New Year's Blog Hop

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The holidays are full of family traditions. No matter how much we dread this time of year, there’s still the excitement of giving, of spending quality time with loved ones, carrying out those traditions started so long ago, or starting new ones. Traditions in my family are centered around food. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s day have certain dishes that must be prepared or it simply doesn’t feel right. I get a laugh out of people when I tell them our Christmas Eve traditional dinner is tacos. I don’t remember how or when this started, but for years our family has eaten tacos on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is similar to many families with ham or turkey, dressing, candied yams, and all the trimmings.

Dinner on New Year’s Day can’t happen without blackeyed peas and cabbage. Tradition in my family follows superstition on the first day of the New Year with this one. Blackeyed peas are for good luck in the New Year and the cabbage is more money. Does it work? I don’t have a clue. The family still goes through its ups and downs each year and we are far from rich. However, I’ve never chanced starting a New Year without eating a healthy helping of blackeyed peas and cabbage to find out how bad my luck might turn out or how broke I  might be for the next year without them.

Another traditional dish for my family is a vanilla-chocolate pudding pie. My kids go ape crazy over it and insist I make it every year. I’ll share the super simple recipe below.

What family traditions do you have? Comment for a chance to win $5 in StrandBucks for the Siren-BookStrand store and scroll down to find out what other prizes you can win!

Vanilla-chocolate Pudding Pie

Pie Crust

Prepare Keebler Graham Cracker pie crust according to directions on box

In a medium mixing bowl combine:

8 oz pack of cream cheese

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 ½ cup thawed coolwhip

Stir really smooth and pour over pie crust

In a medium mixing bowl combine:

1 family size box of chocolate pudding

2 ½ cups of milk

Mix smooth and pour over crust next

In a medium mixing bowl combine:

1 family size box of vanilla pudding

2 ½ cups of milk

Mix smooth and pour over crust next

Top with a layer of coolwhip

*Lite coolwhip, fat free cream cheese, and sugarfree puddings can be substituted to lower the calorie content without changing the flavor. I do it all the time and the kids never know the difference. :)

For another New Year's treat, check out A Silver Springs New Year's Eve. The first ever FREE read from the characters of The Heroes of Silver Springs, a best-selling series available at Siren-BookStrand.

Now what are those other prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

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3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!