Weekend Wrap-Up ~ Christmas Party Food Recipes

 Here is hoping this Monday brings you joy in the midst of the hard and good spaces this Christmas week.  

I am hoping the week feels a little lighter and your college kids are home and others are on a well deserved break.  Let's pray we can all continue as the new normal even after this holiday season.   

Our Friday was busy with my oldest getting out her widsome teeth.  She was quite sore and even so last night, but hopefully each day will be a little better.  She has had some sweet friends come hang out and visit her, so it has been nice to have company in the house.  

I spent the weekend cooking and preparing for 2 couples who work with us at my husband's business as we did our Christmas celebration Saturday night.  I have 2 big boxes of inventory in our dining room, so I got creative and just wrapped them like big packages!  Here are some pictures of our food and recipes with each.  Everything turned out so good and we will be eating on this goodness all week!

You can see here the two boxes in the corner of our dining room.

And here they are wrapped as Christmas gifts!

Ready for our guests!

Here is our food table.  I love the appetizer type menu!

Pictured above, I had a shrimp tray with cocktail sauce, which I purchased at my local grocery store.  Above that, are mini crab cakes, which I purchased at Costco.  I just had to bake these in the oven.  It was nice to have two prepared dishes!

I then grilled some chicken tenders, which I had marinated and then cooked in my air fryer.  I also then made a BBQ sausage/cheese tray and a bacon cheese dip.  For the sausage tray, I use turkey sausage and sugar free BBQ sauce.  I grill the sausage with BBQ seasoning and a BBQ sauce on top.  Then I sliced it, cut up cheese and sprinkled BBQ seasoning on top of it all.  I served it and the dip with Ritz crackers and also had a bowl of Pita chips & hummus. 

Next to the Pita chips, I had a veggie tray with peppers, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes.  On the cake stand, I had a platter of cranberry bruschetta.  This was a such a sweet, good flavor on a loaf of baguette bread I purchased at Trader Joe's.  I made the cranberry relish on Friday night and assembled the bread on Saturday afternoon.

Next to the veggies and bread, I made sausage balls with cream cheese.  The cream cheese adds such a good flavor!  I assembled the sausage balls Friday night and put them in the freezer to bake on Saturday.  For the sausage, I used a mixture of deer sausage and turkey sausage to make it a little healthier.  My favorite brand of turkey sausage is Jennie O. Next to the sausage balls, I had a container of pretzel sticks, covered in chocolate and drizzeld with caramel.  I purchased these from Aldi.

In addition to the pretzel sticks, I made mini key lime pies and scattered some Christmas Rolo's on the platter.  I also made Red Velvet crinkle cookies, which were featured in this month's edition of Southern Living.  I made the key lime pies and cookies also on Friday night.  

We made our Colombian hot chocolate for our guests & they brought other drinks to share.

We ate in our den, to keep things casual, but I did have some simple flowers and a table runner on our breakfast table. 

Sunday afternoon, it was fun as a family to eat leftovers and then we watched the movie Daddy's Home 2.  This is such a funny movie and is also a Christmas movie!  I also watched a few other random Christmas shows from the past.  One being the Christmas episode of Brady Bunch, Rudolph and then I found a Love Boat Christmas show so I recorded that.

I appreciate each of you reading and truly wish you a Merry Christmas with your loved ones this week. I will be back next week to blog again. 

Linking up with Heather.

Friday Favorites ~ December 17, 2021

 

Hope you all had a great week.  It went by very fast, as it has been super busy.

It started Monday morning dropping my youngest off at the airport to spend a few days with her grandparents.  She just arrived home last night and I was so glad to have her home safely after flying in some rainy weather we had.

My husband and I didn't go out, but it was fun to cook dinner at home and eat some things she woudn't eat with us.  We had turkey sausage with onions and rice, then pheasant gumbo, then salmon with sweet potatoes and broccoli.  We watched some tv at night after our busy days.

