//christmas eve//



{on christmas eve morning, we went on a walk around Balboa island as a family. for christmas eve dinner, we went to cucina enoteca at fashion island, which is the new location of one of my favorite restaurants. i didn’t get any good pictures but the snapper i had was superb and i ended up really loving this new location. after dinner, we came home and had dessert and opened a few presents. i made a dark chocolate beet cake which i really regret not photographing but it ended up tasting much better than it sounds. i received the cookbook plenty more and i can’t wait to try some of the recipes!}//christmas day//



{christmas morning went from chill and quiet to stressful and crazy real fast. after we woke up, we sat around the tree and started opening presents. i got a lot of clothes, another fjallraven backpack to lug my laptop around school and a beautiful necklace i had been eying, which was a huge surprise because i was convinced the store had sold their last. after present time, my mom and i got down to cooking then we were off to grandmas house}



{every christmas afternoon, we go to my grandmas house with the rest of our family and have a late lunch together. it was a really warm day so my dad and i walked the dog around the neighborhood before we ate. when it finally was time to eat, we had italian soup, courtesy of my mom, shrimp and grits, courtesy of my aunt and a quinoa apple salad, which i made. after lunch, we had desserts and opened more gifts and chatted around the table}