HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS - 2013

Don't you just love Christmas time. It's so beautiful, almost romantic. All the lights, the food, and getting together with family and loved ones to celebrate. It makes me all warm inside just thinking about it all again.

We had a pretty low key Christmas this year. My friend Kaihlee was in town so Kyri, Seth and I went to visit her at her sister Ricci's house. It was nice to see them too. Ricci and Brian have a cute baby named Emma. Kyri and her are buds! Auntie Kaihlee got Seth Kre-o for Christmas. Seth loves lego.

It was Kyrsten's first Christmas. We had such a great time with her, watching her open her first Christmas present and playing with all the wrapping paper and bows. I think she loves her silver bow more then any of her gifts. It is pretty shiny. Chloe and Seth loved making this a special Christmas for Kyrsten. They love their baby sister so much. "She is so cutesy!"

On Christmas Eve, which is my favourite, we went to my parents house and had turkey, potatoes, stuffing, buns, baked rosemary veggies and a large kale salad. I made a hazelnut chocolate ice cream cake for dessert. Even my picky 25 year old brother loved it. My sister Mary is vegan so we made sure there was lots for her to eat (I only eat turkey twice a year). After dinner we go to Church to sing songs and listen to the pastor give his sermon. This year Kyri was super fussy so the kids went with the family to church while Tod and I stayed back at my parents with Kyri and put her to bed in the play pen. They came home from church after an hour and we played games and ate my treats that I brought. Walnut fudge, peanut butter Nanaimo bars and hazelnut truffles. My mom made plenty of treats too!

We came home around 9:30 and put the kids to bed. We started to get super excited as we put all the presents under the tree. I even had a hard time falling asleep. I kept hearing noises....SANTA?

In the morning the Tod and I got Kyri out of bed at 7 and I fed her while we cuddled in bed for 15 minutes. Tod was super excited cuz he got up, made our lemon water and made sure the kids were up. I took the cinnamon buns out of the fridge for an hour before putting them in the oven to bake.

We opened gifts and cleaned up, eat cinnamon buns and then head out the door, back to my parents house for more gifts and Christmas day lunch. Chloe had to go to her moms house. We had an amazing apple squash soup, which I will be posting on here very shortly, and mom made a quiche. My sister Mary kept saying, "Ever since I came to town I have been so full!" with a huge smile on her face.

Tod, Seth and I had left overs for dinner and watched a couple TV movies and just relaxed. It was a wonderful day. Kyri and Seth played with their toys and had a great evening too.

The next day we had my sister Mary and her old friend Tanner and Tod's best friend Steve, who is vegan as well, over for dinner. I made a spinach salad with my home made vinaigrette, chickpea falafel with a lemon tahini sauce, a broccoli and bean 'cheeze' bowl and potato wedges with a chipotle dipping sauce - ALL VEGAN. Later Tod and Steve went with their best friends Mike and Tyrell to see Anchorman 2. Chloe and I had already gone to see it opening night and we thought it was pretty funny. Tod not so much...

Yesterday we took down the tree and recycled all the cardboard, cleaned up the house and put away the Christmas village and the baby Jesus scene. It was nice to have the house decorated but I was ready to have the house back to normal. I need some downtime so we pretty much said Chloe was going to her moms for New Years Eve and that way she can have her friends over, who are a bit loud, and we were going to chill at home and have a quiet night. We got Kyri an easy clean high chair with her Christmas money. So perfect! She loves it. She still doesn't have any teeth so she has been gumming veggies and eating oranges and banana pieces.




















I will be posting the recipes for peanut butter Nanaimo bars, apple squash soup and roasted red pepper
hummus soon!