I have a recipe to share at the end of this post, but first I wanted to talk a little about about what I’ve been up to over the holidays!

As I mentioned last post, due to the devastating wildfires in Butte County, we ended up having the whole week of Thanksgiving off of school. As a result, things were really hectic when we got back. I was able to help out with some of the wildfire victims though. We had 35 burned kitties come to UC Davis, and I was able to help with some of their treatments. In addition, the weekend before finals, I went up to Butte County with a few other UC Davis vet students and we helped vaccinate and give care to a ton of the kitties in a shelter up there. These experiences have been some of my favorite in vet school; this is why I’m here—to be able to help when something terrible happens. It also amazes me how sweet all these homeless kitties are. It really puts things perspective.

On a brighter note, I’m currently home for the holidays! My first weekend home was the Santa Run in San Jose. Can you believe this is my7th year doing it, and it was my first 5k race ever?

Winter break has actually been pretty active for me. I tried out Classpass, and there is a free week trial which gives you access to a TON of classes in that week. It’s been really fun popping into new studios and trying new things. That’s part of why I wanted to post today. I know how scary it can be to walk into a new studio, and try something new. I do want to try and assuage some of those fears.

Classes I’ve tried out:

Barre at Barre3

Cycling at LIFT

Barre at LIFT

Reformer at Bodyrok (this was probably the scariest one for me)

Barry’s Bootcamp

Core Cycle at Core Studio (with real ryder bikes—they move!)

Barre was the first class I tried. I’ve done a fair amount of yoga, but never really any type of pilates, and CERTAINLY never anything ballet related. I’m not necessarily the most coordinated, especially when it comes to anything dance. One tip I have if you’re intimidated to try a class is to bring a friend! I brought my friend to try this.

What to expect: lots of burning and leg shaking, lots of squats. I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty easy to follow and required less coordination than anticipated. I liked that it had the same intentionality of movement as yoga, but was a little faster paced. You can be barefoot or wear sticky socks. I did my first couple classes without socks, and my feet were slipping all over the place. Other people didn’t have that problem as much as I did though. I invested in some sticky socks, and they were a game changer for me!

Cycling classes are something I’m pretty comfortable walking into a new studio and doing. That being said, I know they can seem intimidating! Check ahead of time to see if the class requires cycling shoes/if the studio rents out cycling shoes. If you need help setting up your bike, don’t be afraid to ask! Team members are always happy to help! Especially since there area a lot of different bikes out there that have slightly different setup.

What to expect: lots of cardio! Definitely bring water. Some studios use small hand weights for 1 song near the end of class. Some classes ride to the beat of the music and do things like push-ups on the bike, whereas some classes are numbers based and show your bike speed. If you’re going to a class with real ryder bikes (these are pretty rare): these bikes move side to side when you lean one way or the other. My biggest tip with these is be patient with yourself! They take a while to get the hang of; I had been on them a couple of times before at IDEA World Conference, and even though it has been years, it does get better each time. Standing on the bike was the hardest for me; really focus on stabilizing with your quads!

Reformer classes were easily the most intimidating for me. I actually signed up for one on accident; I probably wouldn’t have signed up for one, but I’m glad I did! Bodyrok recently opened nearby, and they offered “cycle and sculpt” class. I didn’t realize the :sculpt” portion was on a reformer until I showed up, but at that point I said to myself, “well, I guess I’m doing it.” I actually really enjoyed it! If you’re not familiar with the reformer, it’s basically a machine that looks like a torture device, with sliding platforms and handles on cables. It’s a big core workout! The sliding platform is moved by pulling on the cables, so you can use for anything from core work to bicep curls.

What to expect: slow, intentional movements, and burn! Get there a little early to have the instructor help show you what everything is used for and how everything moves. The class I went to required sticky socks, so check the studio standards on that! It was also really helpful for me to be directly next to someone to see what they were doing if I was ever confused. The instructor was very clear though!

Barry’s Bootcamp is a trendy fitness studio that recently reached Northern California from the East Coast. I dropped into a class while my family was in San Francisco to see the Union Square Christmas tree and other holiday festivities. My parents had a coffee date while I took the class.

