Holiday Food and Traditions

Do you have specific holiday foods or traditions? My mother always made a specific kind of cookie - melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness featuring nuts and vanilla sugar that she had to hunt all over town to find every year. I will remember the wonder of that tasty cookie until the day I die. 

My mother was from Austria and vanillekipferl cookies were a standard
part of her holiday baking. They melt in your mouth. If searching for
a recipe and it calls for egg, it's NOT a true kipferl. Kipferl are a shortbread
type of dough - no eggs allowed. Want a recipe? Follow the link. 

DH's mom didn't have food traditions, but they always had a fresh, decorated tree in their small living room and a set of handmade lit houses stretched across the fireplace mantle. DH and his father built the mantle set when DH was a child. Being good Catholics, their was also a creche under the tree. I think we have it in storage - DH brought a lot of their stuff home after we cleaned out the house when his Dad passed. 

DH's family had a creche similar to this one under their Christmas
tree each year. I'm pretty sure it lives in storage in our house
now, but it doesn't get set up - not my religious thing. 

When I wasn't working retail and actually had a life, we had a fresh tree in our downstairs den and a smaller artificial tree in our more formal living room. The upstairs tree was decorated with white lights and white and blue ornaments, the downstairs tree was an explosion of lights, ornaments (some of which were battery powered) and exploration. I would invite DH's sister and her family over for a buffet supper with holiday stockings for each of them every Christmas Eve. My nieces and nephews still remember those days, even though they are married with families of their own by now. 

I always love getting a Honeybaked Ham. It's so good, and I only
have it once a year. 

My own food traditions are a holiday Honeybaked Ham, a candy-cane pie and some chex mix. DH is pushing for a prime rib for Christmas and turkey for New Year. I'm not really sure where my ham will fit into all of that. I guess I'd better remind him, gently, that we have our own traditions and see what he says. For someone who is a stickler for traditions, sometimes he's so oblivious ... 

I do love a nice prime rib roast for the holiday. It's a treat because I
rarely eat beef, and it also makes great left-overs for a few follow-up
sandwiches. If I have to choose, I'll opt for the prime rib for New
Year and my ham for Christmas. 

Have a great Saturday. I finally got a bit caught up on some sleep last night - it was desperately needed. Tomorrow will be the second of my three working Sundays, so I can't sleep in late, although I do sleep in longer than 3:15 am or 4:00 am - my usual Monday-Saturday wake-up times. The year is winding down and I guess I'd better get some gifts ordered - LOL. I'll be back on Monday.