Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas and Yoga on the Beach

Christmas is a big deal at my house. My family loves everything Christmas-y and we have very specific traditions. 


It starts on Christmas Eve. Every year we go for a hike or beach walk. 


This year we went to Dillon Beach, where Sister1 and I did some yoga. She is a much more committed yogi than I am - she and Geoff go almost every day! But I can still throw down a pretty solid standing bow pose, so there's that. 



For the eve part of Christmas Eve, Sister1 and Geoff (to whom I have yet to give a blog nickname...but he's my brother-in-law as of last December) go to dinner with his family. (Sister2 is conspicuously absent this year because she's traveling in Peru, so my parents and I watched some Christmas movies while they were at dinner.)



Then when they return, Geoff drives us all around Petaluma to look at the best Christmas lights. We've been doing this for probably 8 years now, so we've perfected the routes. 




Then we usually watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street before going to bed, but this year were too tired, so we postponed that viewing. (Feel free to watch it now. You're welcome.)






And on Christmas morning we open presents!



I made a breakfast of Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls (recipe will be posted tomorrow).



Then I went on The Run before returning to the epic prep that is involved in hosing Christmas dinner for the whole family. 


We (i.e. mostly Mama) made shrimp salad, steak, dinner rolls, roasted root vegetables, sauteed asparagus, and leek bread pudding. 





When the whole family arrives (cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandma), we snack on appetizers until dinner time. Then we go around in order of age and open presents. It's pretty fantastic. And then we eat dessert - eggnog bundt cake, pumpkin pie, and many many many cookies!

Merry Christmas! Hope yours was wonderful too!