2015 Holiday Highlights

Not to be confused with my favorite things to get and gift, here are some (mostly 89) 2015 holiday highlights. Hope yours were warm and bright!

 

We celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah in our house (and if there are other holidays you recommend, please suggest! I'm not a religious person, but I love celebrations.); here's 89 assuming that everything that comes in the house is a gift for her. Ok, it usually is.

Annual tree acquisition.

If only she could help lift it into the car. Or out of it. Or into the tree stand.

Her best sweater of the season.

Fave new ornament.

 

Night view.

I'm not much for knick knacks, but I do love useful, themed bounty- particularly when it complements 89's gear.

Holiday eats: stuffed artichoke, eggplant rollatini with thin spaghetti, so many Vegan Treats.

Yummy snacks for this nerd from her pal.

Wanting my Vegan Treats' cookies even though she has plenty of her own.

Said cookies in all of their glory.

 Christmas morning in a rare moment of repose.

Moments later, sprawled out amidst her booty. She spent much of the day ransacking everything under the tree, getting tangled in the tree, and knocking pine needles and ornaments off the tree with various parts of her furry body.

Finally, Christmas light viewing with Madame barks-a-lot.

Cheers to an amazing 2016 with 89 and many more Vegan Shop-Ups as an excuse to consume yummy drinks at Pine Box Rock Shop. 

 

If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it wrong. Life isn't meant to be "gotten through", it's meant to be enjoyed. Do what you can for yourself and those around you to make this possible. It's never what you thought it would be, it's only what it is; make the best of it.

My Favorite (Chocolate) Things to Get & Gift

It's been a busy holiday month for me thus far, but I wanted to check in with just a few of my favorite things to get and gift. Spoiler: they're all chocolate-related.

First off: these incomparable rainbow cookies from Sweet Maresa. I've made rainbow cookies myself and bought every vegan variety I've come across, but Sweet Maresa's* version is the most exquisite and authentic offering out there. Seriously, it's not even Christmas yet and it's the best thing I've eaten for the holidays all year; I cannot adequately explain how delectable they are. Available seasonally for various holidays, you can buy them online; you can find them at Vegan Shop-Ups; and, they may still have them at the Bryant Park Winter Village if you're lucky!

Next up, dark chocolate covered cocomels. Caramels are fine, but I don't pay them any attention unless they're chocolate-covered. Enter JJ's Sweets.* Where to begin with these rich, decadent morsels? Actually, my childhood: when the caramel was my favorite selection from the little, heart, Valentine's chocolate box. Fast forward a lot of years- including 16 as a vegan, and these fulfill all of those dreams in a developed-palate manner suitable for my adult tastebuds. They come in four varieties, but sea salt is my personal favorite. If you get your hands on them, don't be fooled; they are small, but mighty.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge the drama surrounding Mast Bros of late, particularly because they bear the responsibility of having numbed me to the now requisite $10 chocolate bar price tag. But Mast Brother's* chocolate is not my current fave. Instead, I am still as obsessed as I was earlier in the year with the impressively un-pretensious (and all vegan) Charm School Chocolate*, which comes in at well under $10/bar for what I consider to be a far superior product. Creamier, tastier, with more and better topping options that are applied much more liberally, Charm School has my vote for the foreseeable future far and above any other chocolates I've tried.

Lastly, a non-edible chocolate. Now, you may be thinking non-edible chocolate is an oxymoron. But, The Fanciful Fox's seasonal Gelt hand-crafted bar soap with organic fair trade cocoa is too luxurious to pass up for simply not being edible. What with its golden, shimmery nod to the traditional gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins given out on Hanukkah, these bars make a charming gift and deserve a round of applause for both their interpretation and execution of a holiday tradition.

* on the Food Empowerment Project's chocolate list.