The Most Wonderful Time of the Year~Christmas

Our Christmas was perfect this year. It was quiet and laid back, spent at home with family- just the way we like it. My husband had spent the better part of November and December on the road for work, so we did not see much of him for roughly 6 weeks. (Thank God that is done with now!) So just the fact that he was home and not working made it perfect to us. As I see it, Christmas starts for us on the 23rd and goes until the 26th. Why make such an important holiday only 1 day?
On the 23rd we worked on baking our sugar cookies for Santa:


Christmas Eve is always spent at my Mom and Dad's. We used to make a dinner of hors d'oeuvres with things like shrimp cocktail, chicken bites, nachos, chicken salad on rye and pumpernickel, among other things. Over the past few years Mom has instead started doing nice sit down dinners. One year she made Beef Bourguignon that was AMAZING. This year's dinner was just as amazing- she made oven roasted Cornish game hens with a cranberry salsa ( I need to get the recipe from her). She also served a salad with a raspberry vinaigrette, rice pilaf, fresh green beans,and fresh whole steamed carrots. It was an incredible meal, and the best part- everything was completely Dairy Free!

Since Mom made the main course, I brought the hors d'oeuvers: Kale Pesto with mini toasts and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto with crackers. I didn't get a picture because we were too busy tracking Santa on the NORAD Santa Tracker. The girls love following Santa on his Christmas Eve journey around the world. They both got so very excited when they saw he was in Cape Town, South Africa delivering gifts to two of their very best friends.

I did manage to get a few pictures before dinner.


The table all set for dinner:



The girls ready to eat this delicious meal:


After dinner the girls got their Christmas Jammies, specially made by my friend over at It's My Favorite...Boutique. Once they were in their jammies it was time for "The Night Before Christmas" to be read by Nana's special Christmas Bear. Abby absolutely loved the reading bear, and insisted on hearing the story twice!

(please pardon the quality of the pictures. My camera is having issues lately and will be going back to the company soon. For now, these are the best pictures I have)

Soon after it was time to head home to do our few Christmas Eve traditions before the little ones went off to bed.
We had to put out the Reindeer Food:


I attempted to get a picture of all 3 girls in front of the tree. The Little One had other plans and ran off, so instead I only got a picture of the two Big Ones:


After pictures it was time to write our notes to Santa ( which the girls did all on their own this year) and put out cookies and milk for the Big Guy. A new tradition that the oldest one started a couple years ago is to leave a small gift for Santa too. She thinks that he should get a Thank You for all the gifts he brings, so she has started making him a Christmas gift. This year it was a tree ornament. Sam drew a picture for him.


Christmas Morning with a 5 year old dawns bright and EARLY. We were ready for them though. The coffee was already brewing, and before the stockings were opened our French Toast Casserole for breakfast was in the oven.

While we waited for my parents to arrive, the girls got to open their goodies from Santa:

Each big girl got her own chair, and the Little One got a table and chair set. They got other things as well, of course! There was Hello Kitty, Build-A-Bear stuff,and a barking dog (yay) for the Middle One; a soccer ball, and Hexbugs with 2 Habitats for the Big One. Santa brought play food, a learning kitty, and blocks for the Little One. The girls' lists were smaller this year, and so Santa brought them what they asked for.

In the break between opening Santa's gifts and Mom and Dad arriving, I snuck in some snuggle time with my Middle One:


Once Mom and Dad arrived, the room was again filled with presents, and the girls got to work opening those gifts and their gifts from us.


The were American Girl dolls and clothes galore this year, since that is what my Mom and Dad get the girls.

The Little One got her very first AG doll:

And a stroller to push her around in.

There were also Legos, Little People, clothes, books, and other things. ( I can't even remember it all now!)
Along with getting gifts, the girls loved giving their gifts to each other and to us. From my girls I got a beautiful necklace and earring set, a cookie jar and coffee mug, and One Tree Hill Season 7:-) They gave their Daddy table top fuse ball and ping pong.

The Biggest One also helped the Littlest One with opening her gifts, and the two had a lot of snuggle time together. This picture makes my heart happy:



Once the girls had all their gifts opened, it was time for the adults to enjoy opening our gifts to each other. This was the first year I had no idea at all of what to expect. I had not really asked for anything in particular, except for 1 thing- a New England Patriots jersey. Which my husband got for me:-) He also gave me a beautiful tea set from Teavana along with 2 canisters of tea, my first University of Michigan sweatshirt (GO BLUE!), and several other fun things.

From Mom and Dad I got a new Allergy Free cookbook- recipes from it will be tried and posted here I am sure, a sewing set and book since Mom is giving me her other sewing machine, and some kitchen items including new soup bowls that I have been searching for.

