I hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday!

I feel like it’s been such a long time since I last blogged! I’m going to try to keep this mostly to pictures so I don’t bore you too much!

On Monday night I made gingerbread with this super delicious and healthy recipe! Zucchini? Count me in! It gave the bread the perfect moistness.

On Christmas Eve, I woke up early to go to Crossfit-it was a quick one and I was out nice and early so we could head up to San Francisco. 

We went to the California Academy of Sciences to see the Christmas exhibit I’ve heard about on the radio every year. 

Reindeer!

There was also an indoor snow exhibit-yes in California, we go to Museums for snow. 

Inside the Museum was an amazing hidden restaurant called the Moss Room. I decided to get a salad, butternut squash soup with maple creme fraiche, as well as a side of brussels sprouts. Because you better believe anytime I see them on the menu, that’s what I’m getting!

For dinner, we went to Benihana’s, as we do every Christmas Eve. For those that are not familiar, Benihana’s is a Japanese restaurant where the chefs cook in front of you on the table.

AMAZING fried rice, ginger salad, and shrimp.

Since my sister’s boyfriend (and I!) loves blueberries, we made blueberry crisp, while whipping up Christmas morning breakfast and watching Elf. Since everybody loves Elf, I decided we needed to watch it again. It was adorable, and a great Christmas Eve movie.

And then stockings were hung. Guess who has the “Naughty” stocking? That would be my little trouble maker of a cat, Lilly. Let’s just say she’s earned the title.

However, not sure if the cookies ever made it to Santa, thanks to our little elf who came after dark…

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We actually stayed up past midnight on Christmas Eve watching baby videos, since my sister had her boyfriend over. We watched more videos on Christmas, and let me just say-I missed my calling! I was clearly a natural ballerina. At least for a 4 year old. Now I kind of really want to take a ballet class! It’s the only type of dance I could even potentially do because it’s the only one that allows or even requires rigidity! 

On Christmas morning, I wrapped up some last minute presents for my family. I made them canvas pictures-I’ll do a separate post on that DIY project.

For breakfast, we made a gruyere, mushroom, and tomato breakfast casserole which was assembled the night before.

We also had some expensive blueberry coffeecake that had been frozen. It was good but probably would have been better fresh! Plus melon balls and a side of Christmas tree.

And chocolate orange. Because Christmas is one of those days when candy for breakfast is totally acceptable. Hey-it was in my stocking!

I have to share with you guys some pictures of the cat I’m cat-sitting. He’s the sweetest, hugest, fluffiest orange kitty. He purrs the entire time I’m there, and has the most beautiful fur.

And then, it was off to Grandma’s house!

My Grandma outdid herself yet again with the food. She made 3 entrees-chicken (above), pork chops, and eggplant parmesan. 

Stuffed mushrooms, chocolate cake, blueberry pie, and my Grandma’s dog Molly.

Rumpldy Thump-mashed potatoes, broccoli, and cheese sauce. 

 

Christmas was really nice. It was pretty low key this year, so there isn’t to much of an after-Christmas lull. Plus, today we were back in San Francisco!

This morning, I went to Crossfit, then yoga. I did a mile on the treadmill in between-I ran a mile and then wanted to incline walk for a few minutes, but my achilles tendons weren’t having it. I don’t know why I’m having such bad tendonitis now-I haven’t had problems in over 10 years, plus I reduced my mileage a lot recently! Any advice for how to treat it would be welcome.

Anyways, my family went to San Francisco for lunch and to see a musical.

The noodles were deliciously garlic-y and I’m sure my family loved me the rest of the day.

We saw the Book of Mormon, which was really good! It sells out so quickly, and we got tickets this year as soon as they were available.

We had a great couple of days-hope you all did as well!

How was your holiday? What did you do?