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!