‘Twas the night before holiday break and all through the office, not a staff member was talking, we had too much to gather!

The families were coming, there was food to prepare, gifts to wrap and cards written with care. The staff is still busy, getting brochures out the door, we are writing the last emails and designing next year’s creative cores. With smiles so sincere, we say happy holidays to all; we’ll be celebrating with unique traditions in between trips to the mall.

We wish you happiness through this time of great cheer, enjoy our list of fun activities and we’ll see you next year! (Some of us will be working next week, so call if you need to, we’ll be happy to help, just like little Cindy Lou Who.)

What are your fun traditions and activities? Here are some of ours and some fun photos of what’s been going on at home during the holidays.

Game and activities:

sade danielle's tree opened present

  • This year, Carrie is joining a friend’s family for Christmas and they are doing a gift exchange between all of the adults, $25 limit, gift has to be unisex and start with a “C”. I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Carrie is planning some pretty creative ideas and is sure to win bonus points! She’ll post her winning idea when she’s back.
  • Heidi dresses up her cutie pie dog, Sade, and Sade takes it—for a few minutes at least to get the holiday card photo taken.
  • Lisa’s Irish family gathers around the table for some fun adult games. It involves a wreath and that’s all we’re going to say.
  • This year, Danielle got her tree from her own backyard. She’s calling this her “rustic” tree.
  • Wendy’s family opens one gift each on Christmas Eve. It’s always a pair of pajamas so they look cute for Santa. I think she probably looks even better than the family in the video below.
  • In my house, my pets have a tradition to destroy one Christmas decoration each year. Here are a few from years’ past and a present the dog couldn’t wait to open.

Recipes:

Fondue: My family has a long-standing tradition of having fondue on Christmas Eve. We put out several cheese pots, a meat pot, and salad. Bread and apples for the cheese are yummy. We did chocolate fondue for dessert one year but it was too much. If you’re looking for recipes here, sorry, I buy the cheese fondue in boxes from the store and it’s quite delicious and a lot less work than doing it from scratch.

Chowder: Carrie’s mom cooks up some delicious corn and crab chowder. Here’s the recipe for you to try out.

  • 1 1/2 c frozen corn
  • 1 large can cream corn
  • 5T butter
  • 5T flour
  • 2 c chicken broth
  • 2 1/2 c milk
  • 1/4 c finely chopped onion
  • 1 lb. fresh crab meat
  • 1/8 t cayenne
  • 1/2 c heavy cream

Instructions: Sauté onions in butter, add flour, add broth and milk, cook while stirring rapidly for 10 minutes, add crab, corn, salt and pepper. Once warm, add cream and bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes.

Enjoy your holidays and these fun photos and videos.

heidi cat shirt
Heidi’s ugly sweater won top honors at the NTP holiday party.
cat in a tree
It only took 10 seconds for the cat to get into the tree for a nap.

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