Yule Love This, my Christmas party.

Not that anyone cares, but our Christmas party last night was a success. Most every year we get a real Christmas tree (though I know deep down how weird and un-environmental that tradition is) and we host a tree decorating party. Everyone brings food and we spend the evening making ornaments, listening to Christmas music and playing games.

Our newest friend brought some ornaments, glitter and floor wax from Michaels and we decorated some by rolling the wax and then glitter around inside. We made a few by shaving crayons and heating it inside with a hair dryer. We also made some random bobs and doodads with pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and goggly eyes. It was fun. Messy messy fun.

I wanted to go low effort this year on food because I was already exhausted from being sick and everyone always brings a ton of food. Despite the easiness of the recipes though, I was very happy with how they turned out. I made these kielbasa cheese hors d’oeuvre’s in bbq sauce, festive M&M brownies and my apple cider.

To make the brownies ~ I made two boxes of fudge brownies in one 13x9 pan but you can do one box if you like them thinner. I put around 1/2 cup {maybe a little more ;) } of green and red M&M’s in the batter. Bake according to the box {or forever if you did two boxes like me}. When they are close to being done, but still squishy take them out and sprinkle more M&M’s on top and then let them finish baking.

To make the kielbasa cheese hors d’oeuvres ~ I used apple and chicken kielbasa’s. For some I used that Irish Kerrygold cheese and for others I used a light havarti. I cut the kielbasa into thin circles and cooked them on low in my crockpot in a bottle of honey bbq sauce for a few hours. You’ll want to stir them often. If the sauce is too thin some will burn. Once it was closer to party time I spooned the kielbasa out with a slotted spoon and poured the cook bbq sauce into a festive, inch or so deep tray. My friend Bianca and I then put the cheese and kielbasa’s on toothpicks before setting them in the lake of bbq sauce. They were delicious!

Lastly, I made my apple cider ~ For this all I do is pour a jug of apple cider into a large pot. I add in a sliced up apple, a sliced up orange and cinnamon. I bring it to a boil and then pour it into a honey drizzled bowl.

Long story short, I had a lot of fun and I love looking at my tree decorated with love.