Sorry for the long pause without a post. I'm off work until January 4th, and I'm finding it difficult to do things that involve being on the internet. Well, unless you count Netflix. I've been doing a lot of that! But I've paused my show (currently watching Mindhunter) for a quick Christmas update.
On Christmas Eve, I drove to my parents' house in Arkansas around mid-day. As I've done throughout 2020, I quarantined for 14 days before the visit. When I arrived, my mom was already starting on dinner. We don't do the traditional Christmas meal with vegan ham and dressing and casseroles. Instead, we tend to pick a new theme every year. This year, my mom went with finger foods. She made chicken wings for her and my dad, and she made some Field Roast Fruffalo Wings for me! We all ate the mini Field Roast Corn Dogs, and we had fries and Vegan Cheese-stuffed Cucumbers.
The cucumbers were stuffed with Treeline Garlic-Herb Cashew Cheese and sprinkled with a little garlic powder and paprika.
After dinner, we made Vegan Sugar Cookies! No Meat Athlete sent out this recipe in an email a few days before Christmas, and I wanted to try them. They turned out great (though we did end up using 3 cups of flour rather than the 1 3/4 cup called for), and we had such fun decorating them. My mom and dad were carefully painting the cookies, and strategically placing sprinkles, while I slapped on frosting. The ugly ones were mine!
After Christmas Eve dinner every year, I meet up with my BFF Sheridan and her partner Drew to exchange gifts. They live in Little Rock, but they're always home for the holidays as well. This year, we made sure to keep our masks on and socially distance as we opened gifts. We were planning to do the exchange on the porch, but it was an unseasonable 19 degrees on Christmas Eve night.
The next morning, my parents and I slept in, and then we partook in my favorite tradition — Christmas breakfast! Up until a few years ago, we did had annual breakfast at my Granny's, and a few other family members would come. But after Granny passed, my mom just started cooking breakfast for my dad, herself, and me. This year, we had Beyond Sausage, Just Egg, Biscuits & Gravy, and Hash Browns.
We opened gifts after breakfast. I got a new MacBook Air, which I'm typing on now, to replace my dead MacBook Pro. I also got a new Ikea bookcase and lots of lounging attire because 2020. Who wears real pants anymore?
When we finished presents, my mama and I drove over to Me-Maw's house to bring her my gift and some Christmas breakfast leftovers. I love my Me-Maw! She's such a sassy lady.
Around 4 pm, I made the drive back to Memphis, and I had myself a merry little Christmas with some Biltmore Christmas wine I'd picked up on our October trip to Asheville. I usually get Chinese takeout on Christmas night, but I had a planned virtual half-marathon in the morning and knew I needed to eat a little lighter. So I made the Unfried Rice from Appetite for Reduction and added tofu.
2020 may have been a craphole of a year, but this Christmas was amazing! The next day, on the 26th, I drove to Nashville to have a late Christmas with Paul, but I'll share those pics in a later post. This is about all of the computer I can take on this vacay day. Happy New Year!!
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