Who says Christmas only comes once a year? Not us! Our final Halfway Holiday of the season was Halfway to Christmas, better known as Christmas in July. Continuing the tradition from our previous celebrations, we gave our mini tree — and our home — a lovely Christmas makeover.
The only thing better than celebrating with one guest was celebrating with two! This year, Melisa invited her friend Mica to join us. My husband and I had such a great time getting to know her. Between conversations and laughter, we spent the evening working on a fun little arts-and-crafts project involving Styrofoam cups, toothpicks, and markers.
The end result? These colorful, igloo-style holiday lanterns that glowed beautifully once we placed tealights underneath. The clever idea to poke holes into the cups for that glowing effect was all Mica’s — and it turned out amazing!
Between arts, crafts, and good conversation, we also made sure to stuff our faces with appetizers like: salami and crackers, Pico de Gallo with chips, and Dirty Santa drinks which included cherry juice, ginger ale, grenadine and coconut rum that looked as cheerful as they tasted.
When it came time for the main course, we served olive bread rolls and so much more!
This year, we decided to make Argentine empanadas in honor of our new guest, Mica. Normally, our holiday menus tend to feature American, Chinese, or Caribbean dishes, but this time, we wanted to do something that made her feel right at home. To add our own twist, we used red and green empanada discs for a fun and festive Christmas touch. The discs were store-bought.
My husband also tapped into his Puerto Rican roots and cooked up his signature beer rice with chicken, which came out delicious — as always.
And of course, no Puerto Rican-inspired meal would be complete without plantains, a staple from his childhood that paired perfectly with the rice.
We really wanted to impress Mica (and, let’s be honest, indulge our sweet tooth), so we went all out with desserts — even though we feared it might put everyone into a sugar coma by the end of the night.
We started with an apple pie, warm and buttery.
Then came the Oreo reindeer, decorated with M&Ms, gumdrops, and pretzels — cute, crunchy, and impossible to resist.
We also made a coconut cake topped with white Oreos.
And to top it all off, we created Santa skewers — pear slices for the faces, banana pieces for the white part of the hat, strawberries for the red, and marshmallows for the top. They looked so festive and disappeared so fast, I'm surprised I was able to take this photo.
Overall, the night was wonderful — filled with amazing guests, delicious food, sparkling decorations, and creative crafts that made the evening feel extra special.
And with that, our Halfway Holidays came to an end — wrapped up with a group photo, full stomachs, and hugs that lasted forever.
As of this post, we’re only a few weeks away from my husband’s 43rd birthday, which just happens to fall one day before Halloween — October 31st. As you can imagine, our large Halloween tree and spooky decorations are already up and ready for the season.
But I’ll save all that for after the scary holiday. Stay tuned — that post is going to be a scream!
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