Special Holiday Meals: Polar Express 2023, Sourdough Gifts & Recipes, and Other Life Updates

Well, our Polar Express Party was full of family, fun, food, and lots of love. I think everyone had a great time and it all seemed to have gone well despite the bad weather we were experiencing.

The cousins had a lot of fun visiting, playing hide and seek, enjoying all the sweet treats, and having a special movie night experience. The grown-ups also got to talk and enjoy the movie… I love these special memories that our kids will be able to fondly look back on when they are older.

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Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 10 (1 Week Before Christmas)

I’m sure our Polar Express was a hit and everyone had a good time as they always do. Now we really need to focus on Christmas! Here are some of the things that we will be working on this week:

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Special Holiday Meals: What’s for Christmas Dinner? (2023)

This has been the topic of discussion for a couple of weeks here now but I really don’t have a definite answer yet. We know that we don’t want to do a ‘traditional’ meal so no ham or turkey this year. We may use the smoker to do some meat and maybe have some pulled pork in the crockpot.

I’m hoping to try to make some Christmas Tree Bread or a Christmas Star with our sourdough but I’m not sure if either of those will happen but they are on my wish list of things to do. I would love to do a traditional Christmas dinner like the one listed in the vintage dinner menu I mentioned HERE but I know that I definitely don’t have the time or patience for that right now.

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Cocoa and Cookies

It’s that time of year when the cooler weather seems to make us crave some hot cocoa. We have set up our ‘Beverage Station’ at home and the kids asked for cocoa. It just happened that we had some packets in the cupboard so I added them to the assortment of things they could choose from along with some marshmallows in a jar for them to use.

These recipes would be great for taking along with you on a car ride to look at Christmas lights. Many of them could even be used to make Gifts in a Jar to give away for the holidays. These would even be good to sip and snack on while snuggled up with your favorite book on a cold winter evening… mmmm.

You can create some really wonderful memories with your kiddos or grandkids as well by letting them help to make cookies and cocoa… these would be memories that stick with them!

Here are some of our All-Time Favorite cocoa recipes:

Cocoa In A Crockpot

Hot Cocoa (Powdered)

Single-Serve Hot Cocoa

The Best Hot Cocoa

You could easily replace the sugar with another sweetener if you are trying to eat healthier.

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Update with more pictures! Preparing for Christmas… St. Nicholas, Gifts in a Jar, and so much more!

We’ve had a busy weekend… well, I have. I’ve been working on my pantry makeover and I’ve completely moved things around 3 times already! I will post pictures as soon as I have it the way I like it but it is an improvement already and I think it makes better use of the breakfast nook space that just didn’t work for us.

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