and 4 egg whites, and 1/4 cup milk to the egg mixture, as well as crumbling in a few pieces of bacon into each pan.
they turned out really well (minus being *slightly* overcooked - while they were baking i was working out in our little home gym with my momma so I didn't pull them out quite on time)! we also had Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and pigs in a blanket - Christmas morning staples in our house - as well as pomegranate arils and OJ.
not to mention this bomb-diggity coffee creamer... the stuff is so good!
after breakfast it was time to open stockings, which is what i was most excited about because this year i was in charge of the stockings. my family has always had most food-based stockings so i had a ton of fun shopping and picking things out for everyone - food shopping is the best!
everyone loved their stockings & i'm quite excited to dig into all of my goodies. lots of nut butter, protein bars, coffee, chocolate, granola, TJ's treats, and a few other things!
after stockings we opened some presents and then headed over to visit my grandparents in their assisted living home. [insert yogurt + granola snack here] we chatted with them and my aunt, uncle, and cousins for a few hours and then made the drive back home to finish up presents.
[insert leftover fritatta and baked pumpkin oatmeal here]
i think one of my favorite presents was the cat toys we got our kitties because watching them go crazy was hilarious!
some highlights of my Christmas were getting a baby coffeemaker for my dorm room (so excited about this, even though it's not exactly allowed ;), a replacement iPod shuffle for working out, some new music, a few cute tops, and workout gear from Lululemon! my mom picked out a few things for me (
run for your life crop,
heart opener tank) and i had picked out a pair of
wunder under pants because i've been oogling those for a long time. i'm currently wearing them and they're so unbelievably comfy i don't think i'm ever taking them off! i also got this awesome water bottle:
if you can't read it, the back of the water bottle says "because i like muffins (not muffin tops)". makes me laugh :)
after we finished up presents, it was time for dinner! my dad smoked a turkey (he makes the best turkey, hands down), i made mashed potatoes and gravy, and my mom had made my grandma's homemade rolls. these rolls are my kryptonite. but seriously. i have never had anything that compares - so fluffy and doughy and just freakin delicious.
no room for veggies on my plate because a) i was too lazy to make them and b) i needed more room for extra rolls in my tummy!
just look at that fluffy deliciousness!
my plate:
plus three more rolls because they're just THAT good. hey, i only get them once a year, so it's go big or go home!
i also had some see's candy and a small bowl of ice cream for dessert because no day is complete without dessert in my world.
& in the spirit of WIAW (and since i have some eats i haven't gotten the chance to show you guys yet) i thought i'd share some yummy eats from the past few days.
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| salad with rotisserie chicken, lentils, mushrooms, and white bean hummus |
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| vitality bowl (acai strawberry banana smoothie base topped with granola, strawberries, and bananas) |
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| starbucks gingerbread latte... times like 10. these are so good! |
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| quinoa, lentil, and broccoli bowl with cheddar and parmesan |
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| bowl of ice cream while watching a Christmas story |
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| amy's vegetable barley soup bulked up with spinach, quinoa, and cheddar cheese |
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| a huge froyo while out shopping. marshmallow & cookies and cream flavors with graham crackers. HEAVEN. |
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| homemade cheese ravioli (with mushroom and alfredo sauces) that my dad picked up as a special treat! |
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| sticky fingers pumpkin scones with a drizzle of honey. |
today has been spent mostly relaxing, getting a good workout in (BodyPump and the stairclimber), and eating up delicious leftovers :-) later in the afternoon i'm going to go to the movies with my family!
what was a highlight of your christmas?
