However you celebrate this time of year, I wish you all joy and happiness this holiday season, and good health and good fortune in the coming year.
Lynda
 |
| Gift Certificate Designed by Laurel Steven |
I thought I would end the blog giveaways with a bang and give away a $25 gift certificate good toward any item in my Etsy shop, to be redeemed on or before December 31, 2011. No purchase is necessary to enter the drawing, just leave a comment about your holiday traditions at the end of this post. I will draw a winner from the comments next Wednesday, November 23rd. You may comment as many times as you like, but only one comment will be entered. If you won last month (sorry, Lois!) you aren't eligible to win this month. If you do not have email enabled on your blog, please include it in your post so I will know how to contact you if you win.
This month, I want to know about your November and December holiday traditions, be they ethnic, cultural, historical or religious. What makes this time of year special for you and your family?
My family are Southern Baptists and we celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, with lots of food and fellowship. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, and has special meaning to me because I am descended from Mayflower passengers Isaac Allerton and Richard Warren. That history has been important to us for a long, long time. Thinking of the sacrifices the pilgrims made and how history was changed because of them and their sacrifices gives me the shivers, especially when I think that I would not be here if they had decided to chuck it all and go back to England and Holland.
I also have vegetable duty for both holidays this year. Since I am the acknowledged "Queen of Casseroles," I will be making Hash Brown Casserole, Broccoli Casserole, Squash Casserole and my maternal grandmother's cornbread dressing.
Xan, my sister-in-law, has Salad duty, and I take my life into my hands horning in on her territory, but I think I may also have to risk it to sneak in a 7 Layer Salad, another of my holiday favorites. My sister, Tara and I are the only ones who eat it, as most of my family is on the "no onions" side of the fence. Tara is in charge of dessert, which lucky for us, means one of her towering, made from scratch, 3-layer German Chocolate Cakes. Being a good Southern girl, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese icing has always been my favorite dessert, but Tara's German Chocolate Cake is absolutely the best cake I have ever eaten. I have dreams about that cake!
Lynda
14 comments:
One of our holiday traditions is to have homemade German baked goods (from a local family owned German bakery) on Christmas morning.
Lynda, I think I'm coming to your house for the holidays. Since we retired and moved to Arizona holidays have changed a lot. We usually go to the casino on Thanksgiving and have a big buffet there. On Christmas, I have all my friends who don't have family over. I use to cook a big meal but now we get Papa Murphy's pizzas and everyone loves it. I still bake and make my famous Velveeta Fudge but cooking is a thing of the past. My grandmother and I lived together for 25 years and we always had a big Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. She loved to cook but I had to do the dishes. Life seems so much simpler now but also a little lonely.
Ladies, those sound like wonderful traditions!
Bonnie, Velveeta Fudge? Woman, you've been holding out on me. Spill that recipe! LOL Velveeta is one of my most favorite things. In fact, our Christmas Eve meal is usually 1886 Cheese Soup, which is made with Velveeta. Want to trade recipes?
As we are of French Canadian stock, part of our tradition is the Reveillon - I celebrate Christmas Eve with my brothers and their wives and all of our children and grandchildren, it's the one day of the year that is reserved for us to get together, no exceptions. We started it the year I got married and my parents didn't want any hassles with the new in-laws, so Christmas Eve was designated as our Christmas and Christmas Day reserved for the inlaws - that was a long time ago.... We give gifts and serve traditional French Canadian tortiere meat pies, turkey with stuffing, Milles Feuilles a yummy pastry and lots of other goodies.
When I was younger, in more innocent times, the entire family met at my maternal grandparent's home for the holidays. Special memories. Since my granny pasted thought, all the cousins have gone their separate ways. Then I went into a medical career and have worked Christmas since my father passed on. This gives the younger staff members with children a chance to build their own special memories.
We have a tradition that we started two years ago with our children. We have a Christmas Day Treasure Hunt!
On Christmas Eve, my husband Darren, goes around our village and leaves clues tied with pretty ribbon all around the place. Then on Christmas Afternoon, after Lunch, we wrap up warm, give the children the first clue and off we all go. They try to solve the clues and each one leads to the location of the next, until the final clue leads to the treasure. So far we have hidden the treasure back at home, and in the boot of my car! Not quite sure where we will hide it this year, it has to be somewhere safe!! The children absolutely love it. Katie is nearly 16 and Logan is 9. Lots of fun!
By the way - what ever is Velveeta? I need to know lol!!!
Oh, my favorite...Red Velvet cake! Your holiday traditions are yummy! I use to bake pies: pumpkin, pecan, and apple for the holidays but I rarely have time now. But, on Christmas Day, I get up early and make homemade cinnamon rolls and wait for my kids to come and open their presents. My daughter is starting to bring over her famous pumpkin roll now that she is married with a little one. So, I look forward to that on Thanksgiving. We invite the inlaws to join us for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Last two Christmases we have gotten together and played Bingo with small prizes. I make Mexican hot chocolate! I also love attending Christmas eve service to celebrate the birth of our Savior! These are probably my favorite holidays of the year. One holiday to give thanks for all our blessings and the other to celebrate God's gift to us!
I am really enjoying hearing all of your family traditions. This is wonderful! I think this will be my all-time favorite post. :)
Pippa, Velveeta is a processed American cheese that comes in a block. It is soft and melts beautifully, so it is great with pasta and rice and in soup. I have never heard of Velveeta Fudge, so I am hoping Miss Bonnie will share the recipe!
http://www.kraftbrands.com/velveeta
Lynda, what a rich family history you have. One of the holiday tradition in my is "Hors d'oeuvre Night". Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve are all celebrated with a long table of tasty, bite-sized snacks and treats. We spend the days leading up to the event planning what new hors d'oeuvres to add to our favorites. This year my son and I are even taking a local one-day cooking class on making appetizers so we're really serious about this event. Friends and family are in for special surprises from us this year!
My mouth is watering from all the wonderful dishes posted. I would ask for recipes, but they'd be lost on me. I am the family's designated chopper, mixer and dish washer. Anything that does not invole actual cooking. There are so many good cooks in the family and frankly, I am not one of them. Ha ha. My talents shine during Chrismas when I give jewelry and other hand made treasures as gifts. Lynda, I can't wait to use your tutorials. I'm going to knock them off their feet this year.
Ladies, these stories are just fabulous, thank you so much for posting your comments.
Courtne, welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy using the tutorials, and I hope you'll send me photos of your creations, too. I would love to see them.
My mom's side of the family is of norwegian descent so I fondly remember lutefisk and lefse during the holidays when we would get together. Lutefisk is an acquired taste that my dad never got. He said we should bake the fish on a board and when it was done throw the fish away and eat the board!
handmadebynancy@hotmail.com
Comments are closed for this giveaway. Thanks so much for your entries, ladies!
Well done to you, hope more achievement to you. If you are actually conscious about your health and want to keep yourself fit and healthy than keep in mind that good health absolutely begins from a healthy mouth.
Post a Comment