What to expect: a dark room, with loud music, and high intensity cardio. The workout is split into a treadmill portion, and a floor portion consisting of weights, bands, and bodyweight movements. On the treadmill, we did intervals at sprints and on hills. My only complaint is really a personal one: I didn’t run as fast as I would have wanted to get an even harder workout because I wasn’t comfortable running over a 8.5/9 on the treadmill for fear of falling off. The instructor gave plenty of modifications, but I’m not sure this would necessarily be the best workout for beginners. In addition, there was a lot going on in the room because there were people doing the floor portion while others were on the treadmill so the instructor was yelling out instructions for both at the same time.

I’ve had a lot fo fun trying things! Here are some tips to fight that first-timer intimidation:

• Bring a friend (see above)
• Check the website to know what to expect/what to bring/what to wear. You can even look at reviews or blogs (like this one!) describing the class.
• Arrive early.
• Watch other students to see where to go/what to do/what equipment to grab.
• Don’t be afraid to ask the instructor questions and let him/her know it is your first time.
• People are so nice! Seriously. The staff at all the places I went was super friendly and welcoming.
• Let go of comparisons. The person next to you may have been taking this class for years. Take modifications if you need them!
• Have fun!

On that note, let’s get into some of the other holiday festivities!

I made a list of holiday things to do while on break, and one of them was to go out to dinner at a particular restaurant and see a movie. This burrata and poached pear with balsamic is actually one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, and was a seasonal special I remembered from a visit a few years prior. Afterwards, we saw the Grinch. It was cute!

Just like every other year for the past 10 years, my high school friends came over for our annual sugar cookie decorating! This year was the first time with fur babies! My friend brought her cat over to play.

As mentioned above, we visited Union Square and the giant mall up there!

On Sunday, my sister and her husband came over with their kitties for a wine and cheese night. Cheese selections included, aged gouda, havarti with dill, goat brie, stilton with cranberries, and a hard cheese with syrah.

As per annual tradition, on Christmas Eve we had dinner at Benihana, a Japanese steakhouse.

And finally, it was Christmas! My family hosted everyone this year. Marie enjoyed her first Christmas.

Also per somewhat newer tradition, we took Chloe for a walk along the water on Christmas morning.

For food, we got a precooked turkey along with mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and gravy. My sister made an eggplant parmesan and I roasted brussels sprouts with aged truffle balsamic (amazing).

For dessert, I made an amazing GF pear gingerbread upside down cake from Sally’s Baking Addiction. My Grandma brought white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

It was a great day of food and family!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

The night before Christmas Eve, I made my pumpkin gingerbread, and enjoyed that with wine while watching Home Alone 2 (we watched the original last year).

I started Christmas Eve with a festive spin class, of entirely Christmas songs.

On Christmas Eve night, my whole family went to Benihana’s per our tradition. I just got beer, a salad, and their amazing fried rice, and then stole bites of my family’s food.

Before we knew it, it was Jackson’s first Christmas!

Kitten’s first stocking!

^This was after I caught him looking extremely guilty with a little tree in his mouth.

For breakfast, we had gingerbread (for me)/croissants (my parents), plus scrambled eggs and turkey bacon.

After breakfast, my mom and I headed to the bay to take Chloe for a little Christmas walk.

Around lunchtime, my sister, her husband, and their two kitties came over (5 cats total in the house!)

We ate an easy lunch of soup, and then opened presents.

My sister made us all homemade gelato! Mine was salted caramel.

^This was my present to my sis! Lava and Ash, her kitties!

My sister and I were tasked with cooking Christmas dinner, which is a first for us. We poured champagne with pomegranate juice, and mulled wine to sip on while we cooked.

My sister made homemade pasta, pumpkin soup, and brussels sprouts. I made cranberry sauce (with maple syrup) and cranberry citrus relish, and then ended up sort of roasted a turkey. I wanted to buy some slices from Whole Foods like we did a few years ago, but when I went on Christmas Eve, they didn’t have that. So I ended up buying a whole (pre-cooked) Diestel turkey. Apparently I looked clueless enough at the store, and the store worker was super helpful and told me how to heat it up: 350 for 1.5 hours, with the first .5 hour covered. It came out super well (and we had a ton of leftovers which were enjoyed all week).

My sister’s husband is Jewish, and the two of them have perfected the latke. These are lemon truffle latkes with homemade apple sauce that my aunt sent us!

Highlights from between the two holidays:

Leftover turkey-cranberry opened faced sandwiches with laughing cow.

