Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas, my lovely, amazing, wonderful friends.
Thank you for being here. I know I say that a lot, but I mean it from the very depth of my soul.
Thank you.
I wish I could say 2020 was as full of smiles as that picture up there, but I don’t need to go into details in order to dispel that myth. I think the dead hanging plants and overgrown bushes in the background are a fitting emblem of this year as a whole.
While there have been plenty of laughs and many blessings, it’s been a weird, hard year, and a year of personal struggle for me – I have felt the lowest of lows and been challenged in many ways.
But I have also had the sweet, sometimes quiet, but always constant assurance that Jesus Christ is the bringer of hope. Of peace. Of comfort. He has gently quieted the worry in my mind time and time again and helped me move forward with faith in a better tomorrow…even when today feels impossible.
I am so grateful for this time of year that reminds me, yet again, that thousands of years ago, He came.
To the amazement of everyone from the lowliest of shepherds to the richest and wisest of men, He came.
He came for me. And He came for you.
For all who wait
For all who hunger
For all who’ve prayed
For all who wonder
Behold your King
Behold Messiah
He is the song for the suffering
He is Messiah, the Prince of Peace has come
From the words of one of my favorite Christmas songs
Merry Christmas.
I hope you enjoy what is bound to be a different holiday season than in year’s past. I’m taking a little time off from blogging and social media, but I’ll be back at some point in January – love your guts; thanks again for being the best readers on the planet. You keep me going in this interesting and crazy food blogging space.
Also, I shared this two years ago, but wanted to share again for those that are new. It’s an experience that greatly touched my heart; I call it The Parable of the Cheeseball.
83 Comments on “Merry Christmas”
Love your cooking site and just the example you are! Such a lovely woman and mama! Thanks for taking the time to share your awesome recipes with all of us! I’ve never made one we didn’t like!
Amen! When we don’t understand why things happen Jesus always does and has a plan far beyond what we could even imagine. Love your blog, my family loves your recipes, hope you get some refreshing time off and a renewed faith in our savior.
I remember you posting thermometer recommendations but can’t find them. Christmas was hard on my thermometers and both of them broke. Looking for replacements…
Mel, I have never commented but have been following you for at least 10 years.
I cannot convey my gratefulness for you and all that you do. The incredible recipes are just a small part of why I am drawn to your site every day. The honesty and real experiences you share make everyone feel like its okay to not be perfect, that sometimes things are just not going to work out, but you roll with it and move on. Thank you for that, the recipes and meal plans are a bonus to me. My whole family will ask as soon as I put something new on the table is this “A Mel” , to which the answer is always, Yes! I make at least one recipe from your site once a week. May you and your beautiful family be incredibly blessed in 2021. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being you!
Mel, you are the only celebrity that I want to meet! Thank you for all of the great recipes, the tears from the cheeseball story AND your gift recs! Bop it, the number robots and Guess 10 have been huge hits at our house.
Merry Christmas and God bless,
Jen
Thank you so much Mel! This has been my happy food space for 10 years now. You are my favorite person I don’t actually know. Your faith, sharing, stories, knowledge and recipes have blessed my life and family immeasurably and I hope you are as richly blessed for it as we all are. Merry Christmas. We love you too!
Merry Christmas to ‘my good friend Mel’ (the title you get when asked where a recipe came from). I’m so glad I found you and I feel I’d be lost without you!! Just getting ready to make Gloria’s rolls for a friend who’s dear brother passed this morning. You are interwoven into our life with all these recipes…that’s it’s almost crazy. Thanks a million…and blessings for your dear family in the coming year!!
Merry Christmas Mel (and Family). As I look at the photo of you and your beautiful family, I realize how much your children have grown since I first started visiting your blog site. You have become a welcome fixture in my life and I happily announce my Mel creations as I place them on my table. So, Thank You for your gifts of shared thoughts and recipes. They are always a bright spot in my day. May your new year be filled with the promise of better days ahead and with lots of love and big big hugs.
Merry Christmas! I hope it was a wonderful holiday for your family. Thank you for your testimony and all the good you do for so many people. Your recipes are fantastic, but even better is your kindness and light. May you be blessed with every good thing this upcoming year.
A good word! Thanks for sharing your heart. We both love Jesus, have kids, and have 4 boys and a girl…and make tons of your recipes! I love your family pic!
LOVE! I also have four boys and one girl!
