Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

It would be lovely if I had some sort of Christmas-y recipe for you today. But instead I have this Foulser family Christmas photo for you, circa 1992. That is TWENTY years ago! My sister Caitlin and I (years before Alban came along!) in San Francisco in our little matching Madeleine outfits. Look at her little cheeks and smile! Pretty much the cutest thing ever.

So yes, I’ve been too busy hanging out with my family to have a recipe today. Yesterday was one Sunday I did not spend in the kitchen.

I got into Boston late Friday night, and stayed up til 2:00 talking with my sisters. Yayyy sisters. It is so good to finally be in the same state as them again, even for a few days!

On Saturday Caitlin’s husband Ben arrived, and we had an action-packed Foulser family day (starting out with all 4 of us jammed in the back of Mom’s Subaru):

Ben and Alban look slightly green. That is not real life. That is my iPhone.

We did a beer tasting at Night Shift Brewery (and bought lots of beer – how I have missed Boston beer!):

Sampled chocolates at Taza (and bought lots of chocolate!!):

Drank tea at the Friendly Toast, one of my faaaavorite Cambridge spots:

Got weird at the MIT museum:

And ate delicious, non-vegan fare at Amelia’s Trattoria in Cambridge.

(Those are Alban and Caitlin’s gnocchi! Yum!)

Then I went over to my good friend Martha’s apartment and drank wine and ate Whole Foods cookies with her.

We don’t like to eat or anything.

Today Caitlin and I went on a quick run and did abs and push-ups, which I never make myself do on my own. There is talk of a full day family push-up contest tomorrow… however many push-ups you can accomplish over the course of the day! I was already docked some points though for asking if I can do girl push-ups (since I was immediately sore after completing my 3 sets of 10 girl push-ups this morning). Apparently the answer is no. Anyone have suggestions for what my strategy should be? Sets of 10? 2 push-ups every 15 minutes? I think I might be more competitive in the wall-sit competition that is apparently also happening. I just realized that this is starting to sound like we are doing feats of strength for Festivus. Whoever pins Dad wins!

Anyway, other than exercising competitively today, we did a bunch of eating, of course. My grandma arrived from New York and we went over to my aunt and uncle’s for dinner, where my cousin (hi Katie!) cooked us a deliiiiicious meal. I didn’t manage to get a picture of all of it, but the salads were pretty beautiful.

Then we had about 12 different kinds of homemade cookies plus strudel! It was amazing.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day of cooking, I think, at least when I’m not doing push-ups. Poached pears for dessert (along with more cookies!), and I think we’re also going to make as many recipes from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook as humanly possible. We got it for my mom for her birthday in November, and it is even better than I expected, if that’s possible. I’m so looking forward to trying a few things out!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday with family and friends! Merry Christmas!