AMAZING turkey and rice soup. My mom made turkey broth from the carcass, and the flavor was incredible. Served with Brazilian cheese balls.

Beer flight during the Alamo bowl. This was a fun flight because we picked out the individual beers from Trader Joe’s, so it was all good things! Sadly the game didn’t go as planned…

For our football food, we did BBQ turkey sweet potato nachos. Roasted sweet potato slices topped with BBQ sauce, 2% Mexican cheese, leftover turkey, and green onions.

I made my weirdo salad with leftover roasted turkey instead of deli turkey and it was insanely good.

Friday night, my parents and I finally made it out to the local brewery. They have a beer called “Beer Kitty,” so naturally I had to get that.

They also had food trucks out. I had a kale salad with chicken, and french fries.

On the way home, we stopped for frozen yogurt. I had chocolate mint and  eggnog. Both were super good!

Saturday, I actually worked all day at the vet. It was good to be back, and we had lots of kitties that day—my favorite! I went out for dinner and beer with coworkers after as well. When I got home, it was madness. My family was gone, and my sister’s 2 kitties were staying with us as well. I got home to 5 kitties! Thankfully they all got along, and there were kitties EVERYWHERE!

^All 5 in one shot!

My NYE consisted of a spin class, lots and lots of cat time, Jackson’s first kitten playdate at my friend’s house, then my friend bring her kitten to my house to make it 6 cats, and finally game night at a different friend’s house while our kitties played. The rest of the post will be exclusively cat pictures! I got a new phone, so the cat pictures are higher quality and I have more memory to store them! Happy New Year!

To be honest….I think one reason I’m struggling to feel like Christmas is just 2 days away is that I haven’t had a ton of holiday food, and I haven’t done any sort of Blogmas/12 Days of Christmas/Blogiversary!

I have one more Christmas-y adventure to catch you guys up on, as well as fitness and food things!

Yesterday, my family went into San Francisco to check out the Union Square Christmas tree and see the holiday kittens at Macy’s. I had originally thought that when I saw the kittens (up for adoption), it would be feasible for me to get one! However, Jackson is more than enough <3

Also, I don’t know if I posted a picture of our tree yet, but it’s especially pretty this year! My parents went through our plethora of ornaments and picked out all the best (breakable) ones. Pretty bold move on their part with a new kitten!

On Friday, after a 35 degree-unheated Crossfit workout, we headed into San Francisco, starting at the big mall. We ate lunch at the food court, and I got a big kale salad with butternut squash, apple, pumpkin seeds, chicken, and a maple curry vinaigrette.

For dessert, I had a piece of GF cinnamon coffee cake that tasted like the inside of a cinnamon roll, and a few bites of my dad’s mousses.

We shopped around a tiny bit before walking over to Union Square, first to see the Macy’s kittens!

So cute!

Then, we walked over to the big tree in Union Square.

We hung around there for a bit before deciding we wanted to grab a beer. I looked up nearby breweries, and we ended up at Thirsty Bear, which was also a tapas place with a delicious looking menu. We shared a flight of all their beers, as well as some samples of their holiday brews (including a lager with nutmeg).

After our flight, my dad and I split the Panda Bear, a lager made with cacao nibs and vanilla. It was served with TCHO chocolate, which paired perfectly! It was really interesting because it was definitely a chocolatey beer, but it wasn’t a dark beer!

We finally headed home and ate dinner and relaxed until I went to a Christmas party with my friends! My friend’s house was decorated beautifully. They also had a white elephant exchange, but for snacks, which I thought was a great idea! It was also another great excuse to bust out my Christmas sweater! I’ve gotten lots of use out of it this year!

In terms of fitness this week, it’s been a mixture of Crossfit and spin. It’s nice being back at my home Crossfit, but Monday and Tuesday’s workout had my entire body hurting. Monday was 100 pull ups+100 wall balls. 2 days later, I could not straighten my arms! But I did 100 pull ups without ripping my hands, which was sort of a miracle. I was really happy with my workout; I was able to hold onto sets of 4 or 5 most of the way through the 100, only dropping to sets of 2-3 by the very end.

Then, Tuesday morning was 5 rounds of 20 power snatches and 50 double unders. Plus, we did 100 hollow rocks as part of the strength for the day (that crushed my abs). Thankfully, my double unders, which had been elusive over the preceding months, decided to return.

