The holidays have always been a very special time for me that takes me back to my childhood and spending Christmas at home…My mom always cooked these humongous meals and I loved sitting around the family table with my mom and my brothers.
So for me, holidays among many other special things, means spending time with the family around the table and chatting and eating…If you know any Spanish person, then you probably know how much we enjoy eating …And talking LOL.
The truth is that as much as I love spending time with the family during the holidays, that can also be a stressful time and it means spending a whole day in the kitchen if I want to even try to recreate the kind of meal my mom used to make for us.
One thing I have learned is that having a menu laid out ahead of time and making a list of the ingredients you will need for each dish helps to not only get rid of some of the stress, but it also helps you not to forget any of the ingredients you will need for the different dishes you are planning to serve.
Make a small schedule
Decide which foods need to be cooked first. If you are serving any cold dishes, those should be prepared first, that way you will able to avoid re- heating the hot dishes if they are made last.
Getting the kitchen ready for the big day
You want to start with a completely clean kitchen and if you have limited counter space, store away anything that is not going to be used and is taking away some of your valuable work space. This way you will be able to move around the kitchen with ease and work on a couple of dishes at the same time.
Wash all the ingredients to avoid any food problems
I like to wash and double wash anything that will be eaten raw and make sure there are no surprises with the salads, fruits and vegetables.
The best ally for a cook?
I have a Delta kitchen faucet with Touch2O Technology and I can tell you without a doubt that it is my favorite thing in my kitchen…I love being able to open the water faucet by just tapping the faucet with the back of my hand and without having to touch the knob which means no cross contamination!
I can let the water run while I wash my vegetables or whatever it is I am washing and the water will shut off by itself after two minutes…I love that!
Setting up the table in advance
Setting up the table ahead of time especially if you have guests allows you to know where everyone will be sitting and who is seating next to whom. This is very handy when you have kids that will need help with their meal also!
As I said, the holidays are a very special time to make memories and share with love ones that are here now.
I want to help you create more special memories around the family table this holiday season and every day. In collaboration with Delta I want to give a very lucky Born 2 Impress reader, the chance to win a free Delta kitchen faucet with Touch2O Technology in finish of choice ARV $ 870.00!
Happy Holidays and I hope that 2018 is your best year yet!
To enter this giveaway, please use the Giveaway Tools form below
The holidays have changed so much for me. They used to be about my maternal Grandma’s cooking: ham, stuffing, Rum Cake, etc. After she passed away, we kept using her recipes. But my Mom passed away a few months ago & I think Thanksgiving & Christmas are going to be hard this year. I don’t know if I’ll try any of the old recipes or just do something completely new or do nothing at all. I’ll put up a tree & wrap gifts (I wouldn’t want to disappoint my niece & nephews.) But I don’t know if those usual foods would make me happy or sad.
I think my favorite memories of Thanksgiving were watching my mother cook the turkey – we had a big electric roaster she used, and she would open it up and baste it frequently during cooking. My favorite part of the meal was her stuffing, though, and I make mine from her recipe, with just one addition – fresh mushrooms. Since my brother’s birthday was November 28th, we had some Thanksgivings when we’d also have a cake for his birthday, depending on what day Thanksgiving fell on.
The holidays to me is a time for friends and family to get together, it’s also a time for my immediate family to try out new recipes since I always test out a few new ones before the holidays. One recipe I won’t chance is my mothers stuffing with a side of my fathers homemade cranberry sauce but years of making it and I still can’t make it as good as they can.
Holidays are always traveling for me – to see family, friends, new places.
My favorite memories are of my two brothers and I getting our first NEW bicycles. We had always had used and pieced together bikes until I was 5 years old.
My favorite holiday is Christmas. We enjoy festive Ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, baked beans and other delicious dishes.
The holidays are so fun with all the relatives. We have turkey and all the trimmings. In memory of my grandmother we make her turkey stuffing recipe. The desserts are over the top delicious.
The holidays with all the relatives are great. We have turkey and all the trimmings. We make my grandmother’s turkey stuffing recipe. All the desserts are delicious.
The holidays for me are seeing the whole family. hanging out for a few days plus all the food. My mom is a great cook. she makes so many christmas cookies we all can take some home after the holidays. She makes turkey with all the fixings and prime rib with baby potatoes.
The holidays, to me, means getting together with the family to open gifts and eat a big meal. My favorite holiday dish is corn casserole and Country Ham. Thanks.
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We would have Christmas Eve dinner with egg nog then go to the most beautiful midnight mass.
No favorite dish because it was different meal each year. I think the best things is being with family and all the home made goodies.
Holiday’s are a time to relax and enjoy time with family! My absolute favorite dish is my Aunt Jan’s sweet potato casserole! We ask for it for both Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Every year, I look forward to Christmas Eve. We have our home full of family and friends and have a huge fondue. We start by mid afternoon so people can get home at a decent time with their kids. Now that we have grandchildren, they love this tradition and especially that there are special Christmas Eve presents to open such as a new pair of pajamas, special snuggly toy and books. I am actually already excited for this year. As soon as I see Halloween on the horizon, I know Christmas Eve is soon to follow!