I gave my husband a Michigan hoody as well so now we'll match on Game Day:


Of course I gave him other things- boring "guy" stuff;-)


The funniest gift I think were the 7 flashlights my husband got! Bruin, our dog, gave him a set of 4, and my parents gave him a set of 3! Guess that's what happens when you have a hurricane hit your area and take out your power for a few days- for Christmas you get tons of flashlights! At least now we have one in every room, just in case!

We ended the day with a simple Christmas dinner of a baked ham with sides and dessert. My Mom makes the BEST Cranberry Pecan pie! By the time the day was over, we were all exhausted, but in a good way. Now we have 10 months to rest up before we do it all again next year!

Chocolate Fudge Ball Cookies~*Gluten Free* Version

**These are originally not gluten or dairy free. I adapted the recipe for my gluten free readers this year. They can be made with butter and all purpose flour for those of you not looking for GF or DF cookies. Just use the same measurements for the flour and margarine.**


My very favorite Christmas cookie recipe is one for Chocolate Fudge Balls. My mom has been making these every single Christmas for as long as I can recall. It truly is not Christmas until we have Fudge Balls and Party Mix (that recipe is coming soon!). This year I decided to make these cookies gluten free as well as dairy free. I have never used gluten free flour before- I don't have a need to be gluten free, but since I have had requests for more gluten free recipes I thought I would give it a try. And it worked! These cookies are amazing- just as they are every year! I had my husband try them and he agrees- they taste just like the ones my Mom makes.
If you are gluten and dairy free I really hope you give these a try. I realize it's very close to Christmas, but they take less time than most cookies, and only a few ingredients. I promise you- they are totally worth it!


Gluten Free & Dairy Free Chocolate Fudge Balls:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1 and 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted Gluten Free Flour
confectioner's sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper (makes for easy cleanup)

1. Melt margarine with chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat.


Stir constantly-Be extremely careful not to burn the chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple minutes.



2.Add sugar, egg, salt, and vanilla extract; mix well.
Add in your flour using a sifter.

Those little hands on the sifter are my oldest daughter's. My girls were helping me make these.

Combine well. The batter will be thick.

3. Shape the dough into balls. You can use a teaspoon to measure the dough, but I usually eyeball it. The ball should be the size of a large gumball. Place on your lined cookie sheets.


4. Bake at 375F for 7-9 minutes. You will know they are done because they will get small cracks in them.


5. Allow them to cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes. Roll them in confectioners sugar while they are still warm.



Store them in a airtight container or freeze. They freeze really well!



If you do try them (and I really hope you do!)please let me know either by leaving a comment here on the blog or on my Facebook page or by sending me a tweet on Twitter.

Special thanks to my Mom for sharing this recipe with me and allowing me to share it with you all.

**This recipe is adapted from the "Pillsbury Family Cookbook" and I believe the copyright is in the late 1950's or early 1960's.**

What's Baking~Christmas Cookies

I have not yet baked one Christmas cookie. Seriously- not one. But that's not abnormal for me- I actually do not start baking until the week before Christmas. I like my cookies fresh for the Holidays and I don't like to over do it on the sweets for Christmas. Plus, I know for a fact that Santa's favorite Christmas cookies are peanut butter blossoms, and that he likes them made on Christmas Eve;-) We always save those for very last, and the girls help, since those are the ones we leave out for Santa.
So since this is the week before Christmas, we will get started on our baking. I thought I would share my Cookie Menu with you. We'll see if I actually get all of these done.

Traditional Favorites:
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Chocolate Chip ( my husband's favorite)
Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Fudge Balls

Cranberry Orange Bread (ok, so that's not a cookie)

Grownups' Favorites:
Double Chocolate Biscotti

Cranberry Orange Biscotti
Chocolate Cappucino Cookies
Raspberry Wine and Chocolate Dipped Butter Cookies (and clementines- SO GOOD!)

Do you see a theme with the chocolate? I am actually a closet choco-holic-(Shhhh don't tell anyone.) And to help with that addiction I found dairy free chocolate chips at Trader Joes.

But, first things first, I have to make Rice Krispie Treat Christmas Trees for my middle daughter's preschool party tomorrow and wrap teachers' gifts.

As I make these cookies I will share the recipes. I cannot wait to start baking this week, especially with my girls.

