[BeckyM]

I thought it would be nice to share some of our family traditions or how we plan on celebrating holidays (any holiday).

Favorite holiday destination?

Any family traditions?

Do you visit someone over the holidays?

Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more?

Do you have a special recipe you bake?

What kind of things do you decorate your home with?

Is there a game that the whole family participates in?

[DawnVH]

Favorite holiday destination?
Grandma's house

Any family traditions?
Christmas Eve at Grandma Nellies with dinner, Christmas Day with Grandma Donna (my mom) for HUGE meal, opening presents and enjoying family and the following day for Christmas with my husband's father for a swimming party and joint birthday party for niece

Do you visit someone over the holidays?
We visit all of the above grandparents for my children and enjoy spending time with parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews.
Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more?
Most definitely Christmas and Thanksgiving are the most celebrated holidays for eating and seeing family, although we do celebrate New Years Eve as well with a game night at our house with my brother and sisters and their children.

Do you have a special recipe you bake?
For Christmas we have a soup and sandwich supper. I make a Chicken and Wild Rice Soup that is rich and delicious.... here's the recipe:
Ingredients:

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

2 cooked, boneless chicken breast

halves, shredded

1 (4.5 ounce) package quick cooking long

grain and wild rice with seasoning packet


1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter

2 cups heavy cream


Directions:

In a large pot over medium heat, combine broth, water and chicken. Bring just to boiling, then stir in rice, reserving seasoning packet. Cover and remove from heat.

In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper and flour. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in contents of seasoning packet until mixture is bubbly. Reduce heat to low, then stir in flour mixture by tablespoons, to form a roux. Whisk in cream, a little at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth. Cook until thickened, 5 minutes.

Stir cream mixture into broth and rice. Cook over medium heat until heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.


What kind of things do you decorate your home with?
Christmas tree with an outdoor theme-wooden cabins, fishing decor, wooden ornaments and raffia bows

Is there a game that the whole family participates in? we bring all sorts of board games to play in the evening at grandma donnas. Otherwise, we do a holiday gift exchange for homemade gifts or recycled gifts so it is fun to see what everyone ends up with.


Happy holidays!

[sleepinangel]

DawnVH: that soup sounds yummy...I think I'll make some soon, thanks for sharing

Favorite holiday destination?

When I was a child it was my grandmother's house, now anywhere we can get the family together is nice

Any family traditions?

When we have young children in the house we get up really early on Christmas morning and take a pair of big boots and step in some white powder (like baking soda) and walk from the fireplace or the front door and add more gifts under the tree so when the children wake up in the morning it looks like Santa visited

Do you visit someone over the holidays?
try to visit family

Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more?
all about the same

Do you have a special recipe you bake?
Nope, not much of a cook or baker

What kind of things do you decorate your home with?
just your basic tree and lights and traditional things like that

Is there a game that the whole family participates in?
Card games...I'm from a family of card sharks! Mainly tonk..played with small change though

[MarieJ]

Oh that soup sounds delicious! Gonna steal that!

Favorite holiday destination? used to be my mom's house but now its our house-I want my kids' memories to be coming down the stairs at our home for Christmas

Any family traditions? church and new jammies and play cards on Christmas Eve, open gifts early Christmas morning, big turkey dinner at 2pm

Do you visit someone over the holidays? my two sisters will come visit likely the 26th and we'll go see the IL's and extended fam for New Years

Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more? Christmas

Do you have a special recipe you bake? we do cabbage rolls and perogies, turkey with mashed and gravy, green salad, then pumpkin and apple pies and cheesecake for dessert

What kind of things do you decorate your home with? cheezy window clings and tacky stuff the kids love

Is there a game that the whole family participates in? not really yet, too little

[LauraTTCat42]

Favorite holiday destination? Home - always has been, always will be

Any family traditions? The kids get to open 1 gift from my Mom on Christmas Eve, earlier in the day we have a Harry Potter movie marathon. There are so many HP movies now that we have to start at 6am to be done in time for dinner, LOL!

Do you visit someone over the holidays? We stop in by all of the family houses on Christmas day, about 1/2 hour each house.

Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more? Christmas is the big holiday in our house, Easter is the next big one.

Do you have a special recipe you bake? Summer and way too hot here so no baking unfortunately. This is the time of year when I really miss being home in the states. Will always remember looking out the window as a kid to see if it snowed for Christmas day. Now we just beg for rain to reduce the heat a bit.

What kind of things do you decorate your home with? Most everything is on or around the tree. But next year I am going crazy with the Christmas decorations outside, lol.

Is there a game that the whole family participates in? Not really, when the kids are a bit older we will start with card games like Uno

Happy and safe Holidays Ladies!!!!

[BeckyM]

I love reading all our holiday plans. And that recipe sounds so yummy!!

Favorite holiday destination? Mainly just home for Christmas. Easter we typically spend with close friends/families. Easter is the biggie holiday for Greek Orthodox.

Any family traditions? We're boring compared to everyone else, so I fully admit I may start stealing some of those ideas. Presents in the morning, then we usually do church that morning, or Christmas Eve. With DS sick this year, not sure yet if we'll get to that. And then we have a dinner mid day and just relax & enjoy the day together. If MIL is here, we would probably run her around to see some of her close friends for coffee/dessert.

Do you visit someone over the holidays? Sometimes we've gone out to see BIL & SIL, but with traffic such a mess in this area that we prefer to stay home.

Which holiday do you and your family celebrate more? Easter has alot more preparations & on-going church services for weeks prior, but I do love my Christmas too.

Do you have a special recipe you bake? I haven't had time to bake in years, but I used to make really good spice cookies, a no-bake cheesecake, and my turkey is usually edible. (I fully admit that I'm not the chef in this household, I'm completely & utterly spoiled by DH & MIL )

What kind of things do you decorate your home with? For Christmas, we have our tree with colored lights and a bunch of different types of ornaments. No theme tree here, unless "Anything Goes" is a theme. Our roofline is pretty high & peaked, so no lights hanging outside. I keep saying that the next year I will do some more outside decorations. Hopefully 2012 . . .

Is there a game that the whole family participates in? We will pull out the board games/card games and sing really bad along with Christmas music while we play them. Or we'll have various Christmas cartoons/movies running on the DVD.