The holidays are happy times to enjoy with your family. I always have memories of sitting around the dining table – everything festive and decorated – and everyone is high spirits – and just telling stories and laughing. And the food! Enough to burst and all so good. My Mom always outdid herself, and although I try I’ll never come up to her standards! And it is the only time of year I can allow myself to eat homemade stuffing – my favorite!
We love the holiday season! We make all kinds of goodies. You have some excellent ideas, I love your blog. Thank you for the offer!
We celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. We always have turkey and a big ham at Thanksgiving, and at Christmas we have Korean food.
Thanksgiving in my favorite holiday! I love all the Thanksgiving food, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce – all homemade of course. And pie, do NOT forget pie!
Every holiday includes Family and Green bean casserole! There are always lots of dishes to clean up. This faucet would make that job a lot easier. Thanks for the giveaway!
The holidays is my favorite time of year. We bake all sorts of treats and give them as presents to the neighbors. I think my favorite recipe is peanut butter blossom cookies. They are a favorite because it has always been part of our tradition. Every Christmas those cookies are made, going back as long as i can remember.
Home with the family is most important during the holidays.
I always plan my vacation at that time. Yhen take lots of pictures to enjoy and share during the
following year.
My favorite dish is oven baked green beans. My maw maw is hands down the best cook when it comes to baking it. I remember one year i had asked her what her secret was, her reply “A good cook never reveals her secrets.” She passed away 2 years ago with all her cooking going with her.
I love Christmas, it’s when everyone is together. The homes are all nice and cozy when they’re decorated and I love Christmas food!
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The holidays for me is about family coming together and my mother-in-law’s pork leg that she cooks!
Holidays for me is getting together with our family and friends. I especially enjoy hosting gatherings and love seeing my Dad, brother and his family, that I only get to see a few times a year. Everything about the holidays is about family to me.
To me, the Holidays are all about family. Seeing family that we only see a few times each year, like my Dad, my brother and his family. I love hosting everyone and having a house full of guests. Holidays are all about family to me.
Now that the kids are grown and have families of their own, the holidays have shifted from our home to theirs. Thanksgiving is hosted by our daughter and Christmas day is at our son’s home. Christmas Eve is a potluck at a cousin’s with lots of family and friends joining in. Lots of food to be had!
My favorite memories are of my dad cooking the holiday meals. He was a great cook and I learned a lot helping him. He used to kick my mother out of the kitchen & just have me help him every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The holidays are tough – I’m single & childless and on my way to retirement. I only “celebrate” them with my sister – unless she and her family are off on a cruise. I’ll probably start traveling instead of celebrating them in the future.
yes my fav memory was the first time i cooked all the pies for my moma on thanksgiving one year and goodness sake i was 14 i think and wanted to do it so so bad well i got all the baking soda and powder mixed up and well needless to say it went bad the banna pudding was so runnin it ran away it is my fav memory
The holidays are a big deal for my family! We always get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and every year we make a gingerbread house. My favorite dish I make is my apple and onion stuffing!
The holidays meaning spending time with the family and indulging in certain foods. Halloween is usually spent on a cruise with my husband and our friends. Then, Thanksgiving and Christmas are spent with our families. It’s not about the presents – it’s about the time spent with friends and family.
Like a lot of folks here, for me the holidays are all about being with family. As we’ve gotten older, the cooking and meals have evolved but something stay the same: prime rib, mash potatoes and always pie using our family recipe for the crust. Honestly, as long as we have grandma’s pie, it’s the holidays for us!
I remember my mothers baked brown sugar ham. She also made biscuits and gravy that was delicious. I loved the sweet potato casserole.
We always share an amazing christmas eve meal of crab legs and artichokes. Weird but it our tradition. My kids love artichokes which may be even weirder.
Holidays are time spent with family enjoying each other’s company. We like to stick with tradition when it comes to the food so we tend to make recipes that have been passed down through the family. Everyone has 1 or 2 dishes that they always make and we always make lots of food so there are plenty of leftovers.
Christmas and Thanksgiving are big family events. Thanksgiving we always have a crowd and enjoy playing games after eating way too much. I usually make a huge brunch on Christmas Day for whoever can come and then a Prime Rib dinner later in the day. I really enjoy seeing all of the family and enjoy the times we have together, good food, good times.
my favorit memery is my son in the Christmas play at our church.
Christmas is my favorite holiday. What we do on the holiday is have shabu shabu at home.
The holidays mean spending time with family and friends. It also means enjoying good food and creating great memories. One of my favorite memories is making Christmas cookies with all of my extended family.
The holidays are for family memories. Hanging stockings by the fireplace and new Christmas pajamas. And of course, good food. 🙂 I have a one year old so really looking forward to making new memories and traditions, too.
