Christmas in July!
My God, I’m Hot!-In the kitchen!-In July!! 😉
Here we are with the finished Southern Living Gift Box Cake!
A couple of month’s ago I was texting with my youngest niece, Sam, when she sent me a picture of a cake she had baked from scratch and she said it reminded of her of a Southern Living Magazine Christmas Cake. (If you haven’t read my essay I wrote for B-Metro Magazine on my daughter’s and my adventures with baking those cakes every Christmas for several years, you can find it in my book “LMAO! A collection of humor essays to help you lose weight!” at amazon.) We decided then and there that we would get together and have a Christmas in July Party and bake one of the Southern Living Christmas Cakes.
Planning a time when all the cousins, and my mom (their grandmother) could all come together proved almost impossible with one taking college summer classes and working, one on a nine week trip to Asia and Europe, and one heading to Seattle (where she would get together with my son! I love that- since he would not be at the cake bake!) We finally found three days in the middle of the month right before Sam’s 16th birthday so the cake became her birthday cake.
Happy 16th Birthday, Sam!
Any illusions I had about it being less hectic to bake one of those particular cakes in the middle of summer was sadly mistaken, and gave me plenty of material to use for another essay! However, we had a great time, and made very special memories with all the girl cousins together, along with their grandmother, and decided that this was our First Annual Christmas in July Party and that we will continue to have it every year.
You might know by now, as I’ve motioned many times in my column and my book, that I don’t like to cook. As a matter of fact, my motto is “I don’t cook~I don’t care.” I wrote all about this in my column “The Pressure Cooker” for B-Metro Magazine, and it seems that many of you feel the same way based on your response to that essay. (I even have an apron available with that quote at my Zazzle store “Buy Sunny”!) This is especially true in the middle of the heat wave that is July! In the summer, and actually year ’round if truth be known, my specialty is no cook recipes. Actually, it’s really more that I am not particularly fond of cooking in the day-to-day. I actually enjoy very much entertaining and celebrating special occasions.
When I am not entertaining people on camera, or on the stage, (or on the page:), I love entertaining at home spending time with family and friends. But, lately it seems as if time is flying by and our family is spreading out all over the country making it harder to stay connected. I think that there is a much stronger bond that forms with the memories made from shared experiences than there is just seeing each other’s posts on Facebook. So, I decided to make this a new tradition!
We kicked off the party with Frozen Hot Chocolate!
When you find that life has become hectic and that the time and distance between seeing your children and nieces and nephews and your own siblings has become further and further apart, you have to become very intentional about keeping those relationships strong and make the effort to plan time to get together. At our Christmas in July Party three generations of women got together in the kitchen to bake and made more than a beautiful cake, we made memories. And, really, I think that is what the folks at Southern Living Magazine have in mind all along.
You can check out my Pinterest page to see some of the other fun ideas we had for our party! If you have had a Christmas in July Party I would LOVE to see/hear some of your favorite party ideas that we could use next year! Please leave a comment here:)
Now, stay cool- we still have to get through August! ~ Sunny xo
Sunny Brown 