Christmas

Low-key Christmas

My fear was true: I ended up with a cold for Christmas. It made me pretty miserable, so I’m glad I didn’t have to hang out with a bunch of people all weekend long.

Yeah, yeah — you don’t have to tell me Christmas is prime time for friends and family. Believe me, I did spend plenty of quality time with the Boyfriend and his mom. My immediate family is eight hours away in Salt Lake City, and my cousins are back in Indiana — so when I wasn’t with the Boyfriend’s people, I was on my own with the dogs and the manuscript I’m trying to whip into shape for submission.

I managed to get off work relatively early Friday night. But it was after 10 p.m., so I headed to Walmart to pick up a few groceries and cold medicine.

I prefer to hit Walmart after work, because it’s hardly ever crowded that late at night. I say “hardly ever.” I grossly underestimated the retail giant’s popularity at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve Eve. I stood in the checkout line for what seemed like forever … and still ended up leaving without the Kleenex I so desperately needed.

Friday was the first day I listened to Christmas music, too. I burned my Christmas Comedy Classics CD to my MacBook, uploaded it to the iPhone and sang along to my favorite holiday hilarity.

On Christmas Eve, I ran to the health food store to pick up the ingredients to make the Sugar-Free Coconut-Almond Bark Leanne featured recently at Healthful Pursuit. Since I had to buy both coconut oil and coconut butter, it turned out to be an expensive endeavor — but the end result was so worth it.

I didn’t expect the coconut butter to be so difficult to get out of the jar, though. It was hard as a rock. I think it took longer to measure out the coconut butter than it did to make the entire recipe from beginning to end.

Like I said: The end result was worth it. That bark is the best bark I think I’ve ever eaten. Yes, even better than peppermint bark. My only complaint is that I didn’t press the coconut into the bark as well as I could have — it keeps falling off.

Oh well. Live and learn. I think I still have enough coconut butter to make another batch. I’ll know better next time.

Before driving down to the Boyfriend’s Saturday night, I made myself a Christmas Eve feast.

It’s a family tradition for dinner to be more nibbles — cheese ball and crackers, summer sausage, cold cuts. I upheld tradition with bacon-wrapped steak bites, cheese cubes and a festive avocado/cottage cheese dip (recipe to come) with red bell pepper rings and green snap peas.

Christmas Day was definitely low-key. I watched my favorite holiday movie, “A Christmas Story,” from beginning to end once (and caught the beginning again before the Boyfriend insisted we change the channel). Party pooper. TNT doesn’t call it “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” for nothing!

We had a relatively early (11 a.m.-ish) dinner (turkey and green beans for me!) and then I headed back up to Flagstaff to spend some quality time with Cocoa and Cinnamon. I chatted with my brother (and nephew) on the drive up. Later, I took a nap and drove back to the Boyfriend’s, since his birthday was Monday. Yep — he’s a Dec. 26 baby.

I was a bit disappointed that Starbucks, with its big “Open Christmas Day” banner, wasn’t actually open when I tried to go on Christmas Day. (Apparently I missed the cutoff by about two hours.)

Monday, I tried to return to a more normal routine — as normal as possible for a holiday week, anyway. I caught up on reading tweets and managed to work some writing into my day. On Tuesday, I headed back to work.

Glad it’s a short week!

A little holiday fun

After reading Julie and Tina‘s answers to this holiday survey, I decided to throw my two cents in, too. Nothing wrong with getting in on the holiday fun, right? Only eight days until Christmas!

25 Questions: Holiday Style 

(Yes, I totally copied and pasted the survey out of Julie’s post, headline  and all)

• Eggnog or hot chocolate?

I love them both … but I’ve actually made homemade low-carb eggnog before — and it wasn’t too tough. Hmm. May have to break out that recipe again.

• Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

A little of both. Most of the presents we got were wrapped, but the difficult-to-wrap ones — like a doll in a bassinet — just showed up under the tree.

• Colored lights on tree/house or white?

Colored all the way. They’re so much prettier and more festive than plain white ones.

• Do you hang mistletoe?

Nope. We had some in the doorway between the living room and kitchen when I was a kid, though.

• When do you hang your decorations up?

Usually right after Thanksgiving.

• What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Green Bean Casserole, baby!

• Favorite holiday memory as a child?

Probably not my favorite, but it’s a funny one: The Christmas I was in sixth grade, I got a Walkman (for cassette tapes — I’m old, remember?) and some other things … including what I thought was a bra from an aunt. When Mom asked me what Aunt Nellie got me, I said, “a bra” (probably with a look of horror). Mom laughed and said I should check inside the box, because Aunt Nellie was famous for reusing boxes. Sure enough, the gift wasn’t a bra after all, but some cassette tapes for the Walkman. (Cyndi Lauper and Culture Club, if I remember correctly.)