The holidays mean family to me; some of my fondest memories are surrounding the holidays with family and food. They are such fond memories of laughter and love. A favorite dish to make for the holiday season is my ma’s apple pie. It is still, to this day, the best apple pie I ever had. I try to copy her, but she just has the touch. No pie seems to hold up to hers.
The holidays are a fun time for cooking together. We like to make up new recipes for old favorites.
The holidays are a perfect time to spend time with family. I don’t really h ave a favorite dish.
Favorite memory is tasting Gooey Butter Cake for the first time
My favorite dish that I have is my grandmothers stuffing. She makes it for christmas and thanksgiving and I always make sure to leave room for seconds. I also take a whole bunch home.
My favorite holiday memory is just filling my plate at Thanksgiving and taking that first bite of deliciousness. I ate until I was sick every year. I eat much healthier now, so it isn’t as exciting as it used to be. I loved the mashed potatoes and turkey with gravy alongside a big buttery roll!
One of my favorite holiday dishes is my Grandma’s recipe of what she called ham balls. A mixture of different meats including ham and pork sausage in a sweet barbecue sauce. Thanks for the chance to win.
It was actually a memory for which had very special meaning, because it was a time that I just underwent an operation and had to stay in the hospital. But it turned out to be that of the best gift when I was given permission to go home from the hospital and celebrate that of the holidays with family – given my medical condition often had me individualized as a child my family had a home-cooked meal prepared and that was like the feast with that of my (small) family!
Best of Luck to Everyone – Thanks for the opportunity to enter!
God Bless
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A favorite memory is making gingersnap cookies with my grandmother. It is not Christmas until my house smells of baking gingersnaps. They are the best. Warm and gooey when just out of the oven and snappy as they age.
I love to have honey baked ham, shrimp dip and maybe even some lemon raspberry cheesecake! Christmas movie watching is a must as well
My favorite memory of Christmas was when we were children, we had such great anticipation for Christmas morning. My brother and I would get everyone up and race downstairs. A memory that sticks out in my mind is opening our stockings and getting a naval orange. That was a big deal back then.
My favorite holiday memory is baking with my mom when I was a child. Decorating cookies was so much fun.
My mom always made a crab meat casserole on Christmas eve. We would watch Christmas specials, and try to stay awake waiting for Santa.
The holidays are a time to get together with my family. I like the stuffing and candied yams that my mom makes. I always enjoyed working on the advent calendar as Christmas neared.
Unfortunately, my family isn’t every close so the Holidays aren’t a great time. I usually spend it alone.
The Holidays for me is spending time with family. we love to make pies and all kinds of food together. we usually go visit family and stay with them for a few days.
I love the holidays and everything about them. The weather, the decorations and people seem to be in a better mood. Our favorite tradition is Christmas eve boxes and movies with popcorn and got chocolate.
The holidays to me is a time to celebrate Christ birth and a time to get together with family and friends and celebrate tote season with good food and loads of beautiful decorations and to make memories!
Holidays to me is all about family. Getting the time to spend with family, some who live far away. Usually my Dad, my brother and his family stay with us for the Holidays. So it gives us time to get caught up and enjoy each others company. We usually host and have a house full, which I love. My kids also love having their Aunt, Uncle, Grandpa and cousins stay with us and they love having other family & friends over on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
My favorite dish is Lasagna, it is something I do not get that often, especially now that my husband does not like it at all.
The Holidays for us is fun, food & the unexpected. Years ago we decided that you could have turkey, ham & pumpkin pie any time in the winter – so we went a different direction. We all gather with ethnic dishes that we work all year round to perfect. Last year there was sushi (Japan), sausage rolls (Australia) and paprikash (Poland).. and sweets from nations yet unknown! The desserts are left up to the kids. They scourge the internet and then give us a shopping list. From there, they take over.
Lasagna at our family Christmas when we werekids
REALLY, THE HOLIDAYS ARE THOSE SPECIAL MOMENTS WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS THAT I HAVEN’T SEEN ALL YEAR. I LOOK FORWARD TO ENTERTAINING AND BEING WITH EVERYONE FOR A GOOD MEAL, CONVERSATION AND SPECIAL MOMENTS.
hanging out with all of my family. we love to play card games and talk when the kids go to bed.
One of my favorite holiday treats is a sweet potato pie! I never had eaten one and didn’t think it would be good but it was actually better than pumpkin!
The holidays mean festive moments with family. I enjoy the cooking, drinking and all the fun that come with it.
Finally, it’s about the giving of presents & the reaction of those you’ve gifted cherished items to……totally priceless!!
For me Christmas isn’t just one day. I celebrate Christmas with family when I get to see them. That’s what happens in
a blended family. You make the most out of the time you have together!!
Holidays for me is coming together and being thankful for our freedom. I remember spending Thanksgiving with my grandmother and she would have an open house for anyone who wanted to come. Occasionally strangers from off the street would come in for a dinner and a few of those people became lifelong friends of the family.
