Weekend Reflection: Holiday Traditions

Cascia from Healthy Moms started this really neat meme: Weekend Reflection I thought I would give it a shot this weekend.

This morning I was thinking about some of our holiday traditions, and then some traditions that we had when I was growing up. Mainly because I was thinking about food and remembering these hors d'oeuvres my mom used to make for New Year's Eve. They were the best! But they took so long to make, we would all help. She would take a bag of Doritos, spread a little dab of refried beans on a dorito, add a sprinkle of cheese and then a slice of a green olive and then pop them in the oven until the cheese melted. We would do up just about the whole bag. And those things were so tasty that they wouldn't last longer than 30mins tops. Can you imagine how much work that took? But it was so worth it.

I really wanted to make these when we had our first New Year's Eve party as a family. We had my sister in law and her daughter over to stay the night. But of course with the amount of time it would have taken to do those hors d'oeuvres, we settled for a big pan of refried bean dip with cheese and slices of green olives on top. But it just didn't taste the same. One of these New Year's Eves I will totally make those hors d'oeuvres. Maybe it will be in a few years when I will have more than one child able to help put them all together. My mom probably only did it because she had about three of us in a line: one spreading the beans, one sprinkling the cheese and one placing the slice of olive.

I know, crazy to be thinking about New Year's Eve when Christmas is approaching way too fast ;)

With our own family we have started a few traditions of our own that we really enjoy. Every year, the morning after Thanksgiving we always have a pie breakfast. The kids really enjoy that one!

Our special Christmas tradition used to be to make a big fire in the fireplace and get all cozy. But we haven't had a fireplace since we moved up to Wisconsin... But last year we got one of those big heaters that looks like a fireplace, so that was a nice stand-in last year. Also last year the two older girls made their own gingerbread houses and we had tons of fun doing that! We will probably try to do that one again this year. Of course there was a little more licking fingers going on the building ;) but why not?

And for New Year's Eve our special thing is to get a bunch of snacky oven foods (tater skins, buffalo wings, mini tacos, taquitos, etc...) and just munch the night away :) I think that one's my favorite :)