I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate!

I kicked off Christmas Eve with a morning spin class, before returning home to have lunch with my family.

img_1275

I had leftover lentil/bruschetta/feta over lettuce, GF sourdough, and a little sauerkraut.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to take a trip to the San Francisco Zoo to see reindeer and the polar bear. They have the oldest polar bear in captivity right now; she’s 35! That’s crazy; the normal lifespan for polar bears in captivity is 20-30.

img_1284 img_1285 img_1299 img_1303 img_1306 img_1310

She makes me miss Kali in St. Louis though!

It was also fun to see the decorations around the zoo.

img_1290

img_1279

img_1321

Anteaters:

img_1293

I never once saw the anteater at the St. Louis Zoo while working there.

Grizzly Bears:

img_1314

All the animals had Christmas trees!

The tiger was beautiful and we got up super close to it:

img_1327 img_1329

River otters:

img_1337

My parents and I split a Bobo’s Gingerbread Oat Bar, to get in the holiday spirit! These are delicious; I saw them and ordered them online since I couldn’t find them in stores, but I had to get a pretty big box of them, so we will be enjoying Gingerbread bars well into the new year!

img_1335

As per our Christmas Eve tradition, my sister and her fiancé met us at Benihana, a Japanese steak house, for dinner.

img_0078

I started with a salad, and half a sushi piece (they ended up messing up our order so I split it with my dad).

img_1338 img_1339

It’s always a great show!

img_1341 img_1346 img_1344

I got fried rice, and picked some shrimp and veggies off my family’s plate!

img_1342

Let’s be real: the fried rice is the best part.

After dinner, we relaxed on the couch with molasses cookies and Gilmore Girls.

img_1347 img_1348

I was so tired from the previous days, and was in bed at 10.

On Christmas morning, I slept in more than usual and woke up feeling like a new woman.

So, here’s a funny Christmas story. We don’t really leave cat toys out because Chloe will take them, but when I woke up, I saw one on the floor. A little bit later, it was gone. And when my mom got up, she told me that it sounded like my kitty Charlie was meowing at 4am with a toy, which didn’t make sense because he didn’t have any out. Well, it turned out that he got into his Christmas present at 4am and was carrying it around yowling! Silly cat. And of course, my dad found it in Chloe’s mouth shortly after she came out of her crate for the morning.

img_1355

After solving the mystery, I quickly ate a granola bar and helped Chloe to her stocking. She was a big fan.

img_1349 img_1351 img_1352 img_1357 img_1359

Chloe got a cool light up ball!

And this monkey, which quickly lost a leg.

img_1361img_1363

I think I’m starting to get the whole snapchat filter on a cat thing down. I think it helps that Charlie has a patterned face (Yoyo was mostly just white).

img_1364

The reason I only had a granola bar for breakfast was so we could go to the bay and do a little run/walk like we did last year. It was such a beautiful day; the thermometer said it was mid-40s, but it wasn’t windy and it was pretty sunny.

img_0082

Chloe made a friend.

img_0086 img_0088 img_1367 img_1368 img_1369

This trail is so pretty in the winter, and I could see all the way to San Francisco! Plus, I think my pace was about 30 seconds faster than last year, and that’s never a bad thing!

After our run/walk, we went to Starbucks for some holiday drinks. I had a cappuccino. Someone in front of us was incredibly nice and got a $100 Starbucks gift card to pay for the people behind in line, so we actually got our drinks thanks to that anonymous Christmas person!

img_1370

After getting ready for the day, I had a mini lunch to tide me over before the main meal. Just the same leftovers as the previous day, plus some crackers.

img_1371

I also broke into some candy from my stocking. Yum!

img_1372

Before long, my sister and her fiance arrived to open presents. Check out this amazing painting my sister made for my mom!

img_1373

img_1354

I think my favorite present had to be the matching scarf set for Chloe and I!

img_1376

My mom and I actually got each other the same beer of the month club, but we ended up mostly choosing different months, so there’s only 1 overlapping month! It’s too funny though that we had the same idea!

We had a little time left before we had to leave, so we popped in a Christmas special. This year was my favorite: The Year Without a Santa Claus.

img_1378

Then, we loaded into the car to head to my Grandma’s house in Berkeley!

img_0091 img_0095 img_1379

I broke out my sparkly pants for the occasion.

My Grandma outdid herself. Everything was beautifully set.

img_1381 img_0105 img_0106

We enjoyed snacking on olives and pickles, and sipping champagne. Olives feel like Christmas to me! When we were little, my sister and I used to put them on all our fingers while we waited for dinner to finish cooking.

My Grandma is also a fantastic cook, and she roasted an amazing turkey and ham.

img_0109 img_1382

She also made manicotti in honor of my sister’s recent Italian travels.

img_0112

My dad was on carving duty.

img_1383 img_0110 img_0111

My plate:

img_1385

I was unintentionally a little heavy handed with the salad, but it was delicious! It had grapes, dried cranberries, and champagne vinaigrette. We also had glazed brussels sprouts, green beans, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and of course turkey! I’m glad I realized how delicious turkey is with cranberry sauce. I enjoyed mine with cranberry sauce and cranberry orange relish.

Next, we opened up our holiday party poppers!

img_1386

I really liked my joke:

How did Scrooge win the football game?

The ghost of Christmas passed.

After cleaning up a bit, we embarked on dessert. My mom and I split a delicious piece of pumpkin cream pie.

img_1389 img_1390

I didn’t have any, but there were beautiful cookies and a chocolate log cake.

img_1391 img_1392

I also had some chocolate vanilla swirl frozen yogurt with fresh berries!

img_1393

It was a fabulous Christmas, surrounded my those I love most. I hope you, and your family and friends had a great holiday!