Spending time with my family, especially the ones that live far away.
The holidays for us have always been about family. The decorating, making cookies, spending time together. We grew up poor, so this was when we could all celebrate and eat things we normally didn’t. It was the best time of the year growing up
The holidays mean everything to me. It’s a chance to get some quality time with family, catch up on life and not worry about work. One of the best recipes we do over the holidays is homemade brandy donuts!
Growing up, the highlight of every year was creating a Christmas list. My brother, sister and I would sit at our kitchen table, colored pens in hand, and write till our fingers ached. Then we’d proudly show our parents (who were dismayed by their length), postmark envelopes to the North Pole, and impatiently wait for Christmas day.
Holidays are special, we have fun traditions that have been followed since we were little kids and have passed on to our own children. We have huge family gatherings with lots of great food. We spend Christmas eve caroling and laughing with each other and Christmas morning kicks off with special breakfast of coffee cake and oranges (same recipe that my grandmother used to make).
The holidays for me is about seeing my family and spending time together. I look forward to it every year.
Holidays have changed for me over the years. These days they are about sitting still. We travel for work & any down time is a blessing.
The Holidays are spending time with family. Since having kids we are still trying to figure out a holiday routine, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out soon!
Holidays are about relaxing and spending time with family and friends. I love visiting with people and baking great foods. I won’t be travelling this year.
My memory — family gathering to trim the tree,singing holiday songs and enjoying one another.
For me the holidays is cooking and cooking, which IO love. I remember cooking with my mother; which alas I can no longer do.
I entered Jenn’s Fun Finds LUGZ KING XL HI-TOP SNEAKERS Giveaway (once OI found her, there was no link!)
Growing up, we always had a reason to get together and many relatives lived close enough to partake in all the family activities. We managed to celebrate all holidays and created others depending upon what was going on in our neighborhood. Potluck dinners were frequent and everyone were good cooks. Never went hungry and always had great leftovers.
time with my family. Its reliving all the memories. its decorating
Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without my mother’s corn bread dressing. We live pretty far away now and don’t spend Thanksgiving together. I try to make it myself but it is never as good.
The Holidays for me is getting to spend quality time with my family and eating a lot of great food!
It is my favorite holiday of the year and I love to host Thanksgiving at my home. My sister is a pastry chef so she brings homemade pies. I cook the turkey and all the traditional fixings.
Normally, Thanksgiving is our big holiday. My family has always hosted, but since I’ve been married, we have taken on that role. This year we are passing it to another family member because I’m due with my second baby on November 19th! We didn’t want to take a chance that close to the due date, but next year it’ll be back at our home.
The holidays for me means getting together with family and enjoying stories over the past years. I also enjoy all the yummy food that is prepared. We usually get outside to decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. Love this special time of year.
I love the holidays! Can’t wait til Christmas! We will be celebrating Christmas at my Uncle’s new home, should be exciting!
The holidays to me is spending quality time with friends and family, church traditions, baking and cooking with my kids. Decorating the home for Christmas. And this year we will welcome our 4th baby around Thanksgiving!
My favorite holiday dish is dry roasted venison. It is delicious and my father always makes it so good.
My favorite holiday dish, strangely enough, is any type of stuffing. I dont know why, but I dont have this any other time of year and I love making it and I ove eating it. I love putting gravy on it as well and making turkey stuffing sandwiches.
I love having my kids come home. Always baking Grammas Christmas cookies
I love to get together with family. I have many favorite dishes and I love all the foods. I think about christmas cookies, pecan and pumpkin pie at this time of year.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays were, and still are my favorite time of the year. I have such fond childhood memories, but I am 62 now. We have lost my grandmother, my dad and my beloved older sister, so the holidays will never be the same. However, we still follow all the old traditions and put up all those decorations that have been passed down from generation to generation. We add new memories and new traditions. I am so blessed to have my 93 year old mom, my younger brother and my one and only 28 year old son, who is the light of his grandmother’s existence. Children are the most important ones to follow all the traditions and make new memories for and I plan on making this year one of the best. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
I absolutely adore the holidays! It’s a little different now that I live in an area that doesn’t get snow, because when I was younger the holidays were about making snowmen and drinking hot chocolate. Now the holidays are more about getting time off work! It’s definitely necessary to rest and relax a little, plus there are so many delicious holiday traditions. Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving is my favorite!
I enjoy spending time with family during the holidays it is more about enjoying time with them than anything else. I have a couple favorites, Broccoli Cheese rice casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole are my 2 must have dishes for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I love having family time during the holidays. We get together at my Moms on Christmas morning for a big breakfast. I love having all the usual breakfast foods.
Holidays bring me closer to my family. It’s all about food, desserts and family!
I get excited at the holidays at seeing my brother and their familiies who live out of state
My favorite holiday memory is decorating the tree with my family while the Christmas music was playing and eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate.
