I love traditions.

I’m the person who loves to recreate the memories year after year.  Some love to mix it up, but to me traditions are like coming home.

Every since I was a little girl, we have always had the same Christmas Traditions as a family.   We started with snacks and opening presents on Christmas Eve Night and Christmas Lunch together, followed by the afternoon of playing games, watching ball games and just being together.

After my sisters and I got married and started having families of our own it got harder to continue that tradition.  There is always another dinner to go, or another family tradition to uphold but we did our best to maintain ours thru the years.  But after my momma died eleven years ago, my sisters and I made a silent agreement to continue on that tradition.

Silent you say.  How can you have a silent agreement?

Well, it was never spoken out loud but it was a given to us all that as long as our daddy was alive we would continue our family tradition that him and our momma started so many years ago.  But one thing that I long for is to have Christmas Dinners at my house with William and the kids.  Using real plates, real glasses and real linens.

Of course, I don’t need to use Christmas as an excuse to have a nice family dinner, but it seems that sometimes its pointless unless it’s a special occasion.

For being a Petit Jean Meats Blogger, I received an amazing Spiral Ham as a Christmas Gift.

Since we had the ham, I decided to have an impromptu Christmas Dinner for just us.

I set out my fancy Christmas Dishes, wine goblets, water glasses, and linen napkins.  Oh yes I did!

Added a little cedar to the middle with mason jars filled with cranberries and tealights and we were set to go.

Since we will be having Christmas dinner with our families in a few days, I decided to not go overboard so I stuck with a small, simple menu of Sweet and Spicy Glazed Ham, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls.

I wanted to share my Sweet and Spicy Glaze with you.  I love trying new recipes but sometimes I like to stick with “Traditional” so I went with my simple glaze.

What you need:

1 cup and 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

15 oz can of sliced or diced pineapple

2 tbsp of spicy brown mustard

1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper

What you do:

1) In a bowl mix 1 cup of brown sugar and pineapple juice together

2) Add in cayenne pepper and spicy mustard and whisk

3) Poor glaze over ham and add pineapple on top

4) Sprinkle 1 tbsp brown sugar on top of pineapples

5) Bake for 30-45 mins until glaze is bubbly and brown sugar has crystalized on top

Very easy but very good.  Almost a Hawaiian style glaze!

After our impromptu Christmas Dinner, I decided to make it a regular tradition.  Every year I plan to have a simple dinner with just us and maybe add a gift giving to it.

Do you have family Christmas Traditions?

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!