The Last Christmas 2013

Isn't there always a sense of sadness the day after Christmas? I always get sad Christmas night. I know it will go by way to fast and it does. Everyone seemed to really rush the lead up to the day this year and now it is over. 365 more days until it comes again :/ The Christmas music gets ripped from the air, the love and spirit are quickly forgotten, the Christmas movies end (but not yet on Hallmark! I was so happy to see they will still be playing them for a few days...I have it on now 😉 ). So let's relive the last few days in a re-cap! This way we can look back at the moments any day we want. And I call this the last Christmas because this is the last year before I go off to college and things will just be different next year. I won't be home for the lead up an it is the last time I will really be a "kid" I feel at Christmas. SO I really want to savor this year as much as possible. Let's begin (and mostly pictures because those are the best right?)!

Christmas Eve

Before we left I had a special gift to give my mom. Blue Nile reached out to me to do a review of their jewelery and I got to pick between a lovely branch necklace of crystal bracelet for the "Get One, Give One" campaign. I chose the necklace and they sent me two. One for myself and one to giveaway. I decided to give the other to my mom. She loved it and now we have matching necklaces to wear 🙂 You guys can still use their holiday 10% off discount code, BNHH10, up until 12/31! Check out their site, they have some really beautiful and affordable jewelry 🙂

At my grandparents house (my mom's side). We arrived around 3:30, talked (had a surprise announcement from my aunt and uncle, Congratulations were in order! 😉 ), ate dinner, opened stockings (for us kids), then presents, and ended with dessert. A typical lovely Christmas Eve 🙂

My Plate! Two new recipes I will be sharing with you guys next week. I am absolutely in love with both. (Plus a small piece of lemon chicken my Grandma made).

(What will they think of next? A sewer dump play set. Crazy stuff!)

( My grandma got all us girls infinity scarves. Mine is shades of blue and perfectly warm! Love it!)

Then of course dessert after all the gifts were opened and wrapping paper cleaned up, haha!

(see those gingerbread men...ya...those are what I miss eating. They were mocking me, haha! But I was not without cookies! I made my own for like the first time ever and can proudly say I actually ate Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve and Christmas this year! Woohoo, win!

And my mom made herself some gluten-free (completely NOT vegan) cupcakes, in case she didn't like the cookies I made, haha! I took a picture before they were frosted. She was a little disappointed with them. They were a boxed mix (as she is not a cook or baker). They called for buttermilk too and we didn't have any so I told her about the vegan method of adding some lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to the milk to make your own and she thought I was crazy. Haha!

Christmas Day

Well I woke-up my typical time, tip-toed down to check out Santa's offerings, and headed back upstairs to wait for the lazy ones to wake-up 😉

I got some great stuff! You guys are in for some treats as well. Like with these heart-shaped pancake molds!

And the Spiralizer I got! (Hello Zucchini noodles!). And...the greatest thing ever...

Ah! The Ninja Ultima! Be prepared for nut butters, nut milks, hummus, smoothies, soups, and everything else you can make-with-a-blender-recipes galore!

(P.S. My family loved the gifts I made them, but I will be putting that all in a post by itself because it deserves its own spotlight!) Then my brother, dad, and I got ready to head to my other grandparents house in PA for the day. It was great to see them as well as my cousins as we don't get to very often.

And their crazy huge (6-year-old) Rottweiler named Tonka. Scary...But once he sniffed and slobbered on us all, my grandpa kept him on a leash and in the other room, (away from me, thank god). He is cute, but I am just to nervous around animals. Although he was a ham in front of the camera. he stayed so still and posed for each of my shots! Like a sentinel keeping guard.

I absolutely love my family to the end!

Finally, I got some pictures with my dad! We never seem to get shots together. I love that I finally got a few that actually came out nice 🙂 <3

All in all it was a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas. A little different than our past years, but it was still okay, I am not complaining. I hope you all had a lovely last few days and are continuing to make memories through the next week up to New Years! It is still the happiest time of year right, so make it the best it can be! I see you all tomorrow with a short Friday Finisher, nothing to lengthy this week. But now I am off to spend the day with my family, finish up my January deadline college apps, haha, almost done! And whatever else I feel like doing, Like devising recipes to make in my blender. O and I got Plate to Pixel, so I need to read up and work on my photography skills! So far the book is beautiful and seems like it will be very helpful!

So tell me:

How was your Christmas? Share your memories, I would love to hear them!

Did Santa treat you well?