A Few Living Room Christmas Decorations and Holiday Appetizers

Happy Friday, my fellow friends!

For many years since Brittney was born, we had Chuck’s side of the family over on Christmas Eve.  And every year, I made the same appetizers.  I usually don’t like to make the same things all of the time. . .I like to change things up a little . . .but everyone loved these and didn’t want me to make anything new.  And even though we don’t get together with his side of the family anymore, these appetizers are still a Christmas Eve tradition.  We now have my sister, Val, and her daughter and son-in-law and their 2 boys over.   A few more of my siblings may be joining us on Christmas Eve this year, as well.  We used to go to my Mom and Dad’s on Christmas day, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, the family is getting larger and have their own family celebrations to try to fit in, so starting this year, my parents are going to start having the family over on the Sunday before Christmas.  And since everyone’s celebration schedules will be rearranged, I’m inviting anyone to my home who would like to spend Christmas Eve with us.

Even though I completely understand the situation my Mom and Dad are in, I feel a little depressed that we are stopping a long time tradition of spending Christmas day together with family.  So, now, like all of the other holidays that we don’t have family to spend with, we’ll try to create some new traditions of our own. 

I hope you enjoy these appetizers as much as we do!!   If you’d like to print these out, just highlight the recipes that you want, and then click “selection” on your printer function.  Only the highlighted sections will print.

Cheese Crescent Rolls

1 pkg. crescent rolls

4 oz. each:  sliced Swiss, muenster, colby & harvarte cheese

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

Mix cream cheese and egg together.

Form crescents rolls into a square with 1/2 of rolls.  pinch seams together.  Save other 1/2 for top.

On bottom crust, layer sliced cheeses with cream cheese mixture  spread between each layer; ending with cream cheese mixture on top.

Stretch top layer square over cheese mixture.  Fold under bottom crust.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown.  Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

 

Bacon/Sausage Wraps

1/4 c. butter, melted

1 1/2 – 2 c. chicken stuffing mix

      Mix together and set aside.

1 lb. Italian sausage

1 egg

1 lb. bacon

Mix Italian sausage and egg together and add to stuffing mixture.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Refrigerate 1 hour.

Cut bacon strips in half. (I usually cut into thirds and make smaller balls to make more)  Roll sausage into balls and wrap with bacon strip.  Secure with toothpick.

Bake 35-40 minutes at 375 degrees.

 

Crab Pizza

4 small boboli pizza crusts

1 c. miracle whip

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

1 lb. sea legs

1 c. shredded Swiss cheese

2 T. green onions, chopped

Mix together and spread on top of pizza crusts.

Bake 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees until cheese melts.

Hanky Panky

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground Italian sausage

1 lb. velveeta cheese

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 loaves cocktail pumpernickel bread

Brown beef and sausage together; drain.  Add Worcestershire sauce. garlic powder and pepper.  Chop cheese into cubes and add, stirring until melted.

Spread mixture on cocktail bread, covering well.  Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 lb. mushrooms

2 T. butter

1.4 c. Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

3-4 T. bacon bits

2 T. minced onion

Remove stems from mushrooms and set caps aside; chop stems.  Cook onions and chopped stems in butter until tender; add bread crumbs.

Remove from heat; stir in bacon bits and cheese.  Mound filling in caps.  Place on cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

  

As always, if you’d like to see who else is participating in Colleen’s (And Baby Makes Five) Homemade Holiday Recipe Swap, click here:

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we shampooed our carpets.  And since we had all of the furniture out of the living room, I decided to take advantage of the situation and repainted the walls.  Since my house has kind of an open concept, I painted the dining room walls, too, which also leads into the kitchen, but will get painted later, after we build the new kitchen cupboards.  I also painted the ceiling.  I painted the walls with “Resort Tan” by Sherwin Williams.  Again, the picture isn’t the best due to the lighting.  You can see my cut off point right before heading into the kitchen.  I’m so happy with the way it turned out; all of my decor seems to blend in so much better!

I’m still plugging along with my Christmas decorations!!  Hopefully, I’ll have them done by this weekend.  I have most of my Living Room done….I’m still trying to figure out my fireplace and I still have the centerpiece of fresh pines to make for my coffee table.  I’m waiting for my local greenhouse to get more variegated orgonia in stock, then I’ll show you how to make a live arrangement.

Here are a few pictures.  It’s been kind of gloomy and rainy for the last couple of days, so the lighting isn’t the best.  It’s suppose to be sunny today, so hopefully, I’ll get some better pictures and share them with you later.

 

I’ll be back with more Christmas decor pictures and a tutorial on making live arrangements with fresh greens.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!  And Thank You so much for taking the time to stop by!!  I love hearing from you, so please leave a comment!

Until Next Time. . . .Kris