'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

There are few things more exciting and anticipatory for me than Christmas morning… I hope that feeling never goes away! Everyone else is still sleeping, and, “as giddy as a schoolboy,” I am up and ready to bring on the holiday! But I’ll be a nice daughter and girlfriend and can wait a little bit longer. Let me tell you about Christmas Eve!

I had the best of intentions yesterday… I really was planning to go to the gym before work. I even made breakfast the night before to take with me and eat at the office! Jim really is the best of all portable breakfasts.

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/2 packet Tera’s Whey Bourbon Vanilla protein powder (I think this made my cookie fluffier than usual)
• 1 banana
• 1 scoop Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter
• 2 T skim milk
• toppings: prunes, goji berries, cinnamon

This was a winning combination. The sweet spicy peanut butter was excellent, and the goji berries plumped up over night and were soft and chewy, not hard and gummy as they usually are on their own.

Anyway, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I didn’t make it to the gym. I just snoozed, and snoozed… and snoozed! I ended up getting up an hour later than I do on regular days! Good thing I packed my breakfast. At work, I also snacked on an apple. (Skirt by J.Crew, tights by Trina Turk for hue.)

We had an early close at the office, so my mom met me and we went to Le Pain Quotidien for lunch.

I wanted something hot, so I got a small soy chai to warm up. It needed the teensiest bit of extra sugar.

For my entrée, I ordered the Organic Tofu Salad with nori, mixed greens, and three savory dressings. It also came with organic bread.

We split a slice of pumpkin pie for dessert… it was Christmas Eve, after all! (I’m not a huge fan of this kind of pie crust, so I cut it off. This can also save you about 100 calories, if you are so inclined.)

New York is in full Christmas swing right now.

We stumbled on a holiday crafts fair on our walk home!

I was very excited to find a stall selling Fine & Raw chocolate.

After chatting with the self-described “Fine & Raw elf”, we knew we had to try some raw hot chocolate.

We split a small cup with a “shake” of sea salt… divine. I’ll have to try their chocolate bars sometime!

Finally, we headed home to get started on the festivities!

Ari came over, and we all started on the tree.

I am very picky about who gets to top our tree… Santa always wins!

No tree-trimming party is complete without champagne…

Cheers!

My dad really outdid himself to make a special Christmas Eve dinner for us to enjoy together.

We had a bottle of Joseph Faiveley Mâcon-Villages to complement our meal.

Whenever there’s wine to be opened, Ari has to do it.

This wine key is supposed to be idiot-proof, but I just can’t figure it out! It’s become a bit of a joke.

We started with a pumpkin and sweet potato soup made with a coconut milk base, sweet spices, cilantro and toasted peanuts:

Curried lobster (!), Israeli couscous with cauliflower, and herbed tomatoes he slow-roasted for five hours. It was a fabulous meal.

As per LVP tradition, we closed the meal with bûche de Noël (“yule log”). Ours came from Balthazar; we’ve been getting these for years and years and after careful research are convinced this is the best one.

It’s a chocolate cake with vanilla cream, marzipan, and hints of rum and mocha.

After dinner, we all watched Christmas Vacation. We couldn’t find our copy last year (very sad), but this year was a success. The only Christmas movies Ari had seen are It’s A Wonderful Life and The Santa Clause (one of my favorites), and I think he really liked it! After the movie, we migrated back to the Christmas tree to continue with our Christmas Eve tradition…

… reading The Polar Express aloud together.

Charley tried to read a little, too.

Well, I think it’s time! I’m going to go rally the troops. Have a wonderful day, wherever it finds you. Stay merry