Merry Christmas, Mel! Our breakfast menu for this special day was Cheryl’s cinnamon rolls, & sausage wonton bites. It was all so yummy! Thanks for inspiring me in the kitchen. I love others through food, & you help me do it in the best possible way! Enjoy your day with your precious family.
Merry Christmas!! I love following your recipes and have been for 8+ years now!! Thank you for continuing to post! You have helped me become a rockstar in the kitchen! So many recipes that are now family favorites!!! Thank you!!!
Time and time again, your recipes have “made” our meals. Once again our Christmas meal will be partially a “Mel” meal. Thanks doesn’t seem enough but that’s what I have. Thank you, thank you. The best and merriest of Christmas to you and your beautiful family
Merry Christmas Mel! Thank you for this wonderful blog that has been a lifeline for over 10 years in our family. I have learned so much from you and not just baking and cooking. Thank you for your faith and example of love. Hugs to you and your family and I hope you have a wonderful holiday and break. ❤
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank you for being open about your life & most of all for sharing the good news of Jesus!
Thank you for sharing these comforting, inspiring, affirming words about Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas Mel! We talk about you so often at our house that you feel like an old friend! We love your recipes and I love reading what you write about your recipes and your Friday thoughts. Your words are insightful and make me smile and laugh! The parable of the cheeseball makes me cry. ❤️ Thank you for sharing your testimony and being such a light! Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season for you and your family! ✨
Merry Christmas. Mel! Thank you for sharing your highs and lows, especially this year when most of us have had more lows than usual. And thank you for the reminder that our Savior promised us peace , love and comfort during our challenging times. He loves us and we can see it in so many ways. I LOVE the cheese ball story. In fact, I might use it this year for our Christmas message.
Enjoy your time away from blogging ! I look forward to seeing you again in January !
And just so you know, it kills me that I can’t use emojis in the comment section. Hahaha
Merry Christmas! It has been one weird year. Your recipes made it a whole lot more bearable. I can’t thank you enough for that. Enjoy your family and well deserved time away from the virtual neighborhood. Let’s hope and pray that 2021 is better than 2020… lol
Merry Christmas Mel! Thank you for all that you do! You help me keep my family fed and happy!!
Merry Christmas Mel to you and your beautiful family! Just wanted you to know every year we celebrate Jesus’ birthday on Christmas and bake him a birthday cake. This year we decided to bake your Chocolate Cake and it smells amazing baking in the oven. We have gone to your recipes so often during this pandemic. Thank you for your awesome recipes!
Merry Christmas!! Thank you for sharing these beautiful thoughts about Christ!!!
Enjoy a nice break (where you still do 10k jobs a day), right?! You are amazing…and such an example to me.
I love how you share your faith! You are a great example to me. Thank you for all the recipes over the years. You are my go to for recipes. Merry Christmas!
I love you Mel. ❤ Thank you for all you do. Your testimony, your amazing recipes, for your example of adding good in the world. I look up to you a lot.
Thank you, Mel. You are my go to site for recipes. I depend on you! I feel like we are friends, but of course, we have never met. Thank you for your talent in the kitchen, and your talent to in writing to make us readers feel exactly that way! Grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ and I loved the movie, too. I’ve never made a comment before, which almost seems ungrateful with the amount the two of us have “spent” together! #GiveThanks for amazing food and friendship! Merry Christmas from our full family to yours!
Love you, friend. Merriest Christmas Ever.
Love you Mel! What a beautiful family that has grown up so much as I have followed you for years and years! Enjoy your holidays and the break! We will be enjoying lots of your recipes over the holidays. Thank you for blessing my family! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I know that you will be missed by your readers, but we all need a break and some time with family to reconnect and just decompress, especially this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to a great human.
Merry Christmas to you and your family! Thanks for the great recipes over the years, I’m sure I can speak for many others when I say that we see you as a friend & your name is well known at many kitchen tables! Hope your holidays are wonderful!
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank YOU for so many great recipes and for this lovely space you have created. It feels like a community here. And thanks to all the people leaving helpful comments about the recipes, I so much appreciate them.
Mel Merry Christmas! We love your recipes! So grateful for you! Thanks for making me laugh! See you in the new year!
I made my first apple pie thanks to you. It came out great and gave me confidence to keep trying new things. One of the joys of being a mother for me is nourishing and feeding my family and thanks to you I do just that. You are amazing and I really enjoy your site. Merry Christmas!!
