Thayers Unboxing, New Camper, Christmas Recap, LOTS of Veganized Food, Family Update!

I'm ALMOST to the point where I am caught up enough to start posting regular daily posts again!  YAY!  This SHOULD be the last post of 6-pack splash of photos!

In this first photo, you can see the kitchen in our new camper!  I'm sure I will elaborate on that soon!  But...YES...we traded in our 2014 Starflight Travel Trailer and bought a 2017 Cougar 5th Wheel! 

I recently received a WONDERFUL gift box from Thayer's!  I will be doing a full post on this VERY SOON!  Spoiler warning...I LOVE the products Thayers sent me!  There was a soap bar, Lozenges, and 2 Witchhazels!  One was cucumber and a spray and the other was lavender and a large bottle at that!

My father was recently in the hospital.  Right before Christmas, actually.  We were thrilled to have him home in time for the festivities!  He's been a lifelong Asthmatic and had 3 bouts with a terrible cold over the last couple of months.  It turned into Bronchitis.  He was treated by his regular doctor for that but everything they gave him didn't work.  He ended up in the hospital and had Severe Bronchial Spasms.  He was put on at least 3 steroids - among other things!  He would go on hour long coughing jags.  It was very scary!  With all the steroids he was on it messed with his blood sugar.  They tried combating that with other things and that messed with his heart rate.  They combatted that and it messed with his oxygen levels.  Now that he is home he has made a lot of changes to his diet and really keeping tabs on his diabetes.  He's doing much better with the bronchial issues - THANK GOD!  I signed him up over at MyFitnessPal and they are cooking at home a lot more.  Mom and Dad are trying new foods, too!  He's already lost 7 pounds!

The plate of food you see above is one of the meals I ate with them the one night (minus the chicken he added to his plate).  Mom and I made seasoned Sweet Potatoes, Seasoned Cauliflower, and I made some pasta.  Sweet Potatoes are a near freebie for him so we are trying to incorporate more and more into his diet.  I bought them an Air Fryer for Christmas.  This was even before all of the doctors and such.  So far they have tried Sweet Potato Fries and Asparagus in there and enjoyed it.

As you can see in the one photo...my little niece is holding a hella-huge Sweet Potato.  She thought it was a football and started running around the house with it!  GOD...I love her!

Here you can see Trinity in her Christmas Eve Coat.  It's a faux fur type material that her other grandmother made for her.

I've been posting a lot of the Thayers stuff on IG because I love it so much!

A few days before Christmas I was still going over to my parent's house a lot for my Dad's meals and holiday prep!  My mother found crazy leggings at Walmart for $2 each.  She bought a few pairs and we decided to wear them that night and again on Christmas Day...you will see that photo below with my sister and Trinity photo bombing us!

Like I said before, my father is starting to eat more and more Sweet Potatoes!  And to be honest I have been too!  I figured WHY NOT and other than stand alone and fries I haven't done much with them.

I was trying to figure out what to top it with and I'll tell ya...I have a new favorite!  Baked Sweet Potato topped with Salsa and Guacamole!  YUM!

A while back I found Kite Hill Rav's and finally made them the one night for dinner!  I LOVED them and can't wait to get my hands on them again!

On Christmas Eve, my mother made some Vegan Cranberry Orange Muffins!  They turned out GREAT!  We had them on Christmas Morning!  Other Christmas Eve foods you can see above are...Vegan Cream Cheese Pinwheels or Roll-ups that I made with Daiya Cream Cheese...my sister made a Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip.  She used Earth Balance Mayo, Tofutti Sour Cream, and Follow Your Heart Parm.  Mom made some Spiral Pasta, and we also made some Cheesy Potatoes!  They made a regular version for them and a vegan version for me!   Actually, it was a tag team effort...my mom made the potatoes and left some out for me after cooking them up plain...she then added Daiya Shreds and baked.  She was busy with other hustle and bustle so I took them out of the oven and added Earth Balance Margarine and more Daiya Shred!  They were YUMMY!

Christmas Eve, Trinity wore a cute plaid dress under that coat (pic above).  The next morning she had a blast opening presents and we had an even bigger blast watching her!  She got a Disney Tent/Tunnel thing from my parents as you can see above.

The last two photos on the bottom here show her opening gifts and one of the things Dale and I bought her...a Farmers Market Produce Cart!  Leave it to the VEGAN AUNT, eh!? 

Christmas Morning we always do a big breakfast!  I usually make grits.  To mine, I add vegan cheese.  This year I had some leftover Smoked Gouda I cubed up from the night before.  I paired that with leftover Vegan Spinach Artichoke dip from the night before and it was darn tasty!  I ALMOST forgot to mention that I finally used the JUST EGG and my first attempt with it was a success.  I did a plain omelet.  I'm looking forward to trying other omelets and getting more creative with the product down the road.  I threw a little salsa and gauc on there, too...and a half bagel!

This is the time of year we usually try and pinch pennies a bit.  First quarter is always tighter than the rest.  I wanted to see what I could buy for very little and will probably be doing more of this in the coming months as I have in Jan-Feb-Mar in years past.  I recently went to our local Tops and bought 6 different frozen veggies, 4 cans of tomato sauce, rice, and quinoa.  I only spent about $8 on this trip!

How was your Holiday Season?