Once again time has gotten away from me. It is already Christmas Eve! Happy holidays to all of you! I hope you enjoy some time with the family and eat delicious food.
While I did not have time to post much for the holidays I thought I would share some of our holiday food traditions. Christmas Eve we have homemade pizza. I don’t recall how this started, but for as long as I can remember my family has always had pizza for Christmas Eve. There have only been one or two dough disasters with emergency pizza delivered! This is a fun tradition we continue with our boys. We will be headed to my parent’s house shortly to enjoy our pizza dinner with them.
Dessert is rather simple. Homemade Christmas cookies and homemade eggnog. The eggnog is a MUST. If you have never had homemade eggnog you must try it. There is just no comparison to what you buy in the store. The boys and I made a double batch yesterday and they are thrilled. They already told Daddy that he needs to try Mommy’s “special drink”!
As for the cookies, this year we have gingerbread men as well as some reindeer and stars that stand up. Traditional vanilla cutout cookies are a hit with the kids too. One of my favorites is jam thumbprints. I used hazelnuts and filled them with homemade white chocolate raspberry jam. I also made one of the classics my mom always made, candy cane cookies. I dipped them in dark chocolate. The shape didn’t turn out well, but they still taste great! To round it all out we have mint chocolate fudge and peanut butter fudge (Josh’s must have).
Christmas morning is all about opening presents. Growing up I was the one waking the family early, even in college I would get them all up at 5am! We have a pot of hot tea while we open presents. Cinnamon toast is a classic in our family too, just enough to hold you over until brunch. This year we are having biscuits, country ham, scrambled eggs, fruit, an almond pastry and of course our mandatory mimosas, sparkling juice for the kids.
We don’t have a traditional Christmas dinner. Every year is something different. It took us some time, but last night we finally decided on a Raclette dinner. A Raclette is a European table grill/broiler contraption. We will grill shrimp, scallops, steak, squash and mushrooms on top. In the broiler trays we will broil the potatoes, broccoli and cheese to melt. It is a fun drawn out dinner similar to fondue which requires plenty of wine!
What are your holiday food must haves and traditions!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS ONE AND ALL!
Feeding My 3 Sons 
Gretchen,
Beautiful cookie assortment. I am so impressed by your baking and decorating.
I also love Raclette – it is my very favorite… so fun, festive and interactive.
Enjoy those mimosas – and MERRY CHRISTMAS. š
Warm regards to you, your hubby and your Three Sons,
Shanna
Well the Raclette dinner will have to wait. Hubs was sick so I decided it wasn’t worth it for just me and the kids. We did enjoy our scallops, potatoes and broccoli though. And of course cookies too. I must say the boys also enjoyed Latkes with sour cream too…I go the the JCC for my workouts and they had samples there. They enjoy it all!
I love Christmas cookies AND latkes, Gretchen. The same with my kids. Tonight I am making a delicious meal – and lots of fancy cheese for before. And cocktails. š As for working out, it is definitely a mother’s sanity. Plus, with blogging, there is also extra energy to be expended. I like to “sample” (translate: devour) my creations. I am glad to hear that your kids are such good eaters and so well-rounded! Props to their mom. Have a lovely holiday. Best – Shanna
Oh yeah, I did enjoy my mimosas! Best part of the day!! Not exactly fun being home with the kids on a holiday with a husband napping all day. Hopefully he will feel better soon, he certainly didn’t enjoy his holiday.
I hope that your hubby feels better, Gretchen. As for mimosas: yes, yes, yes! š As for bubbly cocktails, check out this slide show of 17 for next year: http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/champagne-cocktails
Best, Shanna
You’ve prepared a wonderful assortment of cookies. I bet your boys are going to have a very good day today. What fun! Wishing you all a most memorable Christmas!
Thanks! We certainly do love baking cookies. Even better when the boys are distracted and don’t try to help too much. Left alone the cookies would be covered in a mountain of frosting! The boys certainly had plenty of fun today, new toys, Legos to put together…. My day was less fun since the hubs was sick and napped nearly all day leaving me to cook and clean and watch the troops. Hope you had a wonderful day.
Yumm, hope they appreciate how good a mom you are!
Kristen, I love this, I love the pizza on Christmas Eve š
I love all the cookies you made, I saw those 3D cookies, great job…they all look so yummy!!
Gretchen!!! I am so sorry for calling you Kristen š¦ I was just reading a post right before this one from Kristen and that name was on my brain š and as I read this post of yours I thought boys…she doesn’t have boys she has one boy…oh boy maybe I had too much “Egg Nog” I hope you for give me and hope you had a blessed Christmas with your family š
Never too much eggnog!
We certainly enjoyed eating them! Gotta love IKEA for those 3D cookie cutters. I do love our pizza tradition, something unusual and uniquely us! Hope you had a great holiday.
I love all those festive goodies! The gingerbread reindeer is so cute and the fudge on the end looks perfect and crumbly. And I love the eggnog mug – it’s so pretty!
I hope you had a lovely day š
We had a wonderful time despite my husband being ill and sleeping a lot. I hope you had a lovely holiday too. And that mint fudge was heavenly!