Christmas time is a wonderful time to create memories with family traditions and a great tradition is to host an annual Christmas bake off.
At our house everyone looks forward to the first week of Christmas vacation, when we go into baking mode and spend 3-4 days baking our favorite Christmas cookies and candies! This tradition began for us back when I was first married and my father would invite all of us over to the house for a weekend of marathon baking.
We spent hours talking and laughing as we baked and decorated dozens of different kinds of Christmas cookies while Dad made loaves of his famous holiday fruitcake. Dad's fruitcake was unlike any fruitcake you had ever eaten and everyone liked it. Not only was Dad's fruitcake totally different from others the secret to its success was that Dad soaked it in rum. There was a plethora of jokes about Dad's fruitcake and how well our pastor enjoyed it.
Besides cookies and fruitcake someone would try their hand at making chocolates, caramel and suckers. Homemade candy is always a big hit with everyone. I always hold out for someone to make chocolate covered peanut butter balls, one of my favorites.
When we were all done we'd divide up the goodies and take them home to enjoy or hand out as gifts.
Since those bygone days Dad has passed away and all of the kids have scattered to the four corners of the U.S. but the tradition he started is carried on by each of us in our own families every holiday season. It's a great time for us to have fun together and share Christmas memories.
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