Christmas 2019

Seasons greetings! I’m the kind of person who starts listening to Christmas music right after Halloween. (Don’t judge.) I also like to start decorating the home for Christmas around Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving was late this year, I pulled out the bins the week before Thanksgiving. My husband wasn’t exactly thrilled because he prefers his holidays to be in the normal order. I have a process that takes time, so I wanted to get started. I like to decorate my home a little differently every year for Christmas and I’m a visual person so I’ll probably decorate an area two or …

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Chocolate M&M Cookies

This is the time of the year when my refrigerator is full of cookie ingredients. That sounds great until I go to make dinner and realize that I only have butter and eggs to work with. Womp, womp. I always make at least one chocolate cookie every Christmas because I love chocolate and most other people do too. I’ve made double chocolate chunk cookies and peppermint chip chocolate cookies, which have the same base chocolate cookie recipe. It’s a great cookie base because it’s delicious and versatile. This year I decided to use that cookie base again and add festive …

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Christmas Dining Room 2019 and Tips for Easy Entertaining

This year’s dining room is probably my favorite.  I lined up a collection of trees on the buffet and most of them light up, which adds a warm ambiance at night.  When I use a lot of decorations for the buffet, I like to have a simple center piece on the dinner table.  I used my favorite table runner and lined the center with a variety of sizes of candles.  It’s so simple but I absolutely love the way it came out. I love to entertain during the holidays.  There’s something wonderful about being surrounded by friends, family, and good …

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Sugar Cookies

Holiday cookie baking has officially begun. Actually, I started baking cookies a few weeks ago. As soon as the cookies have cooled I store them in freezer friendly bags pop them in the freezer. Yes, you can really do that and yes, they really taste just as delicious as the day I baked them. Most people are surprised that you can freeze cookies, but it’s the only way to do it really when you make tons of cookies and obviously aren’t going to make them all in one day. The only trick is trying not to eat them before you …

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Pumpkin Pie – Redux

Greetings! Is anyone still in a food coma from Thanksgiving weekend? Are you sick of seeing pie yet? I hope not, because I’m super excited to talk about pumpkin pie today. (If you are sick of pie, then try to remember this post for next year.) I originally shared this pumpkin pie recipe with you back in 2013 (almost on the exact same day of that year). I’ve been making this pie every Thanksgiving (sometimes more than once a season) ever since my mother in law gave me the recipe. Needless to say, I could probably make it with my …

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