It's the Christmas season, and yesterday was Christmas Eve so we decided to go downtown to a little coffee shop for some breakfast.
I got a delicious pastrami omelet with hash browns and some sourdough toast on the side.
There was also this excellent steak ranchero with egg whites, hash browns and beans with biscuits and gravy on the side.
A great breakfast to start the day!
After relaxing all afternoon at home watching movies and whatnot, it was time for the evening Christmas Eve service at my grandmas church. It's a bit of a tradition, especially at the end when everyone grabs a candle and we sing "Silent Night".
After the service, it was over to my grandmas house to have a family gathering. She had a box of old photos out on the counter and this one of my mother with me and my little brother was really nice for me to see. It's been six months now since she's passed on, and I just relish finding things that help remind me of her.
It seems like a lot of things, or most of things of my moms have been hidden away, or gotten rid of altogether. It really bothers me a lot that this is happening. It's like she's being erased, and I just want to preserve her memory as much as I can which isn't very much at this point in time...
I also found this snapshot of me at Hearst Castle back in '96. That was a really cool experience from my childhood that I will never forget, and it's nice to see some visual evidence of it too!
Well back to the gathering. Of course there was food, mainly this soup that my grandma made. It was really tasty and just a bit spicy from the old bay seasoning.
I've read a lot of online recipes that call for old bay but I've never used or known anyone who uses it. Funny thing though, it smells and tastes very close if not exactly the same as nongshim shin ramyun 😆
We also had some tasty cheesy bacony bread. It was really good, because really you can never go wrong with bread, cheese, and bacon!
For Christmas Eve we got some funny sweaters to wear. Mine was this tiny Santa body with the neck made to look like the wearer is Santa 🎅🏿
Afterwards it was over to spend time with friends for some tamales and pozole. I'm not really a big fan of pozole, so I just went for the tamales. Pozole is a good soup, it's just not a big deal for me. I think it's mostly because I didn't grow up eating it so I don't have any strong memories or traditions around it.
This was my plate today for Christmas dinner. It was a nice easy simple meal this year, and I was glad for it. It was kind of a relief not to have a big production and it was a low attendance this year too which I always prefer.
My grandma also made these pies for dessert. Cherry and custard, and custard is my favorite 😋.
I'll wrap this up with some Christmas silliness.
I got this onesie from invader zim and I decided to stuff it with a big pillow my nieces have to fill it out. It really made me look funny and the kids loved it 🤣
Until next time...