I hope you had a lovely Christmas, whether you celebrate the holiday or just enjoyed the day.
We had nice weather for being outside,
but I didn’t venture far beyond the glow of our tree.
Christmas Carols
I did not go caroling or even make it to a holiday concert, but I thoroughly enjoyed Peloton’s Christmas Carol class. It’s an audio-only class that is basically a dramatic performance of a A Christmas Carol with just a few workout cues slipped in between scenes.
Jon Hoskins played the lead role, and it was fun figuring out which instructors were playing the other characters. Peloton gets 5 stars for this creative class!
I also enjoyed several holiday playlists on my runs with Scooby.
Frosty was a bit worried about the shorts weather we had Christmas Eve,
but by Boxing Day it was in the 20s again.
Santa brought us a new flag for Christmas 🇺🇸
Christmas Cranberries
I’m not above having Christmas cookies for breakfast, but cranberry coffee cake is festive and slightly more nourishing. After years making this upside down cranberry coffee cake, I was ready to try something new.
I started with this recipe from Barefoot in the Kitchen, cut the sugar down to 1.5 cups, and added a pecan-streusel topping from Beaming Baker. I divided the batter into two loaf pans—one for me, one for my Mom. 😋
I also tried a new apple pie recipe this year. It was a hit at Thanksgiving and earned an encore performance at Christmas, so I think I will retire the pain-in-the-ass recipe.
This one has a few extra steps—like making a caramel sauce from the juices of the macerated apples and drizzling that over the apples before adding the crumb topping—but is easy in comparison.
Bonus points for holding up to slicing!
If you’re looking for more fitness updates, check out my year-end Runfessions and please join us for the first Ultimate Coffee Date of 2026 on Friday!
A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up.
What’s your favorite holiday treat?
Do you make recipes your own or follow them to a “T”?
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your post is making me hungry. I did zero baking this year.
But I do follow them when I bake. Otherwise I do not.
Sugar cookies!!!
No shorts here…. FREEZING!!!!!!
I love the wooden bicycle with the B in the back wheel over your door. Was it an Etsy find?
Your new apple pie recipe looks and sounds delicious! My husband LOVES pies, but I rarely make them.
Oh, my daughter made that for us! Her library has a whole “shop” section with tools and stuff.
Well, the pie looks and sounds delicious, but I saw “macerated apples” and “caramel sauce” and said NOPE. All my baking this year was as simple as possible. I did make our traditional orange-chocolate chip biscotti, but I make that every year so it’s easy by now. I might look at those cranberry coffee cake recipes- my daughter’s birthday is coming right up (arrrrg!) and we’ve had so many treats, I’m looking for a slightly healthier option.
Nice job getting your workouts in, and yes- Peloton really knows how to do holidays.
Only having one crust is easier — plus I don’t like crust that much and the crumb topping tastes much better!
Oh, yum!
I love all the holiday cookies, but Russian tea cakes are probably my favorite. I did make these delicious chocolate chips this year that were amazing.
So glad you had Peloton to help make the holidays extra merry!
My daughter used to love the Russian tea cakes!
I made my usual cookies this year, but in small batches, and then I gave them all to the kids on Christmas. I usually follow the recipe, but make little tweaks here and there. Your apple pie looks great, but I echo what others said–I like to keep it simple and pies are as simple as it gets!
Sounds like you had a nice and relaxing Christmas with lots of good treats and eats!
Yum, you made some delicious looking stuff!! That cranberry coffee cake looks super good. I make a coffee cake with cherries and cocoa for Christmas breakfast. Apparently my son is the biggest fan because he ate all of the leftovers and I didn’t get any! sad. 🙂
I’m impressed with the apple pie. My husband makes one which always flattens out when cut. I suggested he try another recipe but he’s not doing it!
I think the extra steps help the slices hold up —either pre-baking or macerating/draining.
Oh, that pie! The cranberry bread looks amazing, too! I remember, from years past, your stories with the PIA Apple pie, LOL 🙂
Yes, that one had SO many steps!
I’m not a pie person, but that one looks delicious. The coffee cake though — yum yum! We made a loooot of cookies here – but I love it all! Its truly my favorite.