• What is on your Christmas wish list?

Since I just got a new MacBook and an iPhone, there’s nothing left that I really, really want. A fully-loaded Starbucks gift card’s always appreciated. (An engagement ring from the Boyfriend would be nice, too, but I don’t see that one happening.)

• Do you open a gifts on Christmas Eve?

My family never did, but the Boyfriend’s does.

• How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

My parents got my brother and I a special ornament every year, and I have most of mine now that my parents are gone. But the roommate’s bratty puppy got ahold of some of them one year, destroying ornaments almost as old as me — so now we put up cheap Christmas balls that we don’t care if the dog chews. When I was growing up, we put tinsel on our tree … but tinsel and pets don’t mix.

• Snow? Love it or dread it?

Ha. I just wrote a post about how I don’t love snow like I did when I was younger — and in fact curse when it shows up in our forecast. I’m cursing Sunday right now.

• Real tree or fake tree?

Real trees smell better — but fake, pre-lit ones are easier to deal with.

• Do you remember your favorite gift?

There’ve been so many … The food processor and other kitchen goodies from my Aunt Ruth were great ones, and so were the Magic Bullet blender and George Foreman grill from my roommate. As a kid, one of my favorites was the Barbie Townhouse. (I think I asked for the Dreamhouse, but the Townhouse is what showed up under the tree.)

• What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?

Spending time with family and friends

• What is your favorite holiday dessert?

My mom’s butter cookies, which I’ve waxed poetic about on the blog before.

• What is your favorite tradition?

Decorating the butter cookies. Mom frosted them while Dan and I put on the sprinkles and other decorations. (I’ve streamlined the process somewhat now that I do it all by myself, by drizzling the icing and flinging sprinkles. Takes a lot less time, but there’s also less togetherness.)

A close second is sipping Hot Dr Pepper with a slice of lemon while we open our gifts on Christmas morning.

• What tops your tree?

An angel.

• Do you prefer giving or receiving?

They’re both great, in different ways.

• What is your favorite Christmas song?
  

  Decorating cookies the old-fashioned way. I'm the one in the back.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer … or anything off the Christmas Comedy Classics album

• Candy canes, yuck or yum?

Good for low-fat dieters but not low-carb! Taste-wise? I’d rather have chocolate.

• Favorite Christmas movie?

“A Christmas Story.” Ralphie and his quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun is a classic (and it was set in Hammond, Indiana, on the street my mom grew up on, Cleveland Street). How can you not love that movie?

• What do you leave for Santa?

Cookies and hot cocoa. (Santa didn’t like milk.)

• Do you have a Christmas morning tradition?

Now, no. But when we were kids, my brother and I got up early and went through our stockings. The stockings were the only things we were allowed to open before our parents got up.

• Do you prefer to shop on-line or at the mall?

Mall, definitely.

• Christmas letter or Christmas card?

I try to send cards … but sometimes wonder if a letter would be easier. I usually only get to about half my cards before Christmas, because I write a little note in each one.

So this is Christmas?

As I was madly trying to read through my contest entry before work today, it hit me: Christmas is only 10 days away.

Where has December gone? I know how my November disappeared — in the throes of NaNoWriMo and Golden Heart entry prep. But how can it already be Dec. 15?

I guess I’ve been too busy pushing myself to revise my manuscript to notice December flying by.

Thank goodness I got some of my shopping done on Monday. It makes me feel a little more prepared.

I’m not even close to prepared on the holiday baking front, though. At this rate, I might not do any holiday baking. I did make that batch of cinnamon-roasted nuts on Monday (and have been enjoying them ever since).

I also plan to whip up some of LeAnne’s Sugar-Free Coconut Almond Bark just as soon as I make it to the store for the ingredients. And now that the snowstorm has passed, that’s likely to be soon.

Those two treats might have to suffice this year. My Mom’s butter cookies aren’t low-carb (even if I make them with Splenda instead of sugar). It’s the recipe’s three cups of flour that do the carb count no favors. I don’t have the Atkins bake mix to make the low-carb version of Christmas cookies, even though I remember them being pretty tasty.

Cookies or no, I suppose it’s time to get in the holiday spirit.

All right — where’s my Santa hat?

Can I just say I’m loving the Photo Booth program on my new MacBook? This is the first flattering photo I’ve seen of myself in a long time. Hmm. I might actually use this one on my Facebook profile.

I tried to snap a picture of my new, smaller jeans in the bathroom mirror at work with my iPhone, but it didn’t work out so well. Even though I feel great in the new size, the angle made my butt look huge. Maybe later.

Or maybe I need to start shaping my rear view. Now that my contest entry has been submitted, I should have a bit more time.