I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I had such a nice day.
On Christmas Eve, after church, we drove through the neighborhood to look at the luminaries. I went on a walk later to take some pictures. My neighborhood is the only one in my town that has luminaries, and it's always been one of my favorite things about this holiday. Ever since I was little, the first thing I'd do when I woke up on Christmas morning was look out the window to see the dim lights of the remaining luminaries (of course, I couldn't do that this year because it snowed overnight, but that's okay because snow is even prettier).
Christmas at my house is always very relaxed. Basically, we get up whenever we feel like it (9:30 this year!), and start the morning off with coffee, cinnamon rolls, and opening stockings. We didn't have stockings this year, since we now have cats who I'm sure would have loved to have pulled them down from the mantel. But we did have what may be the greatest cinnamon rolls! I used this recipe, and really, it was great. There's only a few changes I'd suggest. Don't use nearly as much margarine as it calls for in the filling and the pan sauce, because that's really disgusting and it doesn't need it at all. When you roll out the dough, it's going to be pretty huge (I don't have the measurements), but don't worry that you did something wrong. Roll it up so that's it's long, not short (I can't think of a better way to explain what I'm trying to say…..), and cut it into what looks like mini rolls. They will expand plenty once they rise and bake, and you should be able to get about 14 decent sized rolls from it. I'd also really recommend baking them in a springform pan, if you have one, because that way you can pop the sides off and drizzle on the icing and have a very nice arrangement.
We got a Christmas present for our cats - a shelf for the window. Needless to say, they spent the entire day there, birdwatching.
After we ate our breakfasts, we spent most of our day sitting in front of the fire, opening presents, and eating snack food. We always keep out tray of crackers and cheese (and Daiya cheese), dips, and veggies, plus a pot of soup with some bread, to snack on all day, and I really like it so much more than planning a huge meal. It's such a relaxing day! We used this recipe for a spinach artichoke dip, and it was way better than I had expected it to be; even my brother (an omnivore) liked it! We also made a potato soup that was pretty fantastic.
I don't normally like to brag about what I got for Christmas, but I am going to mention that with a couple new vegan cookbooks plus a brand new food processor (!!!), you can expect some fabulous recipes in the near future.
Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and that 2013 is a great year for you! :-)
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