My workload is picking up at my non-profit job, then my bookeeping work at home has kept me busy every afternoon this week.  Thankfully, I enjoy them both and they are flexible to my schedule.

One evening this week, we made a fire and sat in the hammock.  We are building a new back deck, hence the deck boards without a floor!

As some of you may remember, my niece and her husband had a baby boy last December who died in utero after being diagnosed with Trisomy 13.  To carry on his memory, I hosted a coat drive with the help of my sister.  We collected 48 new boys coats from family and close friends. 

My youngest daughter created this logo and we called it Callaway's Coats in memory of Callaway.  I attached a tag to every coat.

On Wednesday, my sister and I delivered the coats to two charter schools in Memphis, one of those being where she works.  They were very thankful and it was a sweet day knowing Cal's memory will live on as we remember his short life in this way.

My oldest arrived home last night around midnight and she will have her wisdom teeth out today.  So, it looks like milkshakes are for dinner!  I will spend the afternoon preparing for a small Christmas party we are hosting this weekend.

Wishing you all the fun things this holiday weekend!  That being said, also praying for so many who are hurting during this time.  Unfortunately, hard situations don't go away this time of year.  But God is with us.  

Weekend Wrapup ~ Christmas Parties

 Good morning!  Just a quick little weekend wrap-up here.  

My husband was out of town last week and when we arrived back home, well, we were both wearing our Yellowstone t-shirts!

Our college daughter came home to attend a Christmas party with us.  It was such a nice party and we had so much fun.  The youngest stayed home this night.

Saturday morning, my college girl and I went to our church to help assemble food baskets we donate to organizations in our area.

Then we headed to a 1st birthday party for my great niece.  It was sweet and fun to see my other greats too.  I love these kids.

My oldest then drove back to her college town because she works on staff at a church there.  She will be back for Christmas though!

Saturday night, my husband and I attended another Christmas party.

We had church on Sunday, then attended a dinner and Christmas sing-a-long at a church plant we attend sometimes too.  

It was a busy, full weeekend and looks like the week will be the same way.

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Heather

Let's Look ~ Christmas Decorations

 Today I am linking up for Let's Look.  I am sharing my Christmas home decor with you.  

I usually decorate the second week of November, but will wait until Thanksgiving Day to decorate the tree and turn on any outside lights.  

Our front door

It is fun each year to put things in new places.  This year, I put these two small clay nativity scense I bought while living in Bogota, Colombia.  

Our dining room

In our window ledge, I have my "International Tree".  On this tree, I have all my ornaments collected while living in South America, with a few other ornaments from other countries like England, France, and Thailand.

This year, I added light up garland in front of our tv and it's been a fun addition.  

Sweet childhood handprint Christmas trees from years past of our girls are displayed, along with a basket I added of past received Christmas cards organized by years.

I have my nativity set my parents bought me 25 years ago from Isreal displayed on the bottom of this end table.  I have actually left this out year round!  I did add the touches on the top shelf along with a Christmas candle that I burn each night.

I have just a few Christmas pillows displayed as well.

Every year, I display this felt stocking I made as a kid for my grandfather.  I remember being sad he didn't have a stocking so I made this one.  My precious grandfather passed away in 1989, but I have still displayed this every year.

I finally wrapped a few few gifts over the weekend!

In my kitchen, I have just a few small touches.

I was inspired by Jennifer to add wreaths on my cabinets.  I found these two small ones, bought some Christmas ribbon and hung them last week.

I love the simple addition!

I have a Christmas towel, soap and candle in our guest bath.

This is a door hanger my mom made when I was a child.  I hang it on a door going into our guest bedroom/bath area.

We have this mistletoe hanging at the doorway from our bedroom to our bathroom.

And I added some lighted garland to our headboard for a more festive look.  

That wraps up the highlights of our decor.  I do have a small table top tree upstairs, Christmas soaps in our bathrooms and a few other Christmas touches on our back porch, but those are simple touches.

It is always fun to decorate and thanks for sharing along with me today!