The Obligatory Christmas Photo Dump

Well, it's over. No more presents. No more excuses for gluttony (at least until Dec. 31st). But great times were had, and mountains of food were consumed over Christmas and Christmas Eve. Hope your holiday was swell! Here's a recap of mine.

On Christmas Eve, I made the hour-long trip to my parents house in Jonesboro, and I arrived just in time for our traditional Xmas Eve Chinese takeout dinner. The restaurant my mama had in mind closed at 6 p.m. for the holiday, and I got to town around 4:45 p.m. We went straight to King Khan's Crazy Mongolian Stir-fry. It's one of those build-your-own-stir-fry bars, where you stuff a bowl with veggies, spices, protein, and sauce. Then you pick a starch, and the chef fries it up. They use veggie oil here, so it's vegan. And there's tofu in the protein section.

I got a Tofu & Veggie Stir-Fry with Bourbon-Sweet Chili Sauce and Rice Noodles.

After dinner, we went back to my parents house and watched Bad Santa and drank mulled wine. Later in the night, I met up with my best friend Sheridan to exchange presents. Her partner Drew made me a tee-shirt, and she gave me leggings and an awesome avocado purse.

On Xmas morning, we always go to my Granny's house for a big ole holiday breakfast.

Granny makes the meaty/eggy stuff, and my mama brings vegan versions of everything just for me. Here's my plate — Homemade Biscuits, Country Gravy, Vegan Sausage, Tofu-Olive Scramble, and a Hash Brown.

After breakfast, we went back to my parents house to open gifts. My parents got me lots of awesome stuff this year (clothes, vegan queso, PJs, yoga pants), but the best gift of all is my Breville juicer! My old Jack Lalanne juicer died a few months back, so I borrowed Cassi's Breville. And I didn't want to give it back. I had to have one of my own! This will be perfect for my January Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse.

My parents also got me this too-cool-for-school cat purse from Etsy!

After presents, my mama made us some Catalina Salads (iceberg, Daiya cheese, ranch beans, Fritos, and catalina dressing). Nothing beats a junk food salad! This was so good.

I loaded up my car and drove home after lunch. I had to prepare for my first holiday dinner at home. Most years, I drive up to Paul's family celebration in Nashville after Christmas breakfast in Jonesboro. It's about 4 to 5 hours away, but I typically spend the night there on Christmas night. But this year, Paul had to work the next day and planned to drive home that night. And I didn't want to drive all the way up there, stay for a couple hours, and drive the four hours back. Ugh. Too much driving in one day.

Instead, I invited my friend Greg over and we made a vegan Christmas dinner for the two of us. Greg spends most holidays alone because his family is so far away, and he's not really into holidays anyway. But he likes to eat, so I knew he'd be down for dinner.

We made a Field Roast Celebration Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Oyster Mushroom Gravy, Matzoh Stuffing (from a box!), and Green Beans. Oh, and I opened up a can of vegan (and kosher) jellied cranberry sauce. I'm usually a fan of homemade everything, but this was a quick dinner.

Well, that's all. I'm off work until January 2nd, so I'll be lazing around for this week and most of next.