I’ve also been walking Chloe. We walked a couple of times with my friend and her dog (he’s gotten so big now!), and a couple of times solo with a podcast.

In terms of food over break, here are a couple of fun things:

Sort of open faced sloppy joes with ground turkey. Bread on the bottom, lettuce leaf on top. Plus some amazing roasted brussels sprouts. We drizzled them with truffle aged balsamic and it was absurd. I planned this meatier dinner for the night after 100 pull ups!

Cooking Light’s Miso Ginger Noodle Bowls. I found these while flipping through the magazine!

Crustless vegetable quiche (filled with broccoli, peppers, mozzarella, and feta), roasted asparagus with truffle salt, and GF baguette with olive oil and that amazing balsamic.

GF molasses ginger cookies from the GF bakery in the city. So delicious! Also pieces of this See’s toffee bar. These remind me of my childhood; we used to sell them as a band fundraiser in middle school (I played the violin), and I haven’t had one in years! Most toffee has nuts, but these don’t!

And finally, open faced turkey and havarti sandwiches with persimmon on top, broiled. Green beans with a lemon dill seasoning blend on the side.

And finally:

Starbucks peppermint hot chocolate. Of course with whipped cream. I got it with nonfat milk, so I guess it’s a compromise!

I don’t expect to post again before Christmas, so I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday!

First, we’re going to step it back to just before finals week. I actually drove home the weekend before finals to go to my dad’s company Christmas party.

I’ve never missed one, and I decided it would be a good break from school and studying, plus it would allow me to spend a day studying with my kitty at home! (And I re-listened to a lecture on the drive back.)

Of course, there was good food!
Salad:

Snapper:

And cheesecake:

The next day, I baked peppermint bark muffins with a gluten free muffin mix I had lying around, plus Ghiradelli peppermint bark chips and chocolate chips.

The next Christmas festivities occurred right after finals. I knew I was going to want to celebrate the semester, so I scheduled my annual Christmas cooking making with my best friends from high school.

Another bonus? One of my friends has a new kitten!

Here’s our handiwork!

Saturday night, my family and I went to a Dickens Christmas Fair. It was really cool! It was exactly what it sounds like. Lots of people were dressed up. There was food, things to buy, and performances going on.

We were there kind of late so a lot of the food was gone. I had a baked potato and steamed vegetables.

And a GF cookie.

Sunday, it was time for the Santa Run! It’s an afternoon race so it’s always awkward working out meals. I made my shortcut ginger butternut squash soup.

We got super lucky! The weather was absolutely beautiful! Some years it’s been cold and/or rainy!

I was not super confident going into this race. My ankle is still bad (and likely will be for the foreseeable future). But I couldn’t miss this race!

I went out at a decently fast pace the first two miles, but sort of jogged the last mile. Unfortunately, eating gluten in Christmas cookies a few nights before had be feeling sick in the following days. Oh well, lesson learned!

Not too bad of a time, all things considered!

Embarrassingly, I actually re-rolled my bad ankle within the last .1 mile, but since my ankle issues are weirder than just a role, I don’t think it made any lasting difference thankfully!

At the finish line, we grabbed snacks (chicken tamale for me) and explored Christmas at the Park. Apparently the 600 Christmas trees there this year was a Guinness World Record!

I actually ended up pulling off a third place in my age group!

After exploring the festivities, we grabbed beers at a place we’ve stood outside in past years because they had heat lamps and it was freezing!

On the way home, we stopped in Palo Alto to see lights on a famous street that apparently has been decorating since the 1940s! It was pretty cool! The decorations seemed like they were from another era—a lot of wooden figures.

While in Palo Alto, we stopped at Sweetgreen. I got a salad with burssels sprouts and a delicious cranberry vinaigrette.

Later in the week, my mom and I went to the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

We stopped at Mariposa for lunch, a gluten free bakery. I had a turkey sandwich, and we split some muffins (the pumpkin chocolate chip is my favorite!)

We also tried a couple of gourmet chocolates: Rose chocolate and burnt caramel.

This post is getting super long, so I’ll save the remaining festivities, but I’ll leave you with some of my favorite kitten pictures of the week!

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

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.

She makes me miss Kali in St. Louis though!