I have several dishes that are my “favorite” creamed spinach, dressing, corn pudding. Eggnog is amazing too, hot buttered rum, fudge! haha I love to eat.
We host most of the holidays now. My new favorite memory is making christmas cookies with my son. We make add a new recipe each year. I’ll have to start work on my dough soon. lol
The holidays for me are about spending time with family. I love the feeling of holiday shopping and the Christmas music playing when I go to malls and such. I love entertaining and would love to win!!Great review and giveaway 🙂
My moms famous lady fingers cheesecake. So good with cherrys on top.
Thanksgiving has always been my holiday. Sometimes I would have as many as 24 guests. My signature dish are the pies. I usually make 2 kinds of Apple, a pumpkin, a pecan pie and a cherry pie. Something for everyone. Thanks!
The holidays is everything! I love celebrating, decorating, and cooking for my family and friends. It is my favorite time of the year!
My favorite Christmas memory is my family driving from Chicago back to Baltimore to surprise both sets of grandparents. My sister and I rang the doorbell and surprised both sets – I remember both grandma’s starting to cry. I was probably 10 and still remember it so strongly.
Holidays is food, the lights… The Christmas carols!! And most of all, It’s about family!!
The Holidays for us is all about family and friends, spending time together… Oh and we can’t forget all the food, drink and music and now with all the grandkids decorations are important again
My favorite memory is how my dad was such a kid during the holidays. He loved decorating and buying(and receiving 😉 ) Christmas presents.
Holidays means family to me.. We are a mixed family and getting both sides together warms my heart
Holidays to me is all about family! We get together with both sides mine and my husbands. Just enjoying time spent together and catching up . Great food everyone brings. Sounds of laughter, tears of joy and sadness remembering those that are no longer with us. Again family !
Hollidays are always my favorite time of year, especially Halloween and Christmas! I love to make apple pie during the holidays!
Holiday time is family time, even if the family is sometimes spread throughout the country. I have many good memories, stretching over a fairly long lifetime–some of my childhood,some as a parent with young children, and now I am gathering even more as a grandparent and great grandparent.
thank you waaw nice kitchen
The holidays for me are all about spending time with family. I love getting together with my distant family that I don’t often see. I love teaching my kids the importance of family and holiday traditions.
My fav holiday is Christmas! The day after Christmas was also great, because that’s when my mom’s family would come over. So after the letdown that the big day was over we had something to look foreword to the next day. A big meal, more gifts, goodies and excitement. Shopping! The day after Xmas sales are the best!
the holidays are fun times for the family and friends. I always remember spending time with my brother in colorado. we moved around alot and my brother and I spent alot of time together. great memories and times in our youth.
I love the holidays because I get to spend quality time with the whole family! My favorite is the pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream! Thanks for the chance at this!
Christmas cookies say Holidays to me. I start baking them and handing them out the day after Thanksgiving. Love baking cookies!
My best memories are when I was a kid. We’d go to my Grandma’s on Christmas day & open gifts & have a great meal. She’d always make my favorite Jello Salad. I miss her SO much!
The holidays for me is a time when everyone can just be together. No work, no school. I don’t stress about too much cleaning or too much cooking. It’s everyone playing a game or watching a movie, or helping out in the kitchen.
What is the Holidays for you?
Do you have a favorite memory, a favorite dish?
i love the holiday,i love the music..i love to make the pies during the holidays..the only problem is getting enough exercise to take off the extra pound..my favorite dish is the home made cranberry sauce..thanks so much for this giveaway,and i hope ive typed enough to enter.
The holidays for me is getting to spend quality time with my family. We get together and cook a big meal and sit and talk and play games.
Holidays is spending time with my family, keeping old traditions and starting new ones.
Holidays is also sharing with,those less fortunate. We donate toys, food and clothing to several organizations and Code Blue in our area.
Also, enjoying my birthday!!!
My favorite memory is the family always gathering together no matter what obstacles are in the way. My favorite dish is my moms mashed potatoes and gravy!
The holiday are a special time to spend with family and friends. We get together and make all kinds of goodies and have parties, so it’s special time for everybody. I love decorating for Christmas and looking at all lights. We have many favorite dishes that we love to put together.
The holidays for me is all about reconnecting with loved ones, especially extended family, and enjoying each other’s company.
For the holidays, I always like to have dressing and ham because it reminds me of my grandma. I am a newly wed and were trying to create our own memories, new ones, but that’s hard to do in an apartment. As a kid, my memories usually revolved around the presents I got, but we would always have a big breakfast Christmas morning and watch a Christmas Story while we opened presents then I would go to my dad’s house.
For me the holidays are a rare time to get together with the extended family, reminisce of old times, and catch up on their lives in other parts of the country. There are a lot of new kids running around and I really only see them on big holidays. My favorite dish would have to be my uncle’s deep fried turkey on thanksgiving, but the sob became vegan so God knows what we’ll get this year
The holidays mean spending time with family, especially family I don’t see often enough. There are no “favorite” dishes, just the seasonal ones we only have for the holidays.
