Day Three of the Henry Glass Very Merry Holiday Party!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

For this holiday blog hop, the theme is favorites, so I am going to share some of my own holiday favorites!  

Lets start with my favorite holiday decoration - Well it probably is no surprise that it is a big adorable plush snowman.    He is always the first of all my decorations to come out.   Each year he sits on my  window ledge looking out the window with his candle glowing.  Its just a sweet little greeting as you walk up to our house.  Yep, he's my favorite.

My favorite holiday recipe - hmmm, I have many.  But this is definitely one at the top of my list.  It is a very simple jello recipe, but it brings me back to many holiday get togethers when my mom would make this for the Christmas Eve parties.    Always a huge hit - and it is delicious!

       One Large Strawberry Jello

        Two 10 oz. frozen strawberries

        Two pints of vanilla ice cream
 Thaw strawberries and drain juice.   Add water to juice to make 2 1/2 cups combined:  Bring liquid    to boil in saucepan.   

  Pour in Jello and dissolve

  Add ice cream to thicken and then add the strawberries.  Pour mixture into 13x 9 clear baking dish.  Refrigerate to set - This takes a bit longer than regular jello because of the ice cream.. I usually make it the night before to be sure its set, but usually takes a few hours.    Delicious! 

As for my favorite holiday tradition.. this one goes back as long as I can remember.  Each Christmas Eve, we get together with my entire family.  Aunts, Uncles, cousins included.   Memories, laughter, food and a great family.  This extravaganza has grown to be quite a celebration as our families grow.  And on this night, we have a special visit from Santa himself.  Each child (Oh and Aunt Judy too) then sits on Santas lap and receives a special Christmas Eve gift.  The excitement and anticipation for the arrival of Santa is in the air as the kids anxiously wait and listen to for the familiar Ho Ho Ho and jingle of his bells.  Christmas Eve always brings the warmest memories of holiday spirit.  We continue to create new memories as we keep this tradition going!

Here is a link to a free pdf download of some fun gift tags using the snowmen from my Snow Much Fun collection with Henry Glass. Just print and clip!  I hope you can use and enjoy these tags for your gifts this year and for many years to come.  

Be sure to visit the beautiful blog of Wilma Sanches, as day three is our day to post for the party!   You can then follow along each day through the rest of the hop.  A schedule of the hop as well as links are posted on my blog's previous post.

And don't forget to stop by the Henry Glass blog  each day for fun contest including a chance to be entered for the Grand prize which will also include a little prize from each of the designers.  I will be giving away a coffee mug featuring a design used from the I Love Snow Collection.   I am also hosting my own giveaway.. all you need to do is leave a comment here on the blog and hit the like button on my Simply Shelly Designs Facebook page, you will then automatically be entered into my holiday giveaway for my Santa design canvas wall hanging!   I will be drawing a name on November 23rd, 2012!  Thank you so much for stopping by and I wish you all the happiest of holidays this season!