Mel, thank you for your beautiful words about our Savior. You summed up 2020 perfectly! And thanks so much for your great blog. I have been baking/cooking about 900 of your recipes whilst wearing my favorite new Mel’s Kitchen Cafe sweatshirt. You help keep my family fed and the home-cooked meals rolling throughout the year. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year! Here’s to better times ahead for us all.
Thank you for sharing your faith, family, and food with us! Merry Christmas!
You are not alone. Thank you for your realness and your testimony. I love your blog and you do a great work here! Merry Christmas to you and your family. Good times are ahead, I truly believe that.
Thank you for sharing your faith with us. This is so encouraging! Merry Christmas. ❤
Merry Christmas Mel! Enjoy your family time and your time off, and I will look forward to seeing you when you come back! ox
Merry Christmas to you, Mel! Thank you for your recipes, your vulnerability, your honesty, and the connection over this vast internet that you provide. It’s been especially needed this year. Peace to you and your family.
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Mel! You’re my favorite!
Thank you! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family as well, whatever that will look like. <3
I can relate to this post on so many levels. Thank you for sharing And Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!!❤️❤️ Ps. Your daughter is so grown up!!
As someone who checks your blog daily for the latest and greatest, and who has enjoyed many, many of your delicious recipes (most recently I’m looking at you Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Bake!), I want to wish you and your family the most blessed, merry, happy and loving Christmas you could ever imagine! Thank you for all you do and your service to the King. God bless you.
from a loyal reader – Faith
Thank YOU for all the inspiration and direction you give us every week. I hope you see it, like many of us do, as a way that your serve and bless others in ways you’ll never fully realize. It was so funny when I saw Jennifer Garner make your bagel bread–of course you should bless dear Jen as well but I was like “wait, MY Mel? Huh. She gets around!” 🙂
I’m so glad you are taking a break and hope it’s restful and restorative for the next months as we climb and claw our way out of this. xoxo
Merry Christmas to you and your family as we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. May this time you spend away from the computer bring a refreshment as you look around you at God’s beautiful creation and please don’t forget to look in the mirror and recognize the YOU are one of His beautiful creations. Thank you for taking the time you do on this site so we all can enjoy and share your amazing recipies. I came on here looking to make the lemon cranberry cake and saw this note you took the time to write to all of us. Thank you. Looking forward to 2021 but still cherishing the days we have left in 2020 as each day is truly a gift from God. May blessings abound to you and yours.
Our whole family loves you, Mel! Thanks for all of what you bring to our lives.
Merry Christmas Mel! Beautiful family you have. Thank you for allowing us all to be a part of it and keeping us entertained with your stories and recipes! Thank you for all you do! This is my absolute favorite food/family blog and I’ve been coming to (and recommending) this site for years! Hope you enjoy the time with your family and hopefully 2021 will be a better year for us all!
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank you for sharing that you have had some low times this year. I have too and its good to know that i’m not alone. Your food blog is such a blessing to me and to my family!
Merry Christmas! You are my go to for any recipes and I’ve never been let down. 2020 was for sure years of high and lows but hoping when we look back it’s the highs we remember most.
Merry Christmas, Mel. Thanks for all of the great recipes to help me make our home a warm, inviting space to escape all of the crazy outside.
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful, rapidly growing up, family! I love wearing my Rockstar apron, I love making your recipes in my kitchen, I love gifting (and eating!) cheeseballs but most of all I’m thankful for the space you’ve created here. You are my biggest cheerleader in the kitchen, thank YOU from the bottom of my heart! 🙂
Oh Wow! I really needed The Parable of the Cheeseball today. Thank you! and Merry Christmas!
Dear Mel, I make so many of your recipes. I AM SO GRATEFUL for you. Thank you for all of your hard work. I hope you have a peaceful happy Christmas! May you be as blessed as you bless others.
Thank you for all you do! Yours is always the first food website I go to and I’m never disappointed. You are the BEST! Merry Christmas to you and your family!!
Merry Christmas! Thank you for sharing – not only your fabulous recipes, but also your real-life moments.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Is it weird that I’ve followed your blog for so many years but I’m still shocked at how grown up your kids are?! Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for making our dinners that much better ❤️
Beautiful! Thank you! Thank you and your sweet family for sharing your light with us! Can’t tell you how much some of the thoughts and resources you have shared have improved our family culture and of course — our meal times. 🙂 Merry Christmas to you and your family! <3
Mel, Merry Christmas to you and yours! Thank you for sharing your light, your heart and amazing recipes with us. I’m looking forward to a better year in 2021 and hoping the same for you. Love this Christmas message!
