Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful week. It’s been a lovely blur between Christmas and New Year, and I’ve enjoyed all this time with the team. We have enjoyed quiet mornings, walks, shopping, nails, reading and movies. I’m definitely not looking forward to school going back, especially the morning struggle and hours of homework.
I hope my friends who celebrated Christmas this week had a lovely holiday. My dad and stepmom were out of town; my grandmother passed away. She was so kind and wonderful, and I am grateful that we were lucky enough to have her in our lives. We spent a low-key Christmas Eve at home with Chinese takeout and Christmas Chronicles, and joined my mother for midnight mass. They turned off the lights Silent Night and it was the perfect way to start the vacation.
The girls got up very early to receive gifts and stockings from Santa, and then the family came to get family gifts, tamales, beans, egg casserole, cinnamon rollsand the Pilot’s famous eggnog.
We spent the morning together, drinking coffee and eggnog and exchanging gifts,
And everyone went home to relax for a few hours.
We took a walk and left cookies for our neighbors. — I bake for two weeks in December and freeze everything. This way, it’s not stressful and we have a variety of treats for the neighbors and trays of Christmas cookies. These cookies, these cookies, and mint bark They are always on the list.
Then we invited 20 people to Christmas dinner and that was it.
The appetizers were this giant cheese board:
(plus a smaller board I placed on one of the cutting tables)
Artichoke and Cracker Dip
ALL the sweets (bourbon chocolate pecan pie, pear pie a friend brought, Yule log, different coffee cakes and cookies)
and for dinner, we smoked two large organic turkeys, two giant grass-fed beef tenderloins, made horseradish sauce, gravy, asparagus, salad, and mother and cheese potatoes. The meat was all butcherbox and cooked perfectly in the Traeger.
The hit of the night were the games!! I came up with this idea from a friends Christmas party: Saran Wrap Ball! You wrap a bunch of candy in a ball and then one person unwraps it while the person next to them rolls two dice (die? I don’t know this stuff). When that person hits doubles, the timer stops and the ball passes to the next person. If the person unwraps a mini bottle of alcohol, they have the option of taking a shot (or handing the mini bottle to another adult willing to take the shot for them).
Here are some of the things I wrapped in the ball:
and the finished product:
It was a day full of fun times, good food and nice gifts, and as always, my favorite part is being with so many people we love so much, at the same time. I’m so sad that vacation is over!!
It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party, but I just have a few for you:
–Wonka. It was very good; Much better than he expected. Hugh Grant is a 10/10 Oompa Loompa.
– This retainer cleaner. I didn’t want to spend $100 on a Zimabut found this one with better reviews and it was only $40. She made my Invisalign look new.
– Join us for the Healthy Habits Challenge! All the details are here. I can’t wait to do this with you.
– He organize Shilajit gummies are SO good. I can make a post about them if you want. You can check them here and that link will automatically apply the code FITNESSISTA for a 20% discount.
I wish you a Happy New Year and see you soon!
xo
