Adventures in House Sitting // Mezzetta Memories

This week, I've been house sitting for my family. Well, technically the main purpose of my stay is not to house sit, but to babysit my younger siblings. But since the youngest sibling is an independent eleven year old, I've just been house sitting. AKA I sit and read by the fire while my siblings play with my baby the entire evening. It's a pretty rough gig ;)

Being in this nice big house for a few days is really getting me in the holiday mood. Perhaps it's the gigantic Christmas tree in the living room? Or the stockings hung above the fireplace? I have a feeling it has more to do with the piano and the Christmas songbook I've been playing from every day. Add the piano to the general feel of being in a cozy house with my family, and I'm officially ready for the holidays!

One of my favorite family holiday memories I have is doing a First Christmas meal together on Christmas Eve. For that meal, we sit on the floor by the Christmas tree and enjoy an authentic (or at least mostly authentic) Nazarene dinner - flat bread, dried apricots, nuts, pomegranates, and feta cheese. And possibly my favorite part: lots of olives in a cheese dip.

This week, my siblings and I wanted to recreate part of our favorite holiday memory. So, we made a yummy spinach artichoke dip and combined it with Mezzetta products and crackers to make an easy and delicious appetizer. Topping a cracker with artichoke dip by itself it yummy, but adding a Mezzetta pepperoncini or kalamata olive? Holy yum. Easiest way to take your holiday recipes to the next level.

^The Deli-Sliced Pepperoncinis were definitely our favorite to put on top of the artichoke dip. It adds a delicious zippy spice to each bite. 

^Can you get over that darling midi ring?

^The Garlic-Stuffed Olives were a little too big to put on top of a cracker and artichoke dip, but we had fun putting them on our fingers :) And I think they would be yummy if they were chopped into smaller pieces.

^She's such a clown!

^Want a cool $0.50 off coupon for any Mezzetta product? Click HERE! Fast, easy, and good for all your holiday Mezzetta recipes.

^There's a great Mezzetta Daily Holiday Gift Basket Giveaway happening right now. During the month of December, one winner each day gets a gift basket full of Mezzetta memories waiting to happen. All you have to do is enter your contact information and a favorite holiday memory HERE!

What's your favorite holiday memory or family tradition?

I'd love to hear about it.
P.S. I forgot to do one of my only five jobs - take the garbage out to the curb.
What are the chances they'll ask me back anyway?

*Thank you to Mezzetta for sponsoring today's post! As always, all opinions are entirely my own. Thank you for supporting this little blog and my family through my sponsored posts.  http://ooh.li/13cc084 #MezzettaMemories #SharingJoy