Looking Back ~ Christmas Past

Every year, as Christmas gets closer, I find myself looking through pictures of previous Christmas celebrations, especially the ones since I became a Mom. Christmas has always been special to me, but it took on a whole new meaning once I became a Mom. When I was a kid I always loved baking cookies with my mom, helping her wrap presents (especially my Dad's- I always wrapped his stocking stuffers). I loved the glow of the Christmas lights, singing carols, reading "The Night Before Christmas", and watching the classic Christmas movies. Once I became a Mom, I had someone to share all of those with. Now that my girls are getting older, I am not only passing on my childhood traditions, but my husband and I are adding new ones too. We bake the same cookies my Mom always did, but now we add in a couple my Mother-in-Law used to make. We have an Elf on the Shelf named Frisbee ( the girls love him), we go see Santa at Busch Gardens, and we make ornaments. Every Christmas Eve the girls get to open two presents- their new Keepsake ornaments, and new matching jammies. I am hopeful that they will carry a couple of these traditions on with their own families some day.

I love watching my family grow and change over the years. We've had several good Christmases, and a couple tough ones over the past 8 years.

2003-Baby's Very First Christmas:
My oldest was born exactly 1 week before Christmas. Her due date was December 16th, and as is true with most first babies, she was a few days late. Since she was an emergent c-section we spent an extra day in the hospital and got home on December 22nd. I spent that Christmas laying on my sofa, snuggling my new baby girl- the very best Christmas present I ever got. She spent her first Christmas napping:-)



2004-Baby's 2nd Christmas
Her first visit to see Santa. She would not sit on his lap without me, but as long as I was holding her she was happy.



Catherine also gave me a very special gift that year- she started walking the day after Christmas.

2005- Baby's 3rd Christmas: Family Reunion in Philadelphia:
Our 3rd Christmas as parents was our last as a family of 3. I was 4 months pregnant with our 2nd daughter that year.


That year my husband's family had a family reunion up in Philadelphia, where his Mom's family is from. We spent 4 days up there with his sisters and brothers-in-law, our niece and nephew, Aunts and Uncles, my in-laws, and his grandparents. This was my first trip to Philly, so we did a little sightseeing while we were there. Not a lot, I was still suffering from miserable morning sickness at that time. But we did make a trip to Valley Forge, which is where the picture below was taken.


2006-Feeling Blessed:
This year we were just glad to have made it through 2006 as a family of 4. Our 2nd daughter almost did not make it past her first few days of life, so we had so much to be thankful for this Christmas. I have tons of pictures, but far too many to share. We spent the day in our new house, with my parents and old family friends.

2007-Quiet Christmas:
We had a quiet Christmas that year. Our family was still reeling from our daughter's Cerebral Palsy diagnosis, and my father's diagnosis of cancer.



2008- A Time for Family and Friends:
Things were starting to look up, but again we had a quiet Christmas. We did have an old college friend of mine join us for the week of Christmas that year.
Visiting with Santa at Catherine's preschool party.


Christmas morning with my Sam after we were done opening presents. This is my absolute favorite picture of me and Sam- all snuggled up, just totally HAPPY.



2009- Beach Christmas:
Other than the year our 1st daughter was born, this is my very favorite Christmas so far. This was the year of our Outer Banks Beach Vacation. We rented a huge house directly on the beach and spent the entire week of Christmas with family. We brought ALL of our Christmas decorations with us, even bought a real tree to bring with us! We spent the week cooking delicious meals, baking cookies, walking on the beach looking for shells, watching Christmas movies and just relaxing. My husband's parents joined us for part of the week as well, so our daughters had both sets of Grandparents that year for Christmas. Oh, and I was again 4 months pregnant this year, this time with our youngest daughter. But this time- no morning sickness so it was much more enjoyable!

This was the year we started the tradition of going to Busch Gardens Christmas Town to see Santa.


The house we rented for the week. It was AMAZING!


Christmas Night- 2 very happy little girls.



2010-A Very Rare White Christmas:
We had a very busy Holiday season last year. Not only had we added another daughter to our family, but since the girls are older we had more things to do.

Our middle daughter played Mary in her school Christmas Pageant.


Christmas Eve at my parents' house as is tradition:


Christmas Eve before bed: My very favorite picture of my 3 girls.


And we got to spend the holiday with some AMAZING friends, that we are missing so very much this year.

We also had a very nice surprise- a White Christmas! So much snow that we actually got snowed in for a day. But that was fine with us! Our friends stayed with us, all of our daughters got to play in the snow (and so did we). It was a fantastic day!


2011-And that brings us to Christmas Present:
It's hard to believe we started this whole parenting adventure EIGHT years ago this year!

It's easy to forget with all the materialism surrounding the holiday season now, but the very greatest gift of all, is the gift of FAMILY.


