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Monthly Archives: December 2012
Christmas Day
I hope everyone had a terrific Christmas! I had a great day.
I love my Christmas cats! I’ll start with Christmas Eve. I went for a 3 mile run in the morning before heading out to Benihana’s with my family for lunch. This is a Christmas Eve tradition that we do every year. It’s such a fun experience, and the chefs are so amazing.
I wasn’t super hungry due to several big days of eating before Christmas Eve, so I decided to just have a salad and of course their signature fried rice!
A lot of times of Christmas Eve we go to a movie after this, and then at night go for a drive to see Christmas lights, but this year we decided to mix it up. We didn’t feel exactly in the Christmas spirit yet partly because things were so different ( I wasn’t home until about a week before Christmas), so we decided to take Bart up to the city to see the giant Christmas tree and walk around the giant mall there.
And ok, we may have ulterior motives…kittens in the window of Macy’s! One of them looked and acted exactly like one of my cats, Mary!
It’s so sad that so many kittens up for adoption are black. I don’t understand why. I love black cats! My family has had black cats for as long as I can remember. They do tend to have a little extra attitude, but that only makes them all the more lovable.
Once inside the mall, we walked around and soaked in the Christmas cheer. I was really excited because I got one of those 20 minute massages from a kiosk in the mall. It was fabulous. My right shoulder is way tighter than my left. I’m not sure if this is a result of always being on the same side of the boat while rowing, or leftover issues from being a softball pitcher for so long. (For the record, I never had any shoulder injuries but my shoulder was rotated slightly forward because pitching built up the muscles so much on the front of my shoulder.)
On our way back out, we stopped at a cream puff place where we split an eggnog cream puff and a peppermint chocolate cream puff. SO GOOD.
Back at home, I prepared breakfast for Christmas morning: French Toast Souffle.
I used cinnamon bread which we picked up from Whole Foods. This cinnamon bread is amazing, especially with a little butter and cinnamon sugar, so I thought it would work perfectly in place of challah.
On Christmas morning, all I had to do was stick it in the oven. So easy!
Ate alongside Harry and David pears.
With syrup of course! (not pictured)
After stockings and breakfast, we headed out to eat dinner with my grandparents at their favorite restaurant, and returned home to open presents and enjoy a quiet night in front of the TV with kitties. It was a nice day.
What holiday traditions do you have?
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Hi again!
I am posting from my phone for the first time! Already it seems easier to use! I’m still trying to figure out all the features on my computer. I promise I will catch up on my posts! But for now, Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a great day, whether or not you celebrate Christmas!
Stockings all ready last night!
And of course cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for reindeer! Have a great day everyone and enjoy family and good food!
Playing Catchup…Again
Happy Holidays! It is Christmas Eve Eve! i’ve never been one to celebrate Christmas Eve Eve but it means that Christmas is just a couple of days away. This morning at spin my teacher gave everyone holiday chocolates.
For some reason every year I love making turkey shaped cookies.
The next morning we went to the city to do some last minute Christmas shopping. More to come!
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Progress
Hey everyone!
I’m finally home for the holidays! I want to take this time off to make some serious progress on this blog. And enjoy time with my little helper….
I’m so excited to be home with my pets again (and family). I’m hoping to really figure out blogging over my break. I’m also enjoying a lot of down time after a busy quarter.
One thing I missed when I was at school was food freedom. There were certain things I couldn’t really have at school, since I had no way to make them for myself. It’s so nice to see some type of food on another blog and just make it! It’s definitely something I took for granted before I left.
Breakfast this morning was an egg and veggie scramble with mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, bruschetta, and cheddar, topped with avocado. Sadly, I did not get a picture. I am getting a little better about taking pictures of my food, but it is going to take some getting used to. Just to keep this fun I’ll share a couple of shots from the past week.
Asparagus soup with homemade whole wheat bread in the bread maker. Topped with Smart Balance. SO good.
Christmas cookies! (Sorry for the poor picture quality.) Have you ever made Spritz cookies? My family makes them every year. They are made with a cookie press, and they have a slightly almondy flavor. Plus, they’re so much fun to decorate! We tried the chocolate variation for the first time this year. They were good, but not really that different than the regular kind. My favorite ones are the green cookies though.
Ok, when getting out the toppings for our cookies, I came across these in the pantry. 
When I tried them, I knew I had to share them with you guys! They are basically broken bits of Trader Joe’s regular peppermint bark and they are so good! It’s a great way to satisfy ones sweet tooth with something small.
As far as workouts go, I haven’t posted much about them in the past. Yesterday was 80 minutes on the rowing machine, my longest row yet! I’m trying to work my way up to be ready for the season. I followed that my 20 minutes of abs. This morning I lifted weights with a trainer at my gym. I love coming back to my gym at home. Everything is so familiar and comfortable, and much less crowded than the gym at school. I also miss all my classes and instructors at the gym! I’m pumped to return to a spin class tonight!
Hope all is well for everyone!
Do you have a favorite type of Christmas cookie?