sevenchicks

favorite christmas recipes

by singerchick~ All month long we've been sharing our favorite Christmas recipes with you.  Now it's your turn.  Tell us what you're favorite is and include the recipe if you have it.  I can't wait to see what you guys like for Christmas and maybe get a new recipe or two. 

The giveaway today is a small decorated cake (20 -25 servings), 24 cupcakes, or a layer cake made by me (after the holidays of course). For examples of some of my goodies check out my blog at www.sweetcelebrate.com. I'll choose randomly so tell us what you like.

i believe

by singerchick~ I remember how exciting it was every year to go to bed on Christmas Eve awaiting the arrival of Santa and the goodies that came with him.  I remember laying in bed with my sis and talking about his arrival and giggling.  But I would always end up telling her to hush and go to sleep because I thought he wouldn't come to our house if we didn't go to sleep.  Social was the kind of kid that wanted to stay awake so she could see him.  Not me.  I went to sleep and dreamed of a big guy in a red suit.

Then I remember waking up Christmas morning, sometimes before the sun came up, running to mama and daddy's bed and begging them to let us get up and see what we got.  Then I remember the excitement of walking in and seeing all of the presents laying out and our stockings filled to the brim with goodies.  Santa....err....mama always did such a good job arranging our presents just right.  It was a beautiful sight and I loved it!!

Even after I was too old to believe in Santa I pretended to believe just because it was so much fun!  In fact, I still believe.  ;-)

 

What are your memories of Santa?  Did you believe that he came to your house on Christmas Eve?  Do you're kids believe?  Let me know what you think about the big jolly guy in a red suit and I'll choose someone randomly to win an ornament. 

my favorite Christmas recipe

by sassychick ~ I love Christmas.  The smells, the sounds, the pure joy of it all.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love Christmas.  One of my favorite things is the food.  Oh, glorious food.  My favorite Christmas recipe is a drink.  I know, I know, it's not food, but there is a story.

My husband was under the impression I was completely incapable of pulling off a huge Christmas feast all by my lonesome.  I had given him absolutely no reason to think that I could, but I love a challenge.  So we are well into our marriage and we had moved off about an hour and a half from home.  We were spending our first holiday by ourselves and we were very sad so I surprised him by throwing down and cooking one heck of a huge meal, enough for 20, with only two to eat it.  

He still talks about the meal that year.  One of the things he requests EVERY Christmas since then was this "orange drink" I made that year.  So without further ado.....

INGREDIENTS
1 (6 ounce) can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 ice cubes

DIRECTIONS
1.Combine all ingredients in a blender; cover and process until thick and slushy

best Christmas gift ever

  by photochick~ This is an easy one for me. My brother is ten years younger than me, so I remember vividly when he was born. It was Dec. 11th and I had spent the night with singer and socialchick and the next morning found out that I had a new brother! My grandparents picked me up to go see the new baby.

When we arrived we couldn't find him in the nursery. On our way to my mom's room we passed by the NICU and there I saw my baby brother laying in a wierd machine hooked up to all these wires. The next thing I remember is my grandfather picking me up and carrying me to my mother's room where I crawled in the bed with my dad crying. I was scared to death.

He was soon transferred to Montgomery where he stayed for two weeks. Two weeks before Christmas when my parents were back and forth and mostly staying in Montgomery. The doctors really didn't know what was wrong at first and the future was uncertain. Only parents were allowed in the unit to hold him and I was ticked, ticked, ticked.

Just before Christmas he was transferred back to Dothan. While he was still in the hospital on Christmas Day, I was able to go with my parents to visit him and for the first time ever, they let me hold my new baby brother! The best Christmas gift ever.

No prize for this one, but what was your best Christmas gift?

Divinity

  by babychick~ Divinity is one of my favorite Christmas sweets, but I can only eat so much or I will make myself sick from all that sweetness. I've never made it on my own but I think I might try this year if I have time.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup light (not dark) corn syrup
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 egg whites (room temperature)
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla
• food coloring

Combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt in heavy saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Continue cooking until mixture forms soft ball when tested in cold water (or use a thermometer). In the mean time, beat egg whites until stiff. Then pour 1/2 cup of syrup over whites, beating fast all the time.

Continue to cook remaining syrup while beating egg whites, until syrup reaches the light crack stage when dropped in cold water (this will happen quickly). Pour remaining syrup over egg white mixture, beating all the while. Continue beating until candy begins to hold its shape. Stir in vanilla and nuts and food coloring. Drop by teaspoonful onto waxed paper.
Makes 50-60 pieces.

and the winner is......

by plannerchick ~ Great Guessing on the chick trees. Our winner is JUDY TISON!!! Congrats on winning Judy, just email us at chicks@sevenchicks.net so we can get your information to get your Target gift card to you.

Most of you guessed a lot of the trees correctly, here is who each tree actually belongs to.

1. Baby Chick

2. Social Chick

3. Singer Chick

4. Photo Chick

5. Bossy Chick

6. Planner Chick

7. Sassy Chick

favorite decoration

by socialchick~ This should be fun. It is your chance to vote on some of our readers favorite decorations. We have everything from trees to quilts. The picture with the most votes will win a red tote bag with their initials on it. Please one vote per person.

There is also something in it for you. This prize is for the men in your lives. A random person will be chosen from the comments to win Mary Kay Men - Domain Cologne Hair and Body Shampoo. So get everyone that you know to start voting. Lets show those that turned in pictures as much support as possible.

To vote all you have to do is enter in the number of the picture that you like the most. The numbers are located above each picture. So here we go!

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9.

Christmas memory

by babychick~ My favorite Christmas memory wasn't too long ago. In fact it was almost exactly four years ago. My husband took me on our first date two days before Christmas and I honestly didn't think we would see each other again. Then he called me on Christmas night and invited me to eat dinner with him.

We ate and all that good stuff, but what stands out to me most was that he had bought chicklet  this huge basketball game like what you would find in an arcade. She wasn't there yet, she would be there the next day. Anyways did I say it was huge, because it was, it took up most of the living room. Well we started playing that and I'm sure we played for about two and a half hours just talking and getting to know each other. It was so simple but so fun.

I know I have some great Christmas memories from my childhood, but this is the most recent and it was the beginning of something beautiful!

favorite recipe- poor man's smores

  by photochick~  I absolutely love this recipe. Not so much a Christmas dinner specialty, but more like a quick dessert for laying in front of the Christmas tree and watching a Christmas movie. The best kind! It doesn't really have a name, just something passed down in our family, so I made one up myself. Enjoy.

Poor Man's Smores

Ingredients:

Saltine crackers

Peanut Butter (not crunchy)

Large marshmallows

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Oven must be preheated for this one or it won't work.

Here's the easy part . . . Take a cracker, add an ample amount of peanut butter to the cracker covering the entire top. Pop one large marshmallow on top and stick it in the peanut butter.

Make as many as you want, place on a cookie tray and pop in the oven. I don't have the exact time for cooking, but it's only a few minutes. Keep watching until the marshmallow is brown on top and remove.

Voila! The cheapest and easiest little recipe around. Eat as soon as they cool enough to do so. These aren't good cold.

reindeer names winner

Okay so the reindeer name game wasn't a big hit, but at least we had four participants and the random number generator chose number 3........ mama c.  Congrats!  You've won 3 tanning visits at Bella Salon which we will get to you soon.