From my family to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

I'm not going to lie, I am having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year. So much so that my husband even noticed and made mention of it. Apparently around this time of year I am like Mrs. Clause. I normally have our entire month planned- all our tree trimming activities, Christmas light viewing evenings planned complete with locations to go see, hot cocoa in travel mugs for everyone, and a play list of Christmas music. By this time I normally have Christmas PJ's ordered, the girls' annual Keepsake ornaments bought and wrapped, family gifts done, and my baking supplies on hand and ready to go. But not this year. There is just too much other "stuff" going on to focus on Christmas and I feel like it has snuck up on me this year. But I have 3 little girls who are so in love with Christmas thanks to my own love of the holiday that there is no more time for moping. So in an effort to find my misplaced Christmas Cheer, I thought I would do a post about getting ready for Christmas.

So far we have done a few things to get ready. We have done some of our shopping for the kids, planned out our gift list for family and friends, and our gifts for each other. We have made our visit to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, and the girls have visited with Santa and told him what they wish to get this year. I have also organized a cookie swap for other dairyfree or vegan bloggers with Jessica at DairyfreeBetty. So I am not all that behind, but definitely not as up to speed as I normally am.

Every year we do a few projects together as a family. Our traditions include a Gingerbread house a couple days before Christmas, making reindeer food, and making new ornaments. Yesterday we took a family field trip to Michael's for ideas and supplies. The girls have their own Christmas tree that they get to have in their living room (actually now it's the homeschool/craft room).


They get to make all the decorations and pick out the lights and garland. Every year they make a few new ornaments to go on it, and I let them pick out what they want to make. This year they picked out a Rudolph ornament kit complete with markers and glitter. (yay glitter- it gets EVERYWHERE!)


Last year they chose Grinch ornaments and snowflakes. The year before that we made paper ornaments with markers, glitter, and ribbon. Every year it's different, and they look forward to it. Next year the littlest one will be big enough to make a few things for the tree as well.

My husband wanted to work on a craft project this year too and he came across some wooden figures we could all paint. So next weekend we are going to work on these. Not sure what's we're going to end up with, but it'll be a fun family project.

My husband and I are going to do the words, our oldest is doing the sleigh and "Let it snow" tree, and the middle one chose the house. I am really excited to see how they turn out!

My favorite decorations of the season are the trees and lights. We started a new tradition last year thanks to my friend Rochelle- we now have a kitchen Christmas tree, along with our main tree in our living room and the kids' tree. My kitchen tree is small for now, but someday I want to have a larger tree in the kitchen, once we have the space for it.


All of the ornaments on it are either food or kitchen utensil related.


My husband picked out a letter cookie ornament for each of the girls' first names:

Our family tree is never going to be a designer tree, and I don't want it to be. It's a hodge podge of family ornaments: baby's first Christmas ornaments for each girl, ornaments from places we've been, the year we got married, gift ornaments, all the girls' Keepsake ornaments (they get a new one each year). It's gets rearranged everyday because the girls love to take down their ornaments and look at them. Our tree is the ever evolving story of our life as a family, and that is the way it will stay. It may not belong in a magazine, Martha Stewart would croak if she ever saw it, but it's OUR story and I love it.


My goal is to have a tree in each room. Overkill- probably. I would like to have the main tree, the kids' tree, my kitchen tree, a sports tree in the office, a small tree in each of the girls' rooms, and a white one for our room with blue and silver ornaments. They will be smaller than our main tree, of course, but I would love to have all these themed trees.

And because no food blog post is complete without some mention of food, here are a few new Dairy Free goodies I came across recently:
Before I became completely and utterly lactose intolerant I used to love to go to Starbucks for either a Mocha or a Caramel Macchiato. Oh how I miss those. But after a recent trip to my neighborhood grocery store, I cam across these two items:


Upon first glance, I would automatically assume they have dairy in them and keep on walking. In fact, I spend very little time in the dairy section. I don't know what made me stop and read the labels the other day, but I am so glad I did.



I am totally in love with the peppermint mocha. It tastes just like a Thin Mint. Or a peppermint patty. YUM!
And to make life even sweeter I found this at Trader Joes this weekend:


I know these creamers aren't that good for you. They contain a lot of sugar and other stuff that's not all that great. But since I drink mostly these:

a little indulgence is ok, especially this time of year.

I have a few baking mixes to try out, and cookies to make and share for our Dairy Free Blogger cookie recipe swap. I am sure that within the next few days my Christmas spirit will return... I'm already feeling more Jolly just thinking about a cup of peppermint mocha coffee;-) Stay tuned for some cookie recipes coming soon.