You know it's almost Christmas when...

**It's a long and winding post, but stick with me, there's a recipe at the end!**

We're spending Christmas with my family this year. Here. At home. I love staying home for Christmas. It feels more like Christmas break when we don't have to pack, load, and travel. And in place of all that driving, there's plenty of time to bake, play, and watch Christmas movies.

The years we spend at home, mom and I plan the menu. This year Uncle Bubba had some input because he offered to help with the cooking. We're nice that way. If you'll cook it, we'll put it on the menu. Otherwise, eat what we feel like cooking. See how merry we are at Christmas?

When I was young, both sets of my grandparents lived in the same town as we did. Christmas Eve was spent with my dad's side and Christmas morning was spent with my mom's side.

I have lots of memories of watching the Channel 10 news with my cousins at Nana's house on Christmas Eve. When the Santa sighting report came on, we knew it was time to load up and head home. We always had a big meal at Nana's house. She loved to cook. Well, I don't know if she loved to cook, but she raised 4 boys and a younger brother, so she got really great at cooking.

Christmas morning was spent with Mom's family. After we found what Santa brought, we made a finger food breakfast. I think it started out with just Monkey Bread. It was quick and easy and left plenty of time to finish making Christmas lunch. Mema can't stand to keep a secret, especially at Christmas, so she and Popa would come over as early as politely possible to see all the presents we'd received.

As we got older, we kept adding finger foods to the Christmas morning menu...sausage balls, poppy seed bread, little smokies, and mini quiches. Pretty soon, Mema was coming over and we were still making or eating breakfast. Breakfast kinda' grew into it's own thang and soon it overshadowed lunch.

In the last several years, we've started having our big meal on Christmas Eve at my mom's house and having breakfast and a smaller meal or leftovers at our house Christmas Day. Mom and I love that it's really only one day of heavy cooking and then Christmas Day we can relax and enjoy each other.

A couple of weeks before Christmas break, Mary TuTu came home with an assignment. She had to make a book telling about the special days her family celebrates in December. Of course, I made Brooke do the assignment along with Mary TuTu. It's one of the perks of being a twin.

As we talked about the book and how we celebrate Christmas, the girls had trouble coming up with solid traditions we keep every year. One year we celebrate Honey's family traditions, and the next year we celebrate my family's traditions. We're consistent...every other year.

I began to wonder if this is how traditions are lost. I wondered if I'm being a terrible mom by not establishing our own family traditions at Christmas. I wondered if it was selfish of me to want to make Christmas just like I remembered it instead of trying to make memories for my kids.

I began to HATE this assignment.

We finally came up with some things we do every year no matter where we are...visit family, look at Christmas lights...

... and when I asked what foods they most like at Christmas, they said monkey bread, sausage balls, turkey, rolls, and hot chocolate. And really, what girl doesn't like a roll and some chocolate? It's appropriate any time of the year.

So, I'm on a mission. I've already started planning next December. I want to establish traditions our family, mine and Honey's, can keep each year. I want my kids to have their own memories of Christmas, not just memories of my memories or Honey's memories.

I'm pretty sure those traditions will involve seeing family and Christmas lights, and eating monkey bread and sausage balls. And rolls and chocolate.

Sausage Balls

1 lb. sausage

1 c. grated (not the tiny shred, but the larger grated) cheese

4 oz. green chili

1 1/4 c. Bisquick

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Form into balls and place in a cake pan or baking sheet with sides (to keep the grease from running). Bake 15-20 minutes or until sausage is not pink in the middle. Serve warm.

You know it's almost Christmas when...

One of the cousins has a birthday towards the middle of December. The years we spend Christmas with my family, the Lastnames come to town for a birthday/Christmas weekend extravaganza.

We've tried many different celebrating times on our off years with both families: before Christmas, New Year's, a little later in January...we've tossed around the idea of celebrating at Thanksgiving...but the weekend before Christmas seems to settle the best with both sides.



This year since we had the birthday party at the cousins' house, we had Christmas at our house. Honey cooked chicken in his smoker and we fixed simple sides to go with it. And apple cider.

The older I get the more simple the food gets on the holidays. I like to cook, but I don't love it. I would rather visit, play games, and watch the holiday parades. This year for Christmas Eve we're cooking the big meal with my family, and then Christmas Day we'll cook our traditional finger food breakfast and have leftovers for lunch.

Two years ago, we had a simple Mexican food meal Christmas Eve and soups in the crock pots Christmas Day. I LOVED the food that year.

After dinner with the Lastnames, we opened presents. Usually we take turns, open one present at a time, and go youngest to oldest. This year we went oldest to youngest.

Here is a pic of the youngest protesting the new way of opening presents. I think she was feeling a little bit discriminated against.


After presents we took the cousins in front of the Christmas tree picture. I used to have one from almost every year until my computer crashed. I need to get with my sister-in-law and get copies of the years I'm missing.

It gets a little hairy around the holidays when you try to compromise and see everyone on both sides. How does your family do it?

You know it's almost Christmas when...

...we take pictures with Santa.

This year we missed the free picture opportunity at the bank we usually visit. We went to the mall and paid an exorbitant amount of money for a 5x7 of the kids with Santa.

We won't be doing that again.

But we have a picture and that's what counts.

You know it's almost Christmas when...

It's 12 days til Christmas! Wasn't it just Halloween?

You know it's almost Christmas when I start making Apple Cider. Nothing says tis the season like smelling that wonderful cinnamon-y aroma. Nothing.

I don't actually like to drink the stuff. It's not my favorite hot beverage, but I make it almost every night just so I can smell it. You can rewarm it once or twice and it still tastes good...according to Honey. But you can rewarm it several times and just smell it.

I picked up a coffee urn several years ago at Walmart. The rule at my house is that coffee urns are for apple cider, coffee makers are for coffee, electric tea kettles are for hot chocolate. NEVER put coffee in the coffee urn. Coffee flavored apple cider just ain't right.

So here's what you need to make apple cider the Hairdryer way:

Coffee urn (a large pot warming on the stove works too)

48 oz. Apple cider

16 oz. Cranberry juice

10 oz. Red hots

Put the juice and the cider in the liquid part of the urn. Then pour the red hots into the basket where the coffee usually goes. No filter is needed. Plug the urn in and let the liquid melt the red hots as it percolates through. 64 oz. of liquid hits the 12 cup mark on my urn. It's usually enough for 7 or 8 mugs of cider.

If you don't have an urn, use a large pot on the stove and heat the cider mixture until the red hots are melted.

If I don't have cranberry juice available, I use 64 oz. of apple cider, and it's just as good. Honey prefers it that way, but everyone else I know likes it with the cranberry juice.

Either way, it smells DIVINE, and I've heard it tastes great, too!