Christmas Food Traditions

There are a few things that I make every year at Christmas, and I've added one or two this year. Christmas would not be the same at our house if I didn't make Homemade Chex Mix. I think this stuff is way better than what you buy at the store and it lasts a long time. Hashbrown casserole is another dish I make for Christmas Day. I'll be working 7-3 again this year on Christmas so I'm going to do make ahead or crockpot dishes for our lunch/dinner. My easy Cheeseball is great to take to Christmas parties and I think I'm going to take it on Christmas Day to work for the girls to snack on.

This year I'm doing something I did last year, therefore (in my mind), making it a tradition: buying a 9 pound spiral sliced honey ham for two people. I didn't intentionally buy a ham that big just for me and Erik, but my local HEB (the best grocery store EVER) has a deal right now where you buy a ham or turkey and get $20 in other items free. When I went to the store yesterday to purchase this ham the 9 pounder was the smallest one they had, so that's what I got. Last year we ate ham for days and then I froze the rest and used it over the next couple of months. My last new recipe is one that I used to make with my grandmother (mom's mom) when I would visit her at the holidays: Peanut Butter Balls. Oh man. These things are dangerous! They are very easy to make and very rich so you only need one or two at a time!

Here's the link for Chex Party Mix.
http://www.chex.com/Recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=6709&CategoryId=343

Easy Cheeseball

2 pkgs cream cheese, softened

2 or 3 green onions, chopped

3 or 4 tablespoons real bacon bits

2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients except pecans. Form into ball. Roll ball in pecans, covering completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, best if overnight.

Peanut Butter Balls
3 cups rice krispies
1 jar peanut butter-the smaller jar (I think 14 or 16 ozs?)
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
8 tbsp. butter, melted

12 ozs chocolate chips
2 or 3 tablespoons Crisco

Combine the rice krispies, PB, and powdered sugar. Next pour cooled melted butter into the mixture and stir well. Form into ice cream scoop sized balls. Melt chocolate in the microwave with 2 tablespoons Crisco. Stir until you get a thin consistency; you can always add more Crisco to make it thinner. Take a toothpick and stick it in the PB ball. Dip the PB ball in the chocolate and you can use a spoon to help coat it. Refrigerate the PB balls overnight.

Note* I used creamy and crunchy peanut butter and I prefer the creamy.

Black Cloud

I'm sure most of you who read our blog regularly know by now that my grandfather passed away last Wednesday and the funeral was last Friday. On another sad note, Erik's maternal grandfather passed away early this morning. Both of our grandfathers had cancer. I was unable to attend Poppy's funeral due to work responsibilities, which seems cold, however when you are the main bread winner and paid hourly you just can't miss 2 days of work in a row. I was and am pretty upset about it, mostly because I wanted to be there for my grandmother. While Poppy's passing was very unexpected because his cancer treatment seemed to be going well, Erik's grandfather was very sick. We were fortunate enough to see him on our 1800 mile round trip during Thanksgiving. Both of these men had been married to their wives for 35 plus years and left a lot of people mourning their passing. Our community group at church has graciously volunteered to bring a few meals by our house over the next week, of which I feel totally undeserving and humbled. They have wrapped us in prayer and we are so honored to be a part of this church family. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us.

P.S. I have been trying to post pictures of our trip from Thanksgiving but for some reason Blogger will not let me. I don't know if the file size is too big or what but I'll keep trying.