Guess Who’s Going Vegan?

The weather this weekend just kept getting better and better.

Though we had Christmas dinner with my family on Saturday, we did our gift-opening on Sunday.

First things first…I had to take Bailey out for his morning stroll.

The moss looked like something from Avatar! I almost expected it to light up when we stepped on it!

Pretty flowers!

Hubby and I are slackers in gifts sometimes and bought most of our gifts yesterday. We ended up wrapping up our gifts Sunday AM. lol…nice, no? I hope to do better next year.

I gave hubby some gift-wrap tips.

After gift-wrapping, we had brunch. Fried eggs (really, they’re more like poached in water, I think)

Great Harvest Dakota toast – 3 pieces with real butter, 1 without (for Dad)

Breakfast potatoes – made from scratch!

Bailey didn’t love sitting off to the side. He wanted to be at the table!

I had a little bit of everything, as per the usual.

I tried some of my family’s homemade peach preserves. They made this using peaches they picked from a farm.

After we were done eating, we did have a special gift for Bailey – a snowman shaped doggie treat!

We opened our stockings at the table. I scored with a slew of dark chocolate goodies, tea, a tea strainer, an eyeliner shaver and some nail files.

I was super curious about the Endangered Species Organic Dark Chocolate with Goji Berry, Pecans, & Maca.

My sister requested and received a stocking full of these Indian cookies – Parle G. She found out about them from a co-worker and LOVES them.

Before moving on the gifts, dad, sis, and I brewed up some tea to sip on. They had Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger but I chose the festive Tea of Good Tidings by The Republic of Tea. I thought it was the perfect brew for the occasion.

Present time!

We let Bailey open one of the gifts. Turns out he’s pretty good at gift opening.

After opening a gift, Bailey observed from the couch. Got some good goodies and money to buy something special (more on that to come).

Bailey helped my mom test out her present – a gel mat for the kitchen.

Mom used the mat to bake cookies. Lots and lots of em!

She sent us home with leftover turkey, a parsley plant, our gifts, goodies, and plenty of cookies.

Check out one of my Christmas gifts – Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton of Vive Le Vegan ! I’m so happy to have received this book – I’ve heard great things about it on the blogosphere. I can’t wait to try out some of the recipes!

Speaking of vegan…Guess who may be going vegan?!?

No…It’s not me. My Dad may be going vegan for his health (as in to be more healthy). I’m fully supportive of this and would love to see what kinds of vegan concoctions he comes up with! He says he may try to go vegetarian first and work his way to vegan. Dad and Mom have already started incorporating some vegetarian and vegan cookbooks into their collection. Maybe they’ll have some good tips for me?! 🙂 Either way, I think it’s pretty exciting.

Thanks for the fun weekend, Dad, Mom, and Sis! Hope to be back soon!