My favorite memories of Thanksgiving would be playing the games on Thanksgiving and having a great time.
The holidays for me is a time to be with family. With my husband I and I both in the military we haven’t lived close to either of our families in years. Many times the holidays are the only time we get to see our family. My memories include helping my grandmother cook the holiday meal. When I was younger I could only do certain things like peel potatoes and snap green beans. Now that I’m older I take a much bigger role and my daughter is the one peeling and snapping!
The holidays are a time to unwind and spend time with family. We cook, but we don’t overdo it, then we often play cards or board games. I love my Grandmother’s oyster dressing.
To me the holidays means to stop all the running and sports stuff and just chill with family. My favorite holiday dish is my mom’s stuffing. My memories are me with my tiny kids and how they loved playing with cousins. It is SO noisy and fun!
This is the time of year when I like to reflect to my childhood. The large family gatherings with wonderful foods and for awhile having no worries. Oh to be able to feel that way again.
Traveling to my paternal grandparents place for Thanksgiving or Christmas. They lived on a dairy farm that has been in the family for decades. My father was in the military, and we moved quite a lot, but we somehow managed to go back to the farm at least once a year no mater where we were stationed. Even though I don’t have a “hometown” because of being a military kid, my grandma and grandpa’s house is a consistent childhood memory. I hope my kids have the same fond memories of my house as they grow older and maybe start a family of their own.
Holidays to me, if I’m honest, mean stress, However, with that being said, it also means time for family to gather around catch up with each others lives and just have a good time remembering older days and laughing at great memories. My favorite thing to eat/recipe was my grandmoms green bean casserole, and for dessert it was her peanut butter fudge!!! I really do miss those, she’s passed a few years back and I’ve never quite made it the same!!
My favorite memories are with my dad. Christmas was his favorite time of year. He died earlier this year…It’s not going to be the same without him.
love Christmas loved when my grandmother was alive and she would make all these different Christmas Cookies and decorate them they were so good and it was so much fun as a little kid to help her and eat the dough they were great
My favorite side dish during the holidays is sausage mushroom dressing which is gluten-free. It is the absolute dressing.
The Holidays are times for sharing food and memories with family and friends. One of my favorite things to do with Grams was to use cookie cutters on the rolled out sugar cookie dough. Then after baking, to let them cool and ice with colored frosting, cinnamon dots, sprinkles and silver balls. They were fun to give and looked good on tray of cookies. We also strung popcorn and cranberries on thread to encircle the tree in swags. Then when the tree came down, the swags were placed outside on trees for a treat for the birds and wildlife. For Thanksgiving, Mom dropped the cooked turkey for many years which gave the dog and cat something to lick at their level.
The holidays are a time when our family gets together. We celebrate with a big dinner gathering. My favorite dish is the stuffing.
The holidays are a time when we spend lots of time together. We bake cookies, make special family recipes, and decorate. We love attending all of the holiday themed events and watching holiday movies. I think my favorite thing to do is to bake cookies with my boys and then decorate them, put them into bags and then we drive around town looking at the lights and decorations while listening to holiday music and eating cookies…sometimes it even snows!
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My Mac won’t go past that, maybe Windows machines do. Still you aren’t getting you votes, not mine anyway.
FYI – Unable to Vote on Picket Fence Blog – CONNECTION IS NOT PRIVATE
The holidays for me is spending time with family and friends. Sure, the gifts are fun but at my age I prefer to give rather than receive. We combine my Franco-American heritage with my husband’s Guatemalan heritage and usually have a feast of tamales, rice, beans, tortillas, ham, turkey and toutiere pie along with lots of desserts. It is a time to reflect back on the last year and give thanks that we can all get together to celebrate it, and look forward to the next year.
I LOVE the holidays! My favorite thing to do is spend time with family and friends, as well as to enjoy some yummy food!
I love time with the family and our tradition of buying presents for needy families at Christmas.
the holidays for me are all about food and spending time with family. we usually serve up the green bean and sweet potato casseroles at our family gatherings.
My favorite holiday memory is when me and my brother snuck out of bed on Christmas Eve and opened up all of our presents but we did it very carefully only opening the corners so we could tell what we got. Although it made Christmas morning a little boring now I don’t put presents out till like 5_00 in the morning for our kids lol!
My favorite dish is my mom’s potato salad!
My favorite dish is my mom’s potato salad! I always look forward to eating that at holiday dinners with ham.
The Holidays are about having my family all under one roof while we enjoy each others company. Turkey and the desserts are my favorite
The Holidays means time to enjoy quality time with friends and family.
Holidays are about family. One of my favorite memories was a hunting trip Christmas eve with my father. It started to snow and, in Alabama, that is a rare thing. So we stopped and built a lean-to with limbs and he started a fire. We sat and talked and drank hot cocoa he had brought in a Thermos.
