Hollowell family fun - Cooking!

I love Christmas and all the traditions! I love the decorations, Christmas carols, giving gifts and mostly celebrating the birth of our Savior! One of the things I also enjoy doing over the holidays is cooking with my family! We all love to cook and being in the kitchen together is a fun part of our holiday.

We have several big meals that we love to prepare and we’ve been making them together for so long that we all know exactly what we are in charge of preparing every time. Early in the holidays, when my whole family comes to town (there are 29 of us) we have a big pizza party. That’s right, camp pizza in December at the Hollowell’s house! Gervais makes the dough, of course, and while it’s not as many pizzas as he makes in the summer, they are just as great! And we all love being together!

Our most formal meal is Christmas Eve dinner before we go to church. We have a standing rib roast with twice baked potatoes, glazed carrots (a recipe Dr. Margaret shared with me years ago) and meringues with ice cream and strawberries for dessert. After dinner, we go to church together and sing all our favorite Christmas carols, hear the Christmas story and light candles. It is beautiful!

On Christmas, we love to have a big brunch with a sausage casserole, cheese grits, country ham, Gervais’ biscuits, fruit salad and cake for dessert. Birthday cake for Jesus’ birthday, of course! After brunch, we sit by the fire and enjoy exchanging gifts.

When the girls were younger and working in the kitchen at camp, Leland worked with the cooks and Kathleen worked in the bakery. That’s how it is at home too; Kathleen prepares all the desserts and Leland handles the casseroles. We put on Christmas music and celebrate while cooking together! I have included some photos from our home at christmas - some old and some recent.

From our home to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!! Love ya! Laura