This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, we’re all about the holidays! I’m sharing what recipes to bake if you’re making sweets and what to eat for Christmas dinner.
The holiday season is definitely underway here at our house. We’re baking cookies and doing all the holiday crafts (like making mini gingerbread houses via a Gingerbread House kit I got at Walmart – they have awesome ‘contactless pick up’ where you can order whatever online and then go pick it up and they put it in your trunk).
If you have older kids, you can make your own mini gingerbread houses out of graham crackers
New posts from this week on SweetPhi.com

- Christmas pull apart wreath – an easy, festive appetizer for any holiday party.
- Meal plan – this week’s plan is full of for holiday cooking – dinner and beyond!
- Chocolate cherry biscotti – a great food gift and the perfect partner for your coffee.
- Love List – fun finds from around the web.
- Prime rib roast and Yorkshire pudding – a Christmas dinner treat!
What to cook for Christmas

- Prime rib – a fun treat, even if you’re staying put this Christmas (it’s what we always make!)
- Pork roast – a great dinner to have on hand an affordable way to celebrate the holidays
- 5 ingredient Air Fryer beef tenderloin roast – you’ll never want to cook beef in another way after trying it in an Air Fryer!
- Slow cooker cheesy potatoes – the best side dish for any gathering because it doesn’t take up oven space
- Perfectly roasted potatoes – the best side dish for any mea.l
- Stuffed mushrooms – this is something we have made for years in my family, so I love making it every year at the holidays.
If you’re looking for some fun holiday things to make in the kitchen:

- Christmas tree pinwheels – Take a break from all those sweets for these cheddar bacon ranch pinwheels, use green tortillas to make them extra festive!
- Hot chocolate mix – Hot cocoa season is definitely in full swing. Here is a recipe for how to make an incredible hot chocolate mix, and how to have a hot cocoa bar!
- Food gift ideas – If you’re looking for something thoughtful to give that impossible to shop for someone or want to give something special, you can make and give a food gift!
- Gingerbread cut out cookies – so much fun to make with the kids
- Snowman pancakes – I talk about these all of the time, but we LOVE pancakes on the weekends and they’re easy to make ahead!
Don’t forget, if you’re looking for holiday recipes/inspiration, there’s a ‘Holiday Recipes’ category.
In case you’re not sold on my sugar cookie recipe, here are a few more reader comments to convince you:

- “Thank you . Your recipe is amazing!! It held all the shapes I used . After trying different recipes with no success and lost all my hope for making a cookies for my kids finally I made one after finding your website. Thank you once again.”
- “These cookies are soooooo good and so easy to make!”
- “Super good on their own. I also made some cinnamon sugar butter to put on top before putting in the freezer and then baking and it tastes just like a cinnamon cookie it’s delicious.”
If you’re enjoying brunch on Christmas day, giving this 5 ingredient French toast casserole a try is a great idea!
And if you’re making a holiday recipe of mine, I’d love to see it!
- I’ve been making my butternut squash soup a lot, so I’m LOVING my 26 oz. Weck jars (just ordered a few more because I use them for storage and for keeping my sourdough starter).

- I so love our arched mirror that didn’t break the bank and is back in stock!!…at Home Depot of all places. It’s one of my favorite purchases of last year.

- You’re going to need this three-tiered cookie cooling rack for all the baking I hope you’re doing!

- I’m really all in on the cheesy Christmasy books, I’m reading/listening to Dear Santa by Debbie Macomber and loving it (it’s also not a million hours long which I appreciate right now)

- Life with baby Sam – he’s just such a sweetie, I even got in a little work time while he snuggled in my arms.
-
Outing with princess Frankie – Frankie woke up and told Nick she wanted to go to a flower store and get pink flowers with mom, so we did just that
and we got her a pretty pink ornament cookie, such a fun girl outing.
- Kitchen helpers – the twins love to help cook, they’re really good at stirring so we make things that don’t have to be suuuuper exact yet still turn out – like these amazing banana muffins. Also, I make these banana pancakes with them at least once a month (only 3 ingredients!)
- Blue Eyes- the twins have these beautiful blue eyes (which I still think is nuts because Nick and I have brown eyes – means we both carried the recessive blue-eye gene, there’s a 25% of that!) The sun catches their eyes and they look so bright blue sometimes! Here are the silly blue eyed twins.
- Reading in Ben’s bed – the twins grab books and read in Ben’s bed whenever he leaves his room on the weekends, they think they’re being so sneaky.
- Big window pictures – we have these beautiful big windows in the kids play room, but we hate when they lean on them…of course they ALWAYS go up to the windows and lean/sit and stare at us, pretending not to hear.
EAT
- Easy Baked Brie – only 2 ingredients and such a good holiday appetizer.

- And these super easy candied nuts are going to be made on repeat over the holidays!

WATCH
- First I have a ‘don’t watch’ lol – I watched Father Christmas Is Back and was truly mystified. The plot is weird and the whole thing is just odd. I put a little poll on Insta and 100% of people said it was an oddball, lol.

- The second ‘watch’ is actually one on my list. I LOVED the book The Hating Game by Sally Thorn it was a steamier romance but cute story, and now they’re turning it into a movie – cannot wait to watch it.
PURCHASE
- If you’re looking for a fun gift, I cannot recommend Universal Yums enough, we got a subscription this year for our family and it’s been SO FUN to try treats from around the world, the kids all love it!!

Do you have any fun Christmas traditions (I shared a post about ours). I’d love to know, so just leave a comment below and let me know!
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