…and the holiday beat goes on

Christmas just flew by so fast! Belated Merry Christmas! Though many of us have gone back to work, the holiday spirit is still there. The lights are still up, yuletide decor is still hanging happily and the Christmas tree is still supple (hopefully until New Years!). The doggies had fun with Santa as you can see in our Christmas picture. It makes me laugh to see the different expressions–especially Santa! My mother-in-law said that Santa might have been thinking, “What did I get myself into!?!” LOL 🙂

Santa, I wish I could have given you some of the Christmas food that we had. This year we had two hams. This is hammy #1 in the oven.

Meanwhile, hammy #2 was taking a hot pineapple juice bath. Next time I think I’ll score the fat.

We spent the holiday with my husband’s side of the family. He always jokes that one reason that I like visiting is because there’s a bigger kitchen. But it’s always a pleasure to help with the cooking. While waiting for everything to cook…we had some snacks, of course!

We munched on some yuletide sweets. Every year I make 5-10 different varieties. I’m always asked to bake this time of year. It was even more fun because my husband helped and he did a good job! Remember the quirky gluten-free healthy cookie I made last year? I made it again and this time it looked like my mother-in-law enjoyed it the most! I halved the amount of coconut sugar (sub for sucanat or brown sugar), and it was even better.

Forgot to put out the biscotti though!

We always have some veggies around. We can’t forget those! +the bacon 🙂

The hammies turned out great. I used my mom’s recipe which is similar to this article on “How to Cook a Filipino Ham“. Something about that title makes me crack up. We add some cinnamon and apricot-pineapple preserves to the glaze. I like to add a bit of orange zest and juice as well. Sorry there are no more pictures of the Christmas food. Got hungry and forgot to take them. LOL. But we went home with more ham and now looking forward to trying some new recipes with leftover ham. Anybody have any good leftover ham recipes? Don’t hesitate to comment below! I always love new recipes! I’ll be scouring the blogs for some too!

I think we are all happy with the holiday feasting and celebrating. Now back to the “trying to be healthy mode”! After I get some data done, do some exercising, and do some chores, I’m going to cuddle up with my doggies and read Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson. At the same time, I’ll still be in the holiday spirit and let the holiday beat go on…like this Madonna vs. The Whispers song mashup “When the Holiday Beat Goes On”