Hot Orange Punch and Other Things We Still Love!

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     My son leaves for Cote d'Ivoire, in Africa, for his mission for the Church in just 9 days! He will be gone for 2 years.  I wrote about that here. He leaves just before Christmas.  So, last night we had a special "Jacob's Christmas" for him to let him have a bit of a celebration and we gave him gifts of things that he will need on his mission.  We also made sure we had some of our family favorite holiday treats so he wouldn't feel like he had missed out on them when he wakes up in Africa on Christmas Day.  It is funny how there are certain family favorites that you must have each holiday or you just don't feel like Christmas was complete.  
     This morning, I woke up and made some Hot Orange Punch.  I had made some last night, but it was all gone this morning and the chilly weather made me want some.  As I sipped it I thought I should share the recipe with you and then Lindsey reminded me that she had already posted about Hot Orange Punch last year! But it is such a favorite, and so warm and comforting, (which I really need since I am about to send my youngest child halfway around the world), I decided I would share with you the recipe again and put together a little round-up of some of our other traditional recipes that we still love and that are must haves each Christmas. 
     

Hot Orange Punch

     Besides Hot Cocoa Bombs, this is one of our favorite drinks during the holidays.  LIndsey especially loves it and she blogged about it here. It is warm, tasty and comforting.  It makes you feel better if you are under the weather. The recipe is on her post.

     I love using my Waechtersbach Christmas teapot and mugs that my husband and I bought in Germany many years ago. You can't get my exact ones anymore, they say West Germany on the bottom of them! But the pattern is still available on Amazon here! 

Fudge Mounds

       These are from my childhood!  Growing up, we just called them Mounds.  We loved them all year round, but on this post I made them a little more festive! 

​Florida Fudge

     This one is also from my childhood! My kids love it and one of my sons was mad that I shared the recipe last year because he holds this fudge so dear! It is the best peanut butter fudge ever! 

​     The next two "recipes" are not food, but recipes for a wonderful Christmas with your family.

Favorite Christmas Movies

     One of the things that Jacob asked to do last night at his Christmas was to watch the movie, "A Christmas Story" together.  We have a number of movies that we love to watch that never fail to bring the holiday spirit.  Here is the list we put together of the Top 10 Christmas Movies of All Time! For us, A Christmas Story is probably the favorite.  We usually have it playing all day on Christmas so that we can laugh at which ever part is on as we walk past it.  It is just so funny. 

​Singing to the Tree

     I explain this tradition on this post.  Jacob has a beautiful bass voice and I have to admit as we all sat around last night singing to the tree together for his Christmas, and I heard him singing his part on "Angels We Have Heard on High", I got pretty teary eyed and the sopranos had one less voice for a bit.  I'll be missing that voice over the next two years.  This tradition is my most favorite of all.

    Those are just 5 simple things that we do to celebrate Christmas in our family.  We also try to share with others and spread the joy of the reason for the season, and #light the world! That is why Jacob is going halfway around the world! 
     Maybe you would like to adopt some or our ideas, or maybe you already do something similar.  Tell us about your traditions in the comments.  We would love to hear about them.
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