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

Anteaters:

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

Grizzly Bears:

All the animals had Christmas trees!

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

River otters:

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!

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

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

It’s always a great show!

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

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

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

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.

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

Chloe got a cool light up ball!

And this monkey, which quickly lost a leg.

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).

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.

Chloe made a friend.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

I broke out my sparkly pants for the occasion.

My Grandma outdid herself. Everything was beautifully set.

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.

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

My dad was on carving duty.

My plate:

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!

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.

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

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

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

Christmas Eve began on an active note—12 Days of Christmas at Crossfit!

12 days of Christmas operates just like the song. You start with the exercise at 1 and do one rep. Then you go to the next exercise and do 2 reps of that, and one rep of the first exercise. And so on. I love festive workouts! I finished in around 30 minutes. And the best news? Earlier this week was the first time in 3 months that I have done snatches—the first time since my shoulder injury. On Monday, I used the training bar and worked up to 30 pounds, but I used 45 for the workout! Partly this was fine because these were power snatches so I did not have to squat down, which is easier on my shoulder.

To refuel, I heated up some chocolate soy milk and added mint extract and whipped cream.

Next, my friend who is cat sitting for me next week came over and brought her “kittens.” I can’t believe how much they’ve grown!

After lunch, we decided to pay a visit to the Humane Society to visit the kitties. We saw the kitty my sister is thinking about adopting soon as well.

We then saw the movie Sisters. Overall I liked it! There were some jokes that fell flat to me though. After the movie, we headed to Whole Foods for dinner and ingredients for the following day. For dinner I had some veggies and mashed potatoes. Since I’m not supposed to eat big meals thanks to my stomach, I wanted to break up Christmas dinner and have my potatoes early!

The evening was spent at home with festive red champagne.

We were up fairly early on Christmas morning. I ate a Luna bar for breakfast first thing because we were planning on going for a run/walk around 9am.

We then opened stockings. It was Chloe’s first Christmas and she seemed to enjoy what she got!

After breakfast and stockings, we drove out to the bay on quite the chilly morning. About 39 when we got up! I wore my Santa Run shirt for the occasion.

It was an absolutely beautiful morning, and so clear after the past few days of rain. We could see all the way to San Francisco!

I ran 3 miles at a hair under a 9:00 pace, which was the goal!

On the way home, we stopped at Starbucks for some festive drinks. I had a holiday spice flat white. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan because it was slightly sweet and I don’t like sweet+coffee. For anyone else though, I’d probably recommend it because it wasn’t crazy sweet like some of their other drinks!

Once home, we opened presents!

Lunch for me was Whole Foods Butternut Squash posole with cheddar and truffle salt (because why not?).

Then, it was time to start making dessert! We were lacking dessert ideas for a while, but I wanted to actually make something special. What I came up with was a modification of a chocolate silk pie. I used this recipe for the chocolate silk portion. The center is essentially just silken tofu and chocolate, which was perfect because I didn’t want something too heavy.

I started with a gluten free chocolate cookie crust and spread chocolate fudge sauce on the base.

Then, I made the tofu base, but I blended in fresh mint and a touch of mint extract.

Finally, I topped it with homemade whipped cream plus a crushed candy cane decoration.

Christmas dinner was definitely unconventional. As we all well now, I’m on a soup kick and I can’t tolerate big meals so I lead the effort to make Christmas dinner in soup form. We used a basic chicken veggie soup recipe, but substituted Whole Foods precooked turkey for the chicken. Side note: the Whole Foods turkey is quite possibly the BEST turkey I have ever had. We also mixed in a truffle gravy seasoning mix for added flavor. For the “stuffing,” I made croutons by slicing up gluten free bread, spreading it with Earth Balance garlic and herb, and toasting it in the oven. Cranberry sauce was served on the side!

We all agreed that the soup turned out quite well, and were satisfied with this twist on a traditional Christmas meal.

And finally: dessert is served!

Overall, it was an awesome and low key day! I would also say this is definitely our healthiest Christmas ever!

I want to add one thing. While I’m all for enjoying yourself with foods over the holidays, I do want to mention that thanks to my stomach issues and new diagnosis, I’ve had to be very careful with what I eat, and as a result, I was much healthier throughout the holidays. It was actually wonderful. I still enjoyed some treats, but overall I felt SO much better. Having soup for Christmas was perfect! I also love that my family supports me so much in the way in which I eat. Right now especially, I know it is not easy and I really do try to be as easy going as possible about it, but the reality is that because of everything, it is an issue. So thank you! (Because I know they are reading this :))

Merry Christmas!

