Holiday Cheer: A Look Inside Our Festive Traditions and Recipes
The holidays are upon us! Our team is looking forward to some much needed rest and relaxation. As a fun departure from our typical blogs, Sarah and I wanted to share a glimpse into our own holiday traditions, from cozy Christmas Eve gatherings to baking delicious treats. (Julia’s in New Zealand currently, making brand-new holiday season memories!)
Our Holiday Traditions
Sarah:
My long-term holiday tradition is cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. When I was younger they were from a can; now, I make them from scratch the night before and put them in early the next morning, so they’re done just in time for post-present-opening breakfast. My daughter also started a tradition of baking cookies on Christmas day; since we don’t need four dozen cookies in our home, with our family of three (!!), we take them to first responders as a thank-you for working year-round, even on holidays.
Erika:
In recent years, my partner and I have been spending Christmas Eve with our 80- and 90-something-year-old friends down the road. Our host makes a Julia Child recipe, and we bring Christmas cookies. We drink cider by the fireplace, tell stories, eat French food, and enjoy ourselves immensely.
What We're Most Excited For
Sarah:
I start Christmas shopping in the summer and spend a long time finding just the right thing for everyone (although I buy my nine nieces and nephews books every year, so they may not agree that a book is ‘just the right thing’, but I have fun researching books for each of them based on their age and interests). I’m excited to see reactions to gifts, especially my daughter’s to her many unicorn-themed gifts this year and her new set of her favorite Kate DiCamillo books from her great-grandmother. We’ve also promised she can watch my holiday favorite, the Muppet Christmas Carol, for the very first time.
Erika:
Like Sarah, I love holiday movies, and even more, holiday TV specials! A family favorite is the Newhart show “No Room at the Inn” holiday episode, where Dick and Joanna get snowed in at their Vermont B&B. (Bob Newhart is one comedic genius I didn't appreciate until recently–definitely recommend his works!)
More generally, I'm grateful to our team–especially Julia for her insistence and enforcement–for closing the office for these holiday weeks. I'm really looking forward to the free time (no video meetings for two weeks, whaaaaattttt?!?), being with loved ones, wearing sweats all day, long cool-weather walks, reading, knitting, and…
The Recipes We’re Making for the Holidays
Sarah:
I love to bake, but don’t love to cook, so most of my favorite recipes are baked goods! I love all things chocolate peppermint, but my husband is allergic to chocolate so we often go with citrus or spice-flavored things instead. These molasses crinkle cookies are a long-term favorite for holiday baking and a target for this year’s first responder gifts!
I did recently host Thanksgiving; an annual Thanksgiving favorite is Toll House (chocolate chip cookie) pie. When I have the time I also really love making Parker House rolls.
Erika:
So excited for food this holiday season! I just made this sticky cranberry gingerbread recipe for the first time–it’s definitely a keeper and I’ll make it again this holiday season. (Thanks to our friend Elisabeth Bertram of AI-and-scholarships fame for sharing it with me.)
We’ll be testing out Jamie Oliver’s crispy-crusty smashed roasted potatoes on Christmas Day, as well as making this tried-and-true lemoniest lemon bars recipe (the secret: cream of tartar).
And I don’t drink alcohol, except for one very notable, holiday-time exception: eggnog! We use this amazing recipe by the late Dr. Rebecca Lancefield, who was a chemistry professor at Rockefeller University, and we whip up on Thanksgiving in order for all the science to do its thing—denaturation, babyyyy—by Christmas.
From all of us at Students First Consulting, we hope you and yours have a wonderful break filled with joy, laughter, and of course, delicious food! The warmest wishes for an enjoyable holiday season.
