Alright, after getting out what I wanted to say yesterday, here we go with the holiday recaps!

Gym Friends Healthy Holiday Party

Rewind a few weeks!  Liz kindly hosted a bunch of us Oak Square Y gym girls at her house for a healthy holiday party.

What exactly makes a holiday party healthy?  Well, everyone brought something for the potluck that was either healthy or made healthIER than normal in some way.  There were so many delicious treats, and the pictures below showcase only some of them! 

Everyone also brought 20 copies of the recipe for their dish.  It was nice to walk out with pretty much a new recipe collection in tow.

I, for one, had a recipe disaster for this party.  Go figure, right?  The one time I’m actually bringing something to share with all the other people in my life who appreciate healthy living just as much as I do, I mess everything up.  This party was at the end of the week that I was sick Monday-Wednesday and was dealing with my eye ulcer issues Thursday and Friday.  With everything else going on, I pretty much had zero time to prepare.  And I’m learning that when I feel rushed or that I have no time, my anxiety levels go through the roof.  And when that happens, and I need to prep something in the kitchen, nothing good comes out of it.  I’ve had a few recipe disasters the last month alone that I can definitely attribute to feeling too rushed.

I attempted to make Parmesan zucchini bites, but they didn’t brown properly, and they were just bad.  I was pretty mortified about this, I should have just left them at home, but there was only so much pressure I could put on myself to have everything turn out perfectly when some of the circumstances were simply out of my control.  I just hope nobody judged me for the stupid zucchinis!  I swear I’m a good cook / baker regularly.  I’m actually going to attempt a round two soon and post the recipe for it.  Stay tuned for that!

Moving right along.

Aside from the (mostly) fun food, we had a great time catching up and drinking wine!

We also had a big grab that was full of healthy living themed gifts.  There were LOTS of headbands and workout socks, cookbooks, and more.

My favorite two gifts in the grab were Emily’s “Pre-Sweat” (granola bars), “Sweat” (socks), and “Post-Sweat” (scarf) theme, and Jess’s “In case of emergency” (headband, deodorant, etc.) theme.  Go figure my faves were the theme gifts.  Love!

It’s funny because normally the gifts in Yankee swaps are TERRIBLE, but I think I actually wanted every single gift that people brought to this one!  Yet another reason gym friends are awesome.

The girls all left at different times, but Aloisia, Jess, Jen, Ashley, Sarah and I stayed a bit longer than most and just chit chatted around the kitchen table for a while about lots of stuff.  I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, these girls just get me!

It’s kind of like the same type of friendship I had with my high school dance friends, and then with PCDC in college.  I would say the only negative thing about the night was a lack of Jen!  We missed you, Jen!

Thanks, Liz, for hosting such a fun night!  I can’t wait until our next get together.  Shall we start planning now?

Have you ever attended or hosted a healthy holiday party?

Happy Friday, folks!