I love to back holiday cookies with my daughter.
Christmas is the time of the year that our family gets together as an annual tradition. Some we only see once a year at Christmas. We get to see Aunts, Uncles and extended cousins. It’s a great tradition.
I love the holidays! The holidays mean to me getting extra time with my family, showering them with gifts to show that they are important to me. I love all the cooking, baking and preparing that we all do together too!
I love spending the holidays with my family. I really love cooking and baking together!
The first Christmas I spent with my husband was my favorite Christmas ever. We were poor but we had each other and that was perfect.
Holidays are bittersweet bc my family is mostly out of town, plus I often work either Xmas eve or day. However, my small fam still manages to keep in touch and give presents and go to church despite hectic work schedules. It’s the happiness of having shared moments that make the holidays special
Holidays means spending time with my family which is the best part. I love everything about the holidays from decorating to wrapping gifts.
The Holidays are definitely not what they used to be for me. I lost my mother in 2016 and my father in 2010. I was only 24 years old when my father passed. This has left me to be an adult orphan. I currently do not have children of my own and my nieces and nephews are getting much older so they don’t seem to want to hang out with there Aunt anymore. All of us siblings are in professions that more often than not require us to work Holidays. We do our best to get together and do have a great time when we can make it work. I am realizing now that all the years of past Holidays with my parents were taken for granted. I would do anything just to have one more day with them both. Being without them makes the Holidays tough for me, so something to brighten this Holiday season would be greatly appreciated. Last year I was able to host Christmas in my very first owned by me Home!! It was something special and look forward to doing it again in the coming years.
Family for the holidays, always fun. Then of course the great food, love the turkey.
The holidays are about being with family, church and big get togethers. I love cooking for everyone and baking like crazy.
i love the hlidays with my family
i love having my family over for thanksgiving/ i always raise our own turkeys for our meals, everyone brings sides
The holidays for me is about memories and making memories. I always get “in the spirit” and feel it is a time to be shared with loved ones
I really love all the lights and a seems like more pride in communities! Holidays as an adult means being able to shift some of the responsibilities from my parents to me and my sister. I think they can relax more now and we’ve convinced them to start Christmas Morning at 11 am for brunch.
I love gathering for the holidays with family and friends. We prepare lots of Caribbean food and drinks and play games. Holidays are about friends and family and together we can create memories.
The entire family at Christmas eve.
As a child my mom would make BBQ turkey. She passed away when I was young so once I had my own family I started making BBQ turkey and it is always the “thing”everyone could t wait for. We now have 4 generations that love it.
My favorite Christmas memories are going to my grandparents and crowding into their little house for a huge meal (I still don’t know how grandma put out such a lavish spread with one oven and postage stamp sized kitchen). Lots of love and laughter when we were with them.
The Christmas that my daughter came early. She wasn’t due until January but she didn’t wait. I had nothing for her Christmas morning and Christmas was just days away. So I walked to a little store close to where we were living and bought her a musical bear, It wasn’t just any bear it played off key…LOL That was over 30 years ago and she still has that bear.
The holidays, to me, are an amazing mixture of old family recipes, the scent of pine tree, and the smiles on kids faces. The holidays are about celebrating your family and loved ones in your own unique way.
For the holidays, we love getting together with family on Christmas Eve to play games, eat and exchange gifts. My favorite memory is the anticipation of Christmas gifts and not being able to sleep. My favorite holiday food is cookies, especially because days before Christmas we make them as a family.
Holiday…family gatherings, with everyone safe and healthy. I am required to make stuffing/dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and Watergate salad. My son comes home from the Army and wants a list of chores to do for me; it’s great because I’m usually behind in doing all the outside things, and it becomes his Christmas present to me. That’s the best present !!
When I was young my parents were divorced and it was just me and my father growing up. We never cooked a meal ourselves, but we actually went separate ways on Thanksgiving days. I headed off to my best friends house and had a huge thanksgiving dinner with him and his family. They always sent me home with tons of leftovers. My father went to his girlfriends house for a large dinner with all of her family. They would also send him home with lots of leftovers. So with all the leftovers, my dad and I would have our own Thanksgiving dinner. Then we would do something like go see a movie or whatever we can think of. It was a really enjoyable time.
My favorite Christmas memory is when I was 12 and the whole family was together. I really miss those times..
One year we went to my sister in laws house for Thanksgiving in NC…she made the best giblet gravy and she added boiled egg slices in it..omg it was soooooo good
My favorite memory at Christmas is my grandfather playing Santa. He would dress up and run around the house, look in the windows and ring his Sleigh bells. Then on Christmas Eve Santa would make a visit and ask if we have been good
We don’t really do any/much Christmas shopping…But we celebrate Christmas as our Lord’s Birthday! THAT is my favorite thing about Christmas! Thanks and God Bless!
