Christmas in July (& Recipes)

 Hello Friends and happy Thursday. ;) 

And Merry Christmas! Lol (Christmas brownies)

I wanted to work on this post earlier, but Matt had today off and we needed to run errands and do some things out and about. We also went to lunch with my son Aaron. Now Matt is off getting a haircut, I can smell pork fajitas roasting in the slow cooker (smells so good) and hear rumbles of thunder off in the distance. So I thought I'd take a minute to pop in and share about our Christmas in July day. 

When the kiddos were younger I used to love to have one day to indulge in Christmas in the summer. As many of you know, Fall is my most favorite season. But Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love it all - celebrating Jesus' birthday, the decorating, baking, the music, the movies, gifts etc. My kiddos, of course, loved Christmas too. So they thought it a treat to celebrate in the middle of summer. It was like getting that one day helped tide us all over until 5 months later and the real thing. Lol My favorite was that Annie and I used to bake my Gram's recipe for cut-out cookies. 

Well I hadn't indulged in that in years. The kids are older and into their own lives more. And I guess I hadn't given it as much thought. I would still sometimes take July 25th to listen to some Christmas music. Or watch a holiday movie - but that was secretly on my own and that was it. Well this year...and with Matt in my life...I thought I would show him who he's dealing with over here. Lol Thankfully, he thought it was pretty cute and got a kick out of it. Annie is still gone on a trip with her Dad. So I didn't get into baking the cut-out cookies. I kept it far more simple. Here is what I did just a few days ago:

As I did all of my usual chores around the house, I listened to Christmas music. It always brings me joy. Then I started on the menu for the evening. Of course I had candles lit and Christmas music still going while I cooked. 🎄 🎶 

I made short cut gravy, but still wanted it to have a lot of flavor. So I sautéed veggies in a pot. Then I added chicken stock and dried herbs (poultry seasoning, thyme etc). I brought that to a bubble and let it simmer a bit. Then I drained out the veggies and added 2 packets of turkey gravy mix to the stock. I cooked that out a bit and then took it off the heat and let it thicken. 

Then I worked on turkey cranberry sliders. I greased a pan. Cut Hawaiian buns in half. Layered the ingredients. Melted butter with yummy things in it and brushed that all over the tops and baked them. They always turn out so yummy! Here's the recipe. I have this one and several other yummy slider recipes under my "sliders" board on pinterest. You can find that here.

I made a fair amount of gravy as, I made easy (from a mix) cheddar mashed potatoes, but these sandwiches are also yummy to dip in gravy. So we had little bowls of it on the side.

I cooked up some green beans with a little lemon and parm and it was a summer version of a holiday meal. 😋 

My son came over after work to eat with us. He loves a meal like this one. And then we played a game. And no Christmas is complete without gifts, right? I had picked up a few of their favorite goodies at the grocery store and wrote on brown paper bags for their wrapping. Lol 

But dessert is always the best part!  I had made Ghiradelli chocolate brownies with vanilla frosting and Christmas sprinkles. 

I had a lot of fun getting my holiday fix pretending it was Christmas for a day. And it was fun to spoil my fellas that way too. 💗 

What do you think? Fun? or Crazy? 😃