Christmas Dinners

A food pictorial of our many Christmas Dinner Celebrations.  Since I spent a good portion of my Christmas Vacation shoveling food in to my mouth, I figured why not devote a blog post to the most delicious meals of the vacation.

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Christmas Eve-Eve was spent at Ruth's Chris.

I dined on butternut squash soup (with fresh lump crab meat, so good!) and my favorite: ahi tuna salad. And of course, enjoyed the company of my family.

 Mom and Jonathan

Me and Dad

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Christmas Eve was spent at church, then we came home and made pizzas!

Mine is an individual on Trader Joe's whole wheat crust and fresh sauce, brick cheese, fresh Kielbasa, and green olives. So delicious!!

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Christmas Dinner was a British Feast that came from Tyler Florence and the Neely's! Prime rib with horseradish rub, yorkshire pudding, and scalloped potatoes.

 Prime Rib: Before

 Prime Rib: After

 Yorkshire Pudding

 Scalloped Potatoes

Casual Christmas Table this year - not in the dining room, but not in front of the TV :-p 

This meal qualifies as 'comfort food' but not healthy! So worth it though. Everything I have eaten this vacation has been delicious, and the treats are not yet over! Party tonight at the neighbor's house, then off to the Outer Banks tomorrow to enjoy New Year's Eve at the beach (and a yummy dinner out). While I am enjoying this period of over-indulgence, my pants certainly are not - and I am ready to get back to my usual routine on January 3rd when I get back to work (and tracking my meals and working out!). 

The Holiday Season...

... is upon us. Today is Halloween, Thanksgiving will be here in a few short weeks, and then Christmas is right around the corner. I really need to start shopping...

Halloween: probably my least favorite holiday. For one reason or another, I have cried on Halloween every year of my adult life. So, I just choose to not really celebrate it. When I was little, I loved trick-or-treating so much. In fact, one of my favorite smells is what your pillowcase or pumpkin full of candy smells like after you have collected all of the chocolaty and fruity treats. Maybe one day I will like Halloween again... but for now, I will let it come and go without any fanfare. At least we got an 'early release' from work! And so far so good, no tears. I did not eat $hit on my 3.5 mile walkjog, and I think I am safe for the rest of the evening...

In other news, I decorated (barely) for Fall!

The pretty flowers unfortunately did not come from a mystery man who knows I hate Halloween and thought I needed some cheering up, but rather came from Trader Joe's - best $3.99 money can buy. My table looks so pretty!

Now that it is finally getting cold out (which I do not like, but I will deal with), I can finally cook soups and butternut squash and casseroles without having to turn down the air conditioning in my apartment to have the oven on. This week is Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and more Tortellini and Tofu soup (it is just so cheap...)

Happy Monday (and Halloween.) to all!