For me, the holidays mean togetherness. I love the fact that my entire family gets together. Everyone has a great time, relaxing and spending time together. Having yummy treats and great food is a plus. My favorite holiday season food is butternut squash soup.
The holidays have always meant getting the entire extended family together to eat and have fun. But we have lost 3 members of our family in the last few months and no one feels like celebrating. I had a peanut butter sandwich alone for my Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas will only be because of the children.
For me the holidays are a time for family and friends. Nothing like seeing old friends for sure.
My favorite holiday dish memory is when I surprised my husband by making him Salvadorean turkey. 4 years ago, I stayed up all night and surprised my family with my husband’s favorite dish. They knew I was making turkey, but they didn’t know I was making this dish from a recipe I found online. The whole family loved it and now they want it several times this time of year.
The holidays for me are time to slow down, relax, and have some family time.
When I was younger, the entire family would spend time together at my Uncle and Aunt’s house. We would all sit around the tree and open presents. Santa used to come in and give gifts out of his bag for all the kids and then we’d go and eat Christmas dinner together. It’s one of my favorite memories.
Holidays means relaxing with the family and enjoying!
Holidays are quality time spent with family. It is also a time to get together and celebrate with great food! I always enjoyed my Mom’s Christmas cookies every year.
My favorite dish is a tie between two of my moms dishes. She would fix sweet potato casserole with miniature marshmallows and stewed tomatoes.
It’s just spending time with friends and family.
The holidays is family. I do not have a favorite dish. I do not have a favorite memory.
The holiday for me means being with the ones you love making memories. I remember my Mom baking all kinds of goodies on Christmas eve and the house smelled amazing.
The holidays to me are a time to bless my family and get to watch the joy on their faces as they open their gifts
It’s also a time where I cook their favorite foods, such as baked ziti and watch them melt into their plates with joy 🙂
I love that they all put their lives aside for family during this time!
Merry Christmas
Friends and family
The holidays are about family spending special time together.
My favorite holiday memory was the very last christmas I got to spend with my precious Grandma before she passed away in 2003!
My favorite memory is our daughter’s first Christmas. We still have a photo of her under the tree.
Holidays for me is seeing old friends and making new friends. My favorite Xmas was my first one after returning home from Vietnam in 1972. My favorite Xmas food is fruitcake.
My favorite holiday memory was being a week before Christmas my family and I would listen to Christmas music while baking Sugar cookies and then having a little too much fun frosting them
Holidays are great time to be spending quality time with your whole family.
My favorite memory is having Christmas up north MI at my grandma’s house. She is gone now so we try to carry on some traditions like Monkey Bread on Christmas Morning, and Christmas eve lights car trip.
The whole family getting together. Every one of my sisters make their specialty dish – be it appetizer, side dish or dessert! Exchanging gifts with everyone opening only one present at a time so everyone could see what they got – it takes longer but it seems more special that way! Good times!
Oh, the holidays are so much to me. They are the few good memories of childhood I have, and i try to recreate that magic for my family. I absolutely love Christmas Eve. My aunts come over, my in-laws, and my son and his girlfriend. My daughter invites her friends in the evening and we play games and watch movies. It is the closest feeling to magic I feel. And I order sandwich trays and snack platters but I also make my chicken noodle soup and my stuffed mushrooms. Everyone’s favorites.
My holiday memories are always centered around my family. Food is usually key. I enjoy decorating my home in a festive way, and recently bought another tree to put ornaments on it. I like to organize all one type of my ornaments together on each tree. (Snowmen together, angels, etc)
I lost both grandmas and my dad so this holiday will be somber. Im hoping sharing stories with everyone will ease the pain some.
I love the holidays. It’s that time of the year when most of the family gets together, to share gifts and good food. I love making fruitcake and homemade sugar cookies, during the holidays. Thanks for having this contest.
My favorite holiday memory is when my husband proposed to me under the tree. That event has made the season even more special to me. I look forward to opening presents with him every year.
I love the holidays. We get together with family and cook together and watch movies, play board games or card games. My favorite dish is the baklava or holiday cookies.
The holidays to me is being surrounded by family and friends. My favorite memory is spending Christmas Eve with my family. Perry Como was on, and we stretched out by the Christmas Tree, looking out at snowflaakes through the stencilled window.
My Mom had three sisters & two brothers and we seemed to be the nexus of extended family gatherings, a house full of aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbors at Christmastime. All the cousins would play football, or sled if it was snowing; grown-ups would cook, gossip, and have slide shows photos from the year’s travels or family happenings. Always a crowded house for Xmas.
Not really a dish, but since we don’t really bake in our house, I love the aroma of freshly baked cookies. It really adds to the holiday spirit.
Holidays are about spending time with family. I fondly remember making Christmas cookies with my mom!
For me, the holidays are about celebrating the season with family and friends. All of our holiday celebrations are potlucks. It makes it easier on the host having that way. Plus it allows us to try foods that we might not normally.
Thank you for the opportunity to win.