Happy holidays! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. I was back home in Ohio spending it with my family.  It was so nice to relax, spend time with my family, gorge on food and sip some yummy wine.

I arrived home on Christmas Eve after a four-hour car ride. Santa apparently came a day early to our house!

On Christmas morning, I woke up to a house that smelled of baking sweetness. My sister and her husband had made two types of quiche- meat lovers and veggie in addition to fruit and blueberry muffins.

It was a lovely way to start the holiday off! After breakfast, we gathered in the living room to open presents, lounge around and just spend time together.

My puppy Jazzy got prime lounging location on the couch.

Later in the day we headed over to my brother and his wife’s new house. They got married this past July 4th! It was a really fun day for a wedding. Immediately after they were married they moved into a new house they built.

They’ve only been there about four months, but the house is already decorated to perfection and they were ready to host their first Christmas ever!

They had soooo much food waiting for us when we got there! I helped out by making a couple appetizers.

The first were caprese skewers, which is just cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil, a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper.

The other app I made was buffalo chicken dip. There are so many recipes for this awesome dip. Mine includes two packages of cream cheese, two large cans of chicken, 1 cup cheddar cheese, 1 entire large bottle of regular tobasco sauce. I melt it all together in the oven, top with another 1/2 cup cheese and bake until that’s just melted.

The key ingredient to this dip is to get Frito Lay Scoops vs. regular tortilla chips. I don’t know why, but they MAKE this appetizer!

Right before dinner my mom assembled the salads. They were made up of spinach, white cheddar cheese, raspberries, almonds, red onion with a little balsamic vinaigrette.

For dinner, our hosts offered us two options- creole salmon or filets with caramelized onions. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a total carnivore, so naturally I chose the filet.

My brother grilled the filet’s perfectly (I like mine medium rare). The onions were slightly sweet and salty, which added extra flavor. It was so good that I got halfway through eating before I remembered to take a picture!

My sister chose the salmon, which was seasoned with creole spices and served with lemon wedges and tartar sauce.

In all it was a wonderful meal. Major kudos to my brother and his wife for pulling of their first Christmas dinner! I hope you all enjoyed wonderful food with those you love.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!