First, on Sunday, I drove to my roommate’s hometown in the country to visit her!

…and her persimmons. She has tons and tons of trees in her yard, and she is my source of mass quantities of persimmons this time of year, which I always look forward to so much! I was able to try one straight off the tree, and then as we walked through the trees we found a ripe hachiya. Hachiya persimmons are the pointed kind that have to be eaten when they’re soft—anything less than soft will make your tongue curl up! What I’ve been eating are the Fuyu variety and those can be eaten hard!

Anyways, the point is that I was forced to double fist persimmons. Rough life.

I also got to meet her sweet pets! The dog and the kitties were adorable together!

We went to lunch downtown where I had delicious tomato basil soup, and we shared sweet potato fries. I think tomato soup is so underrated.

While out, I went to Sprouts for the first time and picked up some new granola bar flavors as well as individual packets of flavored sun butter. Then, we stopped by a softball field. Why? Many years before we met, I used to come to her hometown a lot to play softball, so we thought we’d stop by and say hi!

It was weird being back after so many years, but it made me reflect on how much softball shaped my life and who I am today. If I hadn’t played at the field many years ago, I wouldn’t have learned my work ethic and determination, and I wouldn’t have gotten into the college I’m at now. So I would never have met my awesome roommate, so I would never have gone to see her and then returned to that field. Crazy how life works.

We made an elaborate dinner. Well, sort of. She mostly made it and I mostly watched and offered insightful commentary. She claimed it was a lazy dinner, but it involved multiple dishes and baking chicken in the oven for an hour. That’s certainly elaborate for me! We (she) made chicken thighs, sautéed broccoli, and gluten free butternut squash ravioli that we picked up at Sprouts.

The next morning, I went to San Francisco with my high school friends to go shopping.

This is something we’ve done every year at Christmas time since before we could drive. We usually don’t end up buying much, but it’s fun to look around and see the festive decor!

We actually spent much longer there than in previous years so we had dinner at a restaurant at the mall.

It was a tap house so we each tried different beers.

For my meal, I ordered butternut squash soup which was SO good! It had sherry soaked grapes at the bottom and pumpkin seed oil drizzled on top which made this way more fun!

We got back from the city around 10 and then it was time to start our annual cookie baking! We’ve been making the same sugar cookies since our freshman year of high school!

Here are some of this year’s cookies. Sadly the picture quality is not great. Every year I like to make lots of turkeys for some reason or another!

As usual, we stayed up far too late catching up and going through old yearbooks. Totally worth it! We’ve continued this tradition through high school, and I really hope we can keep it going when we graduate and enter the real world!

What are your favorite Christmas cookies?

I’m currently blogging with my kitty snuggled in at my side. My mother likes to keep the house FREEZING so we’re both cold! So, let’s get to the holiday recap, shall we?

Christmas Eve morning started with a workout. I got up at 5am to go to a spin class….only to find that the gym didn’t open until 7 (the class was supposed to be at 5:45am)…despite the fact that the class appeared on the schedule! I ended up going to Starbucks for coffee and hanging out there for an hour or so.

I ended up getting a killer workout in-treadmill intervals, single leg RDLs, and abs! I left feeling great and ready for the holiday to get started! Blasting Spanish Christmas music during the workout helped too

My family got all dressed up and headed to Benihana, a Japanese steakhouse. I wore my seasonably appropriate Christmas sweater.

We started with a ginger salad and mushroom onion soup.

But we all know the best part is the fried rice!

I don’t know why I’ve never tried to make fried rice myself-it doesn’t seem that hard!

For my main course, I kept it on the lighter side by ordering steamed veggies (which came with a small tofu appetizer). I failed to take pictures, but it included all  kinds of goodies like mushrooms and butternut squash.

We had several other ideas for things to do with the rest of the day, but we ended up just lounging around. Later in the evening, we watched my favorite Christmas movie-The Year Without a Santa Claus!

And then it was time to hang the stockings and put out the cookies and carrots (for reindeer!).

