For Christmas I got chocolate

It’s no secret, that’s for sure.

In fact, it was the only thing I asked for. So now I will be jet set through 2021.

Do you see that box of See’s??? That’s TWO POUNDS of chocolate. For. My. Face.

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And that isn’t even all of what I got! Is that disturbing or amazing? I’m not sure. But I’m leaning towards amazing.

You won’t find any New Year’s diet talk around these parts, thankyouverymuch.

But before I get to the New Year, indulge me a little as I reminisce about the holiday. Because Christmas with kids is better than anything on the planet.

On the eve I made pork tenderloin with a mustard sauce. Both the rosemary and thyme were from our dwindling excuse of a garden.

We paired it with roasted Brussels sprouts and bread and buttah.

The next morning we had home-made cinnamon rolls.

I actually made them the day before so this was our second morning enjoying them. Mmmmm…

I mostly followed ambitious kitchen’s recipe (which I highly recommend), but we didn’t have bread flour so I swapped in a combo of all purpose and whole wheat to attempt to get the protein ratio close enough. The cream cheese frosting was the money maker though.

I was actually multi-tasking while making this – the rest of the time I was assisting Kyle in building a basketball hoop.

It took s e v e n hours, but was SO worth it because he is obsessed and has basically been living outside ever since.

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His love for hoops came out of nowhere, and fast! He can’t get enough.

Back to Christmas…

We spent the morning in Davis, opening stockings and having a chill breakfast and then headed to my parents’ house just before noon. We enjoyed a goat cheese & asparagus strata made by my mom for lunch, followed by an epic app spread set up by yours truly.

Crackers of all kinds, cheeses of all kinds, meats of all kinds, nuts, dried cranberries, veggies and dip, etc etc.

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I had never even heard of these before! Kite Hill is SMASHING the almond milk based cheese game.

Also, TJs rosemary mixed nuts are INSANE and need to be a year round thing asap. Holy wow are they ever divine. Salty and savory and addicting as all get out.

Took 100 of these. This was the best we could do (and is hilariously the last one we took that evening).

Our family’s Christmas dinner is very similar to our Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy. The sides are where we mix it up. We typically do roasted veggies because we all LOVE them, so that’s what I brought. Only I did both roasted veggies AND roasted Brussels sprouts because our family is also crazy about Brussels sprouts, too. I candied walnuts to put on top before serving. It was one of my favorites, even if that’s weird to say because it was my own dish.

My other favorite was the prime rib that my sister made! This is the second time in my life I’ve had prime rib and it was just as good as I remembered it being the first time (even though I was at my sister’s bachelorette party for the first time and was thus of questionable sobriety).

I also loved the salad (so typical), which had mixed greens, goat cheese, persimmons, and dried cranberries with a balsamic vinaigrette.

In honor of G-ma, my mom made her raspberry cranberry jello dish, with cream cheese and walnuts, only she used Kite Hill cream cheese to keep it dairy free. It was (unexpectedly) good! While I don’t recall ever having it (mainly because we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family very often), it’s something my mom grew up having, and since this was the first Christmas without her, I am glad my mom had that on the table. Also, the leftovers were SO good in a turkey sandwich! It’s like a sandwich spread all in one with the jello, cream cheese, and nuts! All you do is add sprouts and turkey and voila! Holiday sando!

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Kyle’s favorite dishes were the prime rib and my mom’s lima bean casserole. This dish is one she rarely makes because it has SO MUCH DAIRY in it. But whenever she does, Kyle is pumped. He and my Uncle Matt take down a third of the deep dish by themselves. 😛

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The kids enjoyed apple pie with whipped cream, while I went for the chocolate pecan pie (DUHHHH).

My first helping. 🙂

Look at all those littles! It was a very merry Christmas indeed.