Hi, friends!
I’m popping in with a little recap of our Christmas and Christmas break! How was yours? I hope it was filled with lots of new fun memories and not too much stress, especially for those of you in the cold states!
Our Christmas break started technically on the 15th, as that’s when KJ was out of school. But that meant he didn’t go to school and stayed home with KK and the sitter. We didn’t start doing anything fun until Mr. Hungry was off on December 23rd. Of course, he kicked off the break by making cookies for Santa and the reindeer!
We went to mass Christmas Eve night (Catholics celebrate vigil mass for all Sundays and Christmas), I never got a picture of the boys in their adorable matching reindeer shirts and ties, but my in-laws snapped this picture of Mr. Hungry and I!
The dress is a super old nonmaternity sweater dress from Banana Republic!
Christmas morning, KJ woke up to find Santa had eaten cookies and reindeer the carrots! This was the first year KJ was old enough to grasp the concept of Santa, so things went up a notch!
Email readers click through to read!
Of course, the kids had a great time opening a million, and one presents.
Around noon, my mom and my in-laws came over, including my MIL and FIL, plus Mr. Hungry’s Aunt and Uncle were in town too! It was so fun to have them with us for the holidays. Our meal was smoked pork tenderloin made on my FIL’s new Traeger, parmesan asparagus, and scalloped potatoes, none of which I have a photo of! My MIL also made a pecan pie, and we had my apple crisp with oat topping.
Although we don’t have a picture, I promise you it was epic. Also, if you have asparagus haters, you have GOT to try the parmesan asparagus recipe I linked. It will change their mind completely!
The next day we went to Grandma and Grandpa’s (my in-laws) to hang out. When we got there, they were prepping the dolma! Traditional dolma is made with a combination of rice, minced meat, and lemon. It’s very, very different from what you get in the stores in the can or even at Mediterranean restaurants. There is a wonderful recipe in Ma Baseema if you are interested! Every time Mr. Hungry’s Uncle comes to town, he makes a big batch of that and tabbouleh for us. It’s such a fun treat!
In addition to delicious dolmas, we also had smoked brisket (made on the new Traeger) with tabbouleh (Mr. Hungry’s Uncle makes his tabbouleh with orzo instead of bulgar, it’s delicious!)
Later in the no man’s week (the week between Christmas and New Year’s), we went to Nandos, just the adults, for dinner. Man, did I miss my margarita (especially when Mr. Hungry got a margarita flight), but the food was delicious, as always!
We had many fun days hanging out with the kids playing with their new toys, and visiting. It was a really fun and relaxing week. I also finished up the training I’ve been doing on autoimmunity functional and gut-brain axis-centered approaches. I’m excited to add new tools to my arsenal when treating my clients with autoimmunity or potential autoimmune markers.
We finished the week off with a special trip on the Polar Express in Flagstaff, AZ, but I have a dedicated post about that experience coming soon!
As for New Year’s Eve, we watched Glass Onion on Netflix, which was really good, and we were in bed by 915PM.
I would have stayed asleep if it wasn’t for my entire neighborhood shooting off fireworks from 7 pm to literally 7 am on January 2nd. And no joke, some went off last night still. Excessive, in my opinion, but it doesn’t really bother me. It just makes me feel sad for veterans with PTSD and animals. If you are going to shoot off fireworks, friends, please be careful not to blow your hand off and keep it between 10 pm and 2 am NYE to NY only. That’s just my two cents!
That’s it! I’ll pop back in soon with our trip to Flagstaff and the Polar Express later today or tomorrow! PS I just realized when I put together the below Christmas post round-up that this June will be TEN years of blogging for me. I plan to be on maternity leave, but I may have to plan something special because TEN YEARS! HOLY COW!
- 2021 Christmas Recap – First Christmas with baby KK
- 2020 Christmas Recap
- 2019 Christmas Recap
- 2018 Christmas Recap – First Christmas as parents
- 2017 Christmas Recap
- 2016 Christmas Recap
- 2015 Christmas Recap
- 2014 Christmas Recap – First Christmas with Nala
- 2013 Christmas Recap – First married Christmas
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