Nov 29 books read

Homemade Christmas Cookbook: 31 Thanksgiving Christmas Recipes by Betty Belly Cook
Good selection of recipes for the holidays. Especially like the ones you can make ahead of time and the big casserole breakfast dishes.
My favorite is the one with Smithfield ham and hash browns-not sure I'd add a lot of other ingredients as we are watching our salt intake now.
Many ways to prepare the holiday turkey, very good useful information there.
Lots of side dishes to accompnay the turkey dinners.
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Homemade Christmas by Tawra Kellam and Jill Cooper
Glad to see crafts in this holiday book-I've just read through 10 holiday cookbooks.
Clicked on the link in the book and it shows how to create a new Christmas eve tradition where you fill a huge box and put a small gift in for all the family members and it's to be opened when it gets dark on Christmas eve.
Good tips for being a frugal spender and making the gifts-something I do myself.
Big plan and written lists help make life easier and check them off as they are done. Love hearing how they survive the days leading up to the holiday.
Tips for feeding Santa and the reindeer to make an exciting time for the kids.
Gifts to put together for men, women and the kids, priceless memories!
Easy bake oven cake mixes and other treats can be made and put into a jar/can along with the directions.
Candy wreath idea had to grow on me and it's a great one to help get rid of Halloween candy...
Love food recipes at the end of the book.

Thanksgiving Recipes - 50 Dishes Plus 12 Leftover Recipes by Carol Vale
Love that this book has recipes for leftover as I know after this Thursday they will come in handy.
Just looking over the listings there are many recipes for every category for the big feast.
The book has links to the author's other cookbooks as well.
My favorite is the Shepard's pie, hands down.

The Christmas Cookie Plate: 50 Years of Award-Winning Cookie Recipes from the Russell Kitchen by Julie Schoen
Love baking for the holidays and always finding more cookie recipes to try and like. Each year I try to create one myself.
Much of the book is telling of the Russell kitchen and family and trips and their favorite desserts.
Treasure cookies and Danish Coconut Islanders sound like my pick for this year.
So many different categories.

Holiday Recipes: 150 Easy Recipes and Gifts From Your Kitchen by Bonnie Scott
Always looking for new recipes, especially with the holidays upon us. Love all the different categories in this one.
Colorful pictures showing the completed items all decorated-tips on doing that for ease of shipping also is included.
A site with gift tags is also mentioned in the book. Just glancing through some of these and I know they would be big hits with my family.
Our favorites to try: buffalo wings that we make our self, reindeer cookies!

5 Family Favorite Casserole Recipes - The Quick and Easy Casseroles Collection (The Casserole Recipes and Casserole Dishes Collection) by Pamela Kazmierczak
I thought I would browse through this book and maybe try a few as it's winter and once you toss everything into a casserole pan your job is done.
Lots of extra things in this cookbook after visiting the authors page and Kindle free downloads.
Love added notes inside some recipes as the dish might fail if you don't read the notes.
My favorite as we are severely watching our salt and sugar intake would be the ham and asparagus casserole.
The summer dessert casserole would be my all time year round favorite for all year round as it's fresh fruit.

Celebrating Advent: Family Devotions and Activities for the Christmas Season by Ann Hibbard
Story starts out with a frazzled mother of toddlers who are down for a nap and she's just finishing the wrapping of the gifts and it's so much work!
The holidays are so commercialized now that the meaning is lost in the season.
The idea is to spend family time along with the holiday and everybody can participate. Family traditions over the years can be renewed.
A plan and how much you expect to spend are crucial. The advent tree is one of our favorite where you put an ornament on the tree each day til Christmas.
Scripture readings are also included along with instructions on how to make things, music for the season, etc.
Includes sheet music for the Christmas carols and many ideas and templates.
This book covers a lot more than I ever thought it would.

CoCo Saves Monstertown by Amy McNeil
Illustrated colorful children's book about monsters. Coco is the new monster in town and it's his first day at school. He hopes the other monsters like him.
They come in different shapes and sizes and colors. The other monsters all look mean and scary and Coco does not.
Monstermania contest for the scariest monster and we find Coco hiding in the firehouse when Meeko finds him and tells him to just be himself.
Love the message this book sends: to be yourself.
Other works by the author are featured at the end.