Our Best Holiday Recipes

Does anyone else find themselves feeling so smug as you get everything checked off your grocery list for upcoming holiday meals only to get home and realize that while you may have the ingredients for a grand meal in a few days, somehow you’ve managed to make it home from the store without putting anything in your cart for the dinners you are expected to prepare leading up to that day!

Sometimes we feel like it’s adding insult to injury during this holiday season that not only do we have to do all of the gift shopping and wrapping and Christmas card sending and magic making and special menu planning, we also have to still maintain our ‘regularly scheduled programming’ of bills and laundry and weeknight dinners and housework and maintain some remnant of sanity. Sheesh! 😉

The grocery list for this week is always exceptionally long as we gear up for all of the festivities so we thought that maybe, if you are anything like us and putting the finishing touches on your Christmas menu,  you might enjoy this collection of some of our most favorite recipes.

There’s a little something for everyone and every occasion. Whether you want to make a fancy Christmas punch or soup for a simple weeknight meal, we have it all here!

Cranberry Orange Sauce

 Roasted Beet Salsa and Pastry Wrapped Brie and Beets

Original Fantasy Fudge

Christmas Morning Punch

 Gingerbread Waffles

 Hot Apple Pie Cocktail

 Seafood Chowder with Smoked Salmon

Spiced Roasted Hazelnuts

 Skinny Buffalo Ranch Chicken Dip

 Creamy Mushroom & Brie Soup

 Molasses Cookies with Eggnog Icing

This is always the week in December that we love the most.

No more decorating, shopping (pretty much) done, school is out and we can just focus on the things which make Christmas really feel like Christmas to us.

Driving around looking at lights, baking cookies with our kiddos and delivering them to neighbors, wrapping gifts while yet another cheesy Hallmark movie somehow still manages to make us tear up and turning our hearts with anticipation towards celebrating our Savior’s birth.

We hope that this week will be filled with all of those things but that you will also add one more ‘to do’ to your list. We hope that in the midst of all of the activity and festivity that you will carve out some moments for quiet.

For a little bit of peace…for just being still. Because as moms, sometimes while we are so busy making the ‘magic’ for our families, we can forget to pause for a bit and just ‘be’. Whether it’s sitting in the dark with only the glow of your Christmas tree, taking your time with that first cup of coffee in the morning, or closing your eyes while the church choir sings your favorite song.

We pray that you will get your own little bit of magic this week in whatever form nourishes your spirit and feeds your soul.

And that you will be surprised by joy in the midst of it all!

Blessings to you friends,