Holiday Traditions and Recipes

Southern Traditions:
Cutting a fresh tree from the woods (trespassing)
- The tree usually ends up being 3 times bigger than what you thought so you spend the rest of the day trimming the tree before you can get it inside.
Shooting fresh Mistletoe from the trees
Constantly vacuuming because the tree sheds...

And then there's Dinner...Thanksgiving or Christmas take your pick...
Homemade Yeast Rolls
Sweet Tea
Green Bean Casserole that no one eats, but gotta have on the table
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce (why is it sauce, its more like jelly? Just wondering)
And for the main course...see the below picture of my dad...

Okay, we really don't eat opossum, but hey, he caught one alive and the Christmas lights were all aglow...

Seriously...
I'm sure that you all know how quickly the Holidays can sneak up and before you know you are scrambling for just the right gift and groceries. Those wonderful ingredients to make that one special dish that you, your spouse, kids, Uncle Harry, Aunt Millie, or Cousin Bob just can't live without at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, a tradition.

Every year for 32 years, the same tree was put together and decorated on December 6, my birthday, pop corn strings were made and hot chocolate topped it off. Three years ago, I had to give up the tree and buy a new one. No tree will ever be as beautiful to me as the one I grew up with. Keeping tradition, we still put the tree up and decorate it on December 6 and there is always hot chocolate.

My brother Andy and I at Christmas in Malvern, Arkansas 1978...my other brother Scottie was just a bun in the oven at this time.


Hot Chocolate
2 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup sugar
Dash of Salt
1 cup water
4 cups milk
Combine chocolate, sugar, salt, and water in saucepan. Stir over low heat till chocolate melts. Gradually stir in milk; heat slowly just to boiling. Beat with rotary beater. Serve in heated cups. Makes 5 cups.

The start of my holidays is usually with the Cheese Log. The cheese log is one of my favorite Thanksgiving Snacks. I love to pop in the movie Miracle on 34th Street and sit with a tall glass of Sweet Tea, my cheese log, and my box of Ritz crackers and enjoy.
Cheese Log
1 pk grated Cheddar cheese
2 8 oz cream cheese
2 buttons garlic chopped very fine
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/2 tablespoon worchestire sauce
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
Aluminum Foil
Ritz Crackers
*optional - I like to add cubed up ham to the mixture*
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Mix 1/2 cup and all ingredients together.
Lay out aluminum foil and sprinkle remaining pecans on foil, form the cheese into a log and roll up in the foil and refrigerate until firm.
Serve on Ritz Crackers.

Some may think this odd, one memory I have of Christmas dinner at my Papaw Clark's house...we had shrimp cocktail. It was left over from his the dinner he and his wife had earlier in the day with her children. I had never had shrimp cocktail, and I had certainly not ever seen it served in a wine glass. How classy were we?

What are your holiday traditions? For some fun girl talk and some amazing recipes, join us at twitter.com tonight...sign up by visiting the GNO Blog....

Added MONDAY at 8:51 PM
I posted my recipes
Signed up on Mr. Linky's thingy at GNO Mommy Gossip
Hurried over to Twitter.com
typed in Hello Ladies #GNO

AND NO ONE ANSWERED ME BACK BECAUSE....HELLO...GNO IS ON TUESDAY...

I'm going to bed. This day has totally bit the dust.