Not a bad looking tree this year! Fun fact-all our ornaments are unbreakable because my kitties like to chase each other around the tree.

Christmas morning we awoke and opened stockings and pet presents.

Billy enjoyed his new reindeer! It came in a little chimney with another reindeer and Santa!

Then, it was time to dig into breakfast! We got a TON of food gifts this year, and especially breakfast foods!

My dad make scrambled eggs (not pictured) and I dug into blueberry coffeecake and a blueberry English muffin (other half didn’t make the picture).

Then, my parents and I opened presents. Which, of course our kitties loved.

After getting prettied up, we were off for Christmas lunch with my grandparents.

My grandparents live in Berkeley, so we met up at a restaurant in the marina with views of the Golden Gate bridge from afar!

The room we were seated at had an insane view!

Lunch was a full buffet with all kinds of delicious food!

Course 1:

Crab salad, Greek salad, pasta salad, and cheese with bread.

Course 2:

Traditional Christmas fare! Half a biscuit, a small piece of cornbread, turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce, and candied yams.

Dessert:

Creme brûlée, bread pudding, and chocolate dipped pineapple and rice crispie treat. There was a chocolate fountain! I HAD to try that!

After lunch, we climbed the hill to my grandmother’s house to open presents and have dessert.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time for dessert because we had to come home and take care of my dog, but she sent us home with some beautiful cakes!

Chocolate mocha cake.

Amazing blueberry cheesecake.

Once I rallied a bit from my food coma, I dove in!

So delicious! It was a great day, spent with great people, although I had a bout a 3 day food coma! So thankful for this family!

I think for this break, if I can stay up to date on blogging, I’m going to structure these posts as some type of tidbit to start-health, news, life, random, etc, and then go into meals and workouts. Sound ok?

Today’s tidbit: the storm of the decade. People not from CA may have seen on the news that we’ve gotten blasted with rain these past few days. I wanted to set the record straight, as a Northern Californian.

1. We are in a drought. We are STILL in a drought. We needed that rain, and we’ve already had the most December rain in 50 years, but we need another 2-3 storms of this caliber to no longer be in a drought.

2. Yes, this storm may seem like “nothing” in comparison to crazy central US/East coast storms, but the fact of the matter is that it caused a great deal of damage, just because of the sheer amount of water that came down so quickly. The winds weren’t crazy and it wasn’t an INSANE downpour, but it was a constant amount of water being dumped. Lots and lots of things flooded. Some people up north lost their houses in mudslides. Highways in the Bay Area closed due to feet of water flooding the freeways (including near SF). I was done with exams before the storm hit, but some exams had to be moved because the buildings they were supposed to take place in flooded.

3. The night before the storm of the decade….I was out duct taping my windshield wiper back together. Awesome. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but it was broken such that the rubber wiper wouldn’t stay in place so the arm of the wiper scraped across the glass, which made a deafening shriek. Duct tape worked like a charm. The drive home in torrential rain? Not so fun though. I couldn’t see 10 feet ahead of me.

Now that we’ve got that squared away, what did I fail to mention?

I’ve been doing lots of getting in the Christmas spirit! 2 Christmas movies have already been watched. My Christmas sweater has been worm.

The day I went home, my mom, my sister, and I had lunch. I had a delicious bowl that included brown rice, butternut squash, carrots, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower puree. It was delicious.

Followed by my favorite ice cream ever, Tin Pot. This is chocolate.

Thursday night I actually taught spin. Due to torrential rain, it was a small class but a good one! I love how the gym is decked out for the holidays!

Lunch on Friday was open faced turkey sandwiches, with an apple slice on top. Just place them under broil until the cheese is bubbly-they’re delicious!

Friday I also made my first batch of holiday cookies. I used my recipe for healthy polka dot cookies. They actually are really healthy. It was nice to have something sweet on hand that didn’t leave me feeling gross and sluggish. They were even approved by my grandma!

This batch is extra dark because I used dark chocolate cocoa powder.

Another fun weekend event involved seeing my 3rd grade teacher perform in the community production of A Christmas Carol. He was Jacob Marley’s ghost, and did a great job! The whole production was fantastic and so well done. They put it on every year, and every year it sells out. It’s free, but you are asked to bring toys to donate.

That’s all for today-expect more catch up food pictures tomorrow!

What is your favorite holiday dessert?

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?