Christmas Excitement

Christmas is by far my family’s favorite holiday! It is such a beautiful time of year with so many happy people all around town.

The holiday seems to last the entire month of December with all the beautiful decorations in our homes, stores, and even outside in our town!

The real exciting part of Christmas begins Christmas eve; we go to my dads for a big family dinner! Typically, we have ham, cheesy potatoes, and some vegetables. It is a happy evening with lots of love and laughter. We have our annual cousin gift exchange at my dad’s. The young children exchange one gift off their Santa wish list and the older cousins typically get a gift card to their favorite store. To wrap the evening up, everyone goes to Church for the 9 o’clock mass. It is a great opportunity to praise our lord and go to a beautiful candle light mass. After church we drive around a few subs and enjoy the beautiful Christmas light displays. When we get home, we set homemade cookies out for Santa Clause.

In the morning, our family wakes up to the smells of a delicious home cooked breakfast and fresh roasted coffee. The family does a gift exchange under the Christmas tree and watches A Christmas Story. It is a tradition for our family to watch that movie every Christmas morning! To complete Christmas day, we go to my husband’s parents for a Lebanese dinner. Our Christmas traditions are my absolute favorite because there are so many traditions with almost every family member involved. Only 42 days until Christmas!!! J 

One of our family’s favorite Christmas traditions is creating a GINGERBREAD HOUSE! There are so many different decorations to decorate them with! Everyone in our family makes one and at the end, everyone votes the one they like as the best decorated gingerbread house. The winner wins a Starbucks giftcard. It is a fun family night during the Christmas holiday.

During the holiday season, we always bake Christmas cookies. Below is one of my family’s favorite recipes by Cassie Johnston for sugar cookies! We like sugar cookies because they are fun for the whole family to decorate!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the Cookies

·         2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

·         1 cup sour cream

·         1¾ cup granulated sugar

·         2 eggs

·         2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·         ½ teaspoon almond extract

·         6 cups all purpose flour

·         1½ teaspoons baking powder

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         ½ teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)

For the Frosting

·         2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

·         1 teaspoon vanilla, coconut, almond, or peppermint extract

·         4 cups powdered sugar

·         5 tablespoons milk

·         Food coloring and sprinkles, optional

Thanksgiving Gatherings

This is one of my family’s favorite holidays! We have so many traditions we accomplish in one day! The warmth of family all gathered in one place for one huge feast is so memorable.

Our family starts Thanksgiving traditions at 6 am every year! Beep, Beep, Beep, the sounds of our alarms go off! We get our warm gear on, grab a cup of hot chocolate or coffee, and head to Detroit’s Thanksgiving Parade on Woodward Avenue. Several family members from my dad’s side meet us downtown at the Town Pump to eat doughnuts. We watch all the amazing floats go down Woodward Avenue in front of Hockey Town. This tradition is a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving but it ends rather early around noon.

Detroit Parade, 2013

After the Thanksgiving Parade, we always go to our grandma’s house for our feast. This is always the best meal of the entire year. We arrive at grandma’s starving and roll out of her house like a ball in the end. Upon arrival, we help grandma with the final odds and ends of preparing our feast. Our feast consists of turkey, mash potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, corn cake, cranberry jello, and rolls. To complete our feast, we always finish with a fabulous pumpkin pie! After having about a 14-hour day this far, its time to say goodbye to our family.

Corn Cake, a Thanksgiving Favorite:

1. Can of corn

2. Can of creamed corn

3. 1 cup of sour cream

4. 1 stick of melted butter

5. 1 box of jiffy mix

Mix ingredients together, put in a greased 8x8 pan, & bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes!

Corn Cake Recipe by Julie, Maddie, & Kinslee

After our feast, we go home and change into comfy clothes. Depending on the year, we leave between 10pm-2am to go black Friday shopping! It is such an exciting tradition for my father and I every year. We go black Friday shopping in the middle of the craziest crowds and get our loved ones special Christmas gifts. By time the sunrises on Friday, we are exhausted!

These are our family’s fun filled Thanksgiving Traditions! A day we all look forward to every year! 

My husband and I have not been home for Thanksgiving for four years due to the military. However, this year we will be in town finally and we are more excited than ever!!