The Holidays

Since I started eating vegan earlier this year, I've tried some interesting and experimental recipes... some of which have been pretty good. This was my first time being vegan for Thanksgiving. We decided to cook here for the holiday and Dustin was nice enough to let me do some more experimenting. I've always had some favorites from growing up and I decided to try and vegan-ize a few of them. 

Dustin laughed a little at all of the ingredients. Apparently this is what  vegan Thanksgiving looks like: 

The traditional hot beef cracker dip didn't turn out as good as I was hoping... there are a lot of ingredients to substitute in that one! 

We also had cauliflower mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, vegan stuffing, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish (didn't have to change that one!). Amanda made a kale salad and a sautéed spinach and mushroom salad that was so good we've been imitating it since! She also brought a vegan, gluten-free pumpkin cheesecake that was so yummy I had two pieces! :) 

After dinner we watched "Elf" to get into the holiday spirit! 

On Friday, Dustin and I drove up to Whistler. We stayed at the Hilton in Whistler Village. There wasn't a lot of snow, so we decided not to ski. Plus, it rained all day on Saturday. We wandered throughout the village and ate some good food. We went for a run on Sunday morning and introduced running Santa to Canada (he was a hit!). 

A few weeks later we went to Portland for The Head and the Heart show at the Roseland Theater. It was a great show! 

We went for a run the next morning and it was so cold!!! We still stopped to take pictures on the bridge though. 

The next day was the Jingle Bell run. No rain... it was a good day to run in the holiday cheer! 

I got through finals (barely!) and then we had two fun holiday parties. Dustin's company party was at the EMP and was cirque du soleil themed. My holiday party was at the MOHAI. Both were fun and we got to see the museums. 

Fun at the EMP 

From the photo booth at the Brooks party

Christmas came way too quickly. I didn't get my tree up in time, but I finally put up some garland and a string of lights on Christmas Eve. We get Christmas Eve off of work - which is super cool! I met Dustin downtown after work and we did a short run along the waterfront. He was in his Santa suit and I wore my Santa hat and Christmas socks. People weren't terribly festive, but we tried to spread some cheer. 

Then we went to the garden of lights in Bellevue. It was crowded, but felt very festive. 

On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our stockings and presents. We went for a run around 1pm. We had decided to run the 12 miles of Christmas. I ran in my reindeer antlers this time. The first 6 miles were down around the Kirkland waterfront. Then we had to climb up the hills to get back to bridle trails... and it was tough. We had gotten some honks and waves down by the waterfront, but they started to increase in the 2nd half. There were more cars on the main road. 

A week before, Dustin had gotten 59 honks on a solo Saturday run. We didn't think there was any way of beating that on Christmas since there wouldn't be many people out. But we got up to the 30's... and had gotten a lot of waves and even some people clapping. By mile 9, I decided to wave at every car that passed.. trying to spread some Christmas cheer. It turned into a game of sorts and we were having so much fun! We even beat the record - 64 honks!! It was on of the best runs ever! So much fun! 

Merry Christmas!