Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve is here!  Even though I'm in my thirties, and I'm a worn out, emotional mess, there is still something just a little exciting about the anticipation of Christmas morning.  Especially when you have little ones in the house!

The kids are very excited.  We did a little elfing last night and this morning and they were absolutely fantastic!  We've had so much fun the last couple of days.  The slower pace (and the reigning in of the red #40) has led to much sweeter children (and mommy!) all the way around.

One of my very favorite things about Christmas is a good excuse to eat lots of appetizers.  Did you ever see that movie "Mermaids" with Cher and Wynona Ryder?  I love that movie.  Cher plays the mom in the movie, and while I'm nothing like her (long-legged, sassy, um..."friendly") one thing we do have in common is our love for the appetizer.  Like her, I could easily make my family eat appetizers for every meal.  My kids would probably love it.  Big Dan prefers grown man food.

I've been thinking about some of my favorites.  They are all easy things I put out whenever we have Christmas guests.

Hot Pepper Jelly with Cream Cheese

I got this picture from Deep South Dish, but you can find a million pictures of this.  As I look at this picture, I realize it doesn't look all that appetizing.  But, it is ah-mazing.  I love that they have paired it with a good old fashioned Ritz cracker!  I like it on anything and it is always gone in a big hurry.

Rosemary Cashews

I have Katy to thank for this one.  It's new to me this year, but man oh man, they are DELICIOUS! The ones she made were full of rosemary flavor (one of my faves) with an added little kick.  Addictive. Definitely worth making and just keeping on hand.  They make a great little mason jar gift, too.

Cocktail Wieners

I'm so very mature that I don't struggle at all with writing the word wiener in a post. Also because I'm mature, when I went to dictionary.com to look up how to spell it, I definitely didn't push the little button to hear the automated lady say it.  I'm genteel and dignified.  Which is why I love these so much. These are kind of a redneck dish, but man oh man do I appreciate them.  The recipe I use has grape jelly in it which makes it even more redneck and delicious!! People may act like they are too high brow for the cocktail wiener, but you'll soon find them sneaking by the crockpot toothpick in hand!

Sausage Balls

The old stand-by.  Look, I realize I'm not getting invited to any foodie conventions with any of these recipes.  And that's fine by me, because they probably don't have any cocktail wieners or sausage balls at a foodie convention.  How could that be any fun?? This is another dish that someone might pretend they are too good for, but check their purse on the way out the door.  I'll bet it'll be filled with sausage balls.  

I'm hoping I get to eat each one of these things sometime in the next couple of weeks. If I don't, well, my kids should get ready!  It's appetizers for dinner!