Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potato casserole has always been my favorite Thanksgiving side dish.  I make mine with a brown sugar and pecan streusel topping that has a wonderful balance of salty and sweet, with no marshmallows anywhere in sight...

Crepes with Cream Cheese and Caramelized Pears

While doing our Thanksgiving grocery shopping yesterday with my husband and our boys, I had a sudden craving for crepes for breakfast today.  On the weekends, we've gotten into the habit of having eggs, bacon and hash browns doused in plenty of hot sauce on Saturdays, with something sweet on Sundays, and crepes seemed like just the thing for our Sunday breakfast...

Three Holiday Cakes

It's my absolute favorite time of year.  After Halloween is over, I'm ready for the Christmas season.  When I was little, my brother and sister and I would beg our parents to allow us to put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving, but now I do hold off on decorating until a couple of weeks before Christmas, because as much as I love it, I don't want to get tired of having the house decorated.  Especially since we have two little boys, and it's a daily struggle to keep the house clean and uncluttered.  But I love the music and movies, the decorations, the lights, the presents, the food, the family togetherness, the cozy nights by the fire while it's cold and snowy outside, the eggnog and hot chocolate...  All of it.  I'm so excited this year to get our two year old more involved and see his curious little face light up at the sight of the tree and wondering what it's all about.  He'll even get to help decorate the tree this year!

If you like watching all those feel-good movies on Hallmark from now until Christmas, you're in good company.  Yes, they're predictable and silly, but they're also innocent, and filled with hope and love, and with so many depressing stories in my news feed every day, the movies remind me that there are still many, many good people in this world.  And since all this holiday talk is making me feel generous, I've put together an epic blog post for you today, with three cakes for the holidays.