Merry Christmas! This year has definitely been crazy – looking forward to 2021 more than usual. Your website has kept our family fed this year, though! My teenage daughter who became vegetarian this year even spent hours yesterday looking through your recipes for inspiration. We use multiple recipes a week from here, so thank you! Have an enjoyable break, and we will look forward to your recipes next year!
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank you for being a light in my life. I look forward to all of your posts here on the blog and on instagram. Have a wonderful (more) time with your family. I wish you much peace and happiness.
Mel, you are the best!!! Thanks for all you do. You’ve filled this year with so many amazing recipes and a friendly face throughout all the craziness… thanks for sharing your light. Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy happy new year!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Thank you for sharing your humor, yummy food, ideas and fun with us!
Merry Christmas to you and your family, Mel.
Thank you for all of the wonderful recipes. I try (and then keep making) so many of them that my husband now asks “Is this another one of Mel’s?” 🙂
Mel!!!!!!! You are awesome sauce!!! Thank you for sharing your talent and helping me feed my family good nutritious meals!!! Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family!!! May the Lord continue to bless you guys!!!
Love,
The Allphin’s
Springville, UT
Merry Christmas, Mel and family!
Thanks for faithfully showing up here and making us rock stars in our own kitchens! All of your hard work makes such a difference in my family and the lives of all of the people I cook for!
Enjoy your well deserved Christmas break! I’m making your Baked Penne with Chicken, Broccoli, and Smoked Mozzarella for our Christmas meal…it’s our tradition! <3
Merry Christmas and a sincere thank you for creating and keeping up your authentically-you blog!
Thanks for sharing your heartfelt testimony, Mel. We are grateful for not only your amazing recipes and witty posts but for being a good human being. Hugs!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! It is always a pleasure to visit here and get caught up, just like a friend over coffee! Thank you for all that you share, it is always so delicious looking, sounding and I am sure always delicious!
I agree with you 2020 was such a strange year to pass through. It had trials and blessings that were so different from the past. Yesterday at church (we get to go now) someone prayed for our hearts to heal and I felt inside that it was the heart-break worldwide that was the worst result of 2020 and that yes, we all need to heal ourselves and heal others.
I agree with you that Jesus Christ is the source of healing and peace. Merry Christmas from SE Idaho! Your influence for good is strong and powerful. God bless and have a wonderful New Year. The parable of the cheeseball is so awesome. Thanks for sharing recipes and also the fun and sweet stories that go along with them.
Mel, thank you for being such a bright spot in the world! Merry Christmas!!
Perfectly said. That song is a favorite of mine as well. Thank you for all the light (and deliciousness) you put out into the world. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Mel,
Merry Christmas! I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoy for blog AND your recipes!
Merry Christmas, Mel! You are inspiring! Thank you for sharing your faith, talents and goodness! Wishing you and your family the best!
Merry Christmas and God Bless you and your family throughout 2021. Thank you for helping me feed my family these many years. You are so appreciated by many.
Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family! THANK YOU for all the amazing recipes that have filled our bellies and brought big smiles to our faces.
🙂 God bless you!
Merry Christmas Mel!
You inspire me! You help me to provide the best food for my family! Thank you for sharing so much with us!
Love this! You are the best. Merry Christmas! Hope 2021 is the best year yet for your family!
Becca
I call you “My Girlfriend Mel”!
Your posts are lovely. Your faith shines through in all that you do. Your family is wonderful and their pictures that you share are real and wholesome. I thank you for all of this.
I first met you in the form of sweet baked ham and have been hooked ever since!
With His Peace, His Love, and His Faithfulness….Thank you!
Martha
I know we don’t know each other personally although I do have picture with you from a few years back. My husband forced me to take it after one of your BYU lectures where you made your delicious salted caramels. He calls me a super fan. Lol! I just wanted to say I love you. My husband does too (he credits our good meals all to you). Thanks for your delicious recipes and gentle influence. I really adore you and appreciate all of the good you have brought into my life the past decade plus. Merry merry Christmas!
Dear Mel, Merry Christmas from Germany. Enjoy the holidays with your family and thanks for all you do and all the lovely recipes!
Mel,
God Bless you and your beautiful family. Merry Christmas! P.S. “Ditto” to everything you said in your post today.