New Recipe Tried? I had a recipe in the lineup to try, but after reading the "notes" I decided not to try it. It was a Puppy Chow recipe, but used freshly made popcorn vs. store bought cereal. It said to store it in the freezer and consume straight from the freezer. Not really a winter go-to Christmas treat if you ask me. The recipe stated the popcorn goes soft after you coat it, so hence we ditched the idea.
However, I purchased a trial size of Christmas Jam to try. I know it won't taste like a home canned jam, but if we like the taste, I may look into any good recipes similar to it.
We do can a jelly at Christmas that everyone absolutely loves - it's a cinnamon/candy apple flavored jelly. It's definitely not made with healthy ingredients (ha ha!), but I do not know one person who does not like it at Christmas.
The jelly is called Cinnamon Cider Jelly - Recipe on my blog.
I have purchased two more advent gifts (the ones above are small journals I snagged for $1 each) for the advent calendar. I think I will plan to save paper bags to use for wrapping the gifts with. I believe this puts me to 6 advent gifts per gift bag. I'll have to get wrapping and re-count them. I'm trying to stay with useable gifts.
It has taken a few years for me to find my joy in the Christmas holiday since Mom passed away. I found so much joy in planning her homemade gifts, or other gifts, and when she passed, my joy for the holidays passed with her. I'm finally in place where I can enjoy it, and now crochet and donate lap afghans to those who need them or can use them, and that brings back my joy (Mom constantly got compliments on her lap afghans, and expressed that to me often).
Thank you Anne in the Kitchen for inspiring me along the way to a fantastic, upcoming Christmas this year too.
41 Weeks until Christmas ~ Christmas Shop and Other Fun News © March 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart