Merry Christmas
Oh, friends.
What a year.
2021 hit the record for being the year where I felt the most stretched, the most worried, the most unbalanced, the most heartbroken, the most challenged, the most changed…and probably not-so-surprisingly, also, the most blessed.
As we approach Christmas, truly my favorite time of the year, I would be very remiss (and selfish) if I didn’t express my gratitude for all the goodness in my life.
Above all, namely a loving God in heaven who consistently, carefully, and caringly nurtures me and my tender spirit day after day after day. I would be lost without Him.
I am grateful to be in the midst of this holiday season where I am reminded beautifully again and again that I would also be nothing without the sweet babe who came to this earth many years ago. My faith and hope in Him has never wavered, even when so many other things have felt uncertain.
The world is crazy. Jesus Christ is not. That is my motto for this year. 🙂
Also super intensely grateful for this family of mine. We aren’t perfect. We have some sharp edges and messy spots. But we’ve learned a lot together as a family this year, and I’m proud of each one of these humans for the patience, love, and grace they’ve extended to each other and to me.
Also, Brian. Hi, I love you. Sorry I chose a picture without you in it.
I am also endlessly grateful for those of you who are here. Who check in with your comments and messages and emails. Who support me and what I do, and who allow me to be human and “more than just a food blogger.”
I know it’s mildly cheesy (it’s the holidays, so I get a cheesy pass) because I don’t know many of you in real life, but the kindness and friendship you continually extend to me virtually has enriched my life in more ways that I can adequately detail. Thank you for sharing pieces of your life and story with me.
I hope this holiday season brings you and your loved ones the peace that is so deeply desired and deserved.
Merry, Merry Christmas.
Also, I thought it would be fun to pull up some of the Merry Christmas posts I’ve done in years past.
Excuse me while I weep for days gone by. Look at all those wittle babies! That’s what happens when you start food blogging with toddlers. Twelve years later and they are gigantic.
Love all of your guts…thanks so much for being here year after year after year.
Thank you Mel for your honest Christmas message! My name is also Melanie and my family and I are living in Germany, but still I often try the wonderful recipes from this homepage. Thanks a lot! God bless you and your whole house, may Jesus give you strengts for every day and joy that overflows!
Mel from Germay 🙂
Just wanted to belatedly say thank you for this blog and all the wonderful recipes. They really saved me this holiday season (rolls, cookies, caramels, and desserts all from you) and have countless weeks when I need something dependable and tasty to make for dinner. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Love your motto, recipes and thoughts.
I’m a little late to the party, and besides echoing so many of the comments below, I wanted to say that your family/kid pictures are beautiful! Raising a family is the hardest job, but it is the most important job. For the children are our future. Each child is a true blessing.
Thanks for being you and my BFF in the kitchen! 🙂 I love your blog and being a part of it, love hearing stories of your life and family. Glad to know in these crazy times that there are kindred spirits dotted throughout the U.S. and the world.
“The world is crazy. Jesus Christ is not. That is my motto for this year.” I am in agreement too and LOVE your motto. So thankful to Christ Jesus who was my pillar of strength this past year when my husband was hospitalized after his first Pfizer COVID vaccine and came home with a stroke affecting the left side of his body and lost his job as a hospital Chaplain. The Lord gave me a peace that surpasses all understanding, the kind that only He can give. He move us to a warmer climate where my hubby could recover and provided a promotional job for me to support the family. So grateful for his provisions.
Mel, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for sharing your faith, family and love for food with all of us. I’ve been following you for over 8 years now and have enjoyed every moment of it from tears to laughter I am right there with you.
Thank you for being real, authentic , and a bright spot in my day. I have never made a recipe from your site that I haven’t loved. Merry Christmas.
Your are Heavenly Father’s instrument. You have made His blessings possible in many things that you do for us. Thank you and may you and your family be blessed in the year ahead!
Merry Christmas, Mel! Our family loves your cooking style, and I feel like you’re a friend I could really sit down and chat with. God’s best to your family from ours. Denise Masters
Merry Christmas! I have to agree that this year has been very crazy, worrisome, and almost without direction. We can only wrap our arms around our family, keep friends close, and keep our faith focused on our Savior to guide our future. I have never felt more in his care than now. We will look to the future of a New Year, with faith, hope, and trust.
What a beautiful sentiment, Annette ✝️
I have to say thank you! Merry Christmas!
Mel,
Amen…….to all of it.
A very merry, blessed Christmas to you and yours. I love the recipes on your blog, and find they are consistently one I return to again & again. It is sometime bittersweet, remembering your children when they were growing, but now I have grandchildren (such a blessing) who are as tall as me, or getting there. Have, most of the time, learned to appreciate the stage of life at this moment in time.
You are a blessing! Your message is just what I needed to hear this morning. I came for a recipe, but as I so often do, I’m leaving uplifted and full of gratitude. I just love you! Merry Christmas to you and your dear family.
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Christ, and for sharing your talents with us all. Thanks for sticking with this blog for so long and helping us all become rockstars in the kitchen. All the best to you and your family in the coming year.
Merry Christmas Mel! I love your motto and live it daily. I don’t know you but I’ve followed your blog for ten years and you have enriched our dinners and I am always laughing at your hilarious retelling of your parenting moments that parallel my own. Now ten years later my 13 year old daughter goes straight to your site to bake stuff, she is blessing our family this Christmas with four Mels pumpkin pies and 2 apple pies. You are more than just a food blogger to us. May Jesus Christ bless you and keep you and your family this coming year.
Merry Christmas Mel! You have a beautiful family, and your love for each other is visible!
Thank you for all the wonderful recipes. My daughter calls your website Mel’s Magic Kitchen, because everything we have made has been terrific!
Blessings to you in 2022. I love your motto!
Merry Christmas, Mel! You have been a staple in my family’s and friends’ lives for years and we’re so grateful for you!! Thank you for sharing delicious food with a side helping of real life and spirituality.
My BYU roomies and I joke about planning a girls trip to come visit you. Would that be weird?
Mel,
God bless you and your family and wishes for a very merry Christmas and continued blessings in the new year. Your posts are a highlight for me and have been beautiful bright spots for me. Thanks for all you share!!
Mel, thanks for the energy, delicious recipes, and genuine humanity you pour into your little corner of the internet. It’s been a hard year! I was just about to spend a couple days going crazy with Christmas cookie baking and meal prep, and then I got a positive COVID test. I’m the only one sick in my home so far (thank you, God) so I will spend Christmas quarantined in my bedroom. Grateful for the roof under which I can isolate! We had a small extended family gathering in which everyone was vaxxed, boosted, and tested beforehand. And still… Have a wonderful Christmas, Mel!
Merry Christmas to you and yours. Thank you for being real. I have followed you forever, and love your openess with us all.
Merry Christmas to you too! Prayers for a healthy and joyous 2022!!
Thank you for sharing yourself with your fans! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you as well! I loved reading this!
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family. Your words are always heartfelt and inspiring. I am grateful for you and your blog. I’m glad you share the more human moments.
Merry Christmas, Mel! Thank you for always sharing such wonderful thoughts.❤️❤️❤️
I love your blog. I love reading the recipes and making many of them. I’ve used many of your gift ideas. Most of all I love your honesty and willingness to share your personal stories, feelings, and testimony of Jesus Christ. Many times those have brought me to tears
– Holly and The Parable of the Cheeseball – come to mind. I am going to share your motto – The world is crazy. Jesus Christ is not.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!
Merry Christmas to you! I don’t comment that often, but my family enjoys many of your recipes, and I always enjoy reading your blog posts. Can’t wait to see what you have in store for 2022!
Merry Christmas to you and your family. I enjoy reading your posts. Real food that real people eat!
Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Thank you for sharing your life and your amazing recipes. You are definitely right, the world is crazy and so many of us need Jesus!! I hope 2022 brings continued joy and love to your life. Also, I now believe that my small farm needs pigs and donkeys:)
I have been following your recipes for many years and I don’t blog or Facebook etc. I just have loved to cook and bake since I started with mud pies LITERALLY, 68 years ago! My mother was a wonderful cook/baker and shared her love with many, through gifts from her kitchen and at the same time sharing her strong faith in Jesus! By the grace of God, I too, have her gifts of sharing my kitchen abilities and thusly sharing Jesus. Now I hopefully have also passed that down through my sons and their families.I thank Him for you and your gifts and witness! God bless you and yours!
Merry Christmas!!! And A deep felt thank you for all you give. ❤️
What the heck do your kiddos get the nerve to be looking so grown-up?
Your name and your recipes are a staple in our home. I talk about you like we are friends I.
Merry Christmas and here’s to a wonderful 2022!
Merry Christmas-to you and your beautiful family, Mel! Love your motto! I just may borrow that one from time to time!
Best,
Lori
Thank you for all that you share, Mel. I’m making your cheesy broccoli soup right now–we just love it! Whenever I’m looking for a recipe, it’s to you that I turn. Thank you for sharing more than just your recipes. Wishing you a very merry Christmas !!
Mel, I’ve followed you for more than a few years now, and I still discover new recipes! I so enjoy all your posts, recipes or not. Thank you and wishing you the peace and joy of this season each and every day.
I just returned from a small gathering of relatives who talked about how much they still enjoyed meals that my mother made. My mom was a great cook, but I rarely make anything she used to make. I make stuff YOU make. Thanks for changing my life.
Mel,
Thanks so much for everything you do, for sharing yourself with us and making this world a better place.
Merry Christmas to you & family!
“The world is crazy. Jesus Christ is not” I love that! And you, Mel! Thanks for sharing your light and love (and insanely good recipes) with all of us here. Also, I “introduced” my toddler to you when I was looking up one of your recipes yesterday and I told her you’re the reason we eat good food, haha! Thanks for that. Merry Christmas, Mel.
Mel, I think I stumbled onto your blog when you first started it as “www.mykitchencafe.” I love all your stories behind your recipes and how you got so many from your Aunt Marilyn.
Oh my goodness! I love looking at those pics. I’ve been following you since before Cam was born. Thank you for the light, goodness, and “yumminess” you share with the world, Mel! Thank you for sharing your love of God and of our Savior. I love your guts right back! Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2022. (P.S. It was fun to find my comments on past Christmas posts. I haven’t been as present on your blog for awhile because of some dietary restrictions in my life, BUT I still make several of your recipes on a regular basis!)
Thanks for being more than a food blogger. I’ve needed more than food this year, and your blog is always good for my soul!! I too am grateful that Jesus is constant, loving and kind; and for the peace that brings in this messed up crazy world! Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
I just love your comment and totally agree with you. I’ve been following for quite some time and what I love most? She’s more than a food blogger! I’ve never met her yet I feel like she’s my friend that we chat with and share things with.
Merry Christmas Marie!
Darlene
How does anyone make it in this world without the love of God who gave us Jesus.
I wish you a merry Christmas and your family I live in a place where I see kids being born and the same kids growing up and I have cooked for a lot of my neighbors I have cooked a lot of your deserts and I still have the bigger kids knocking on my door so you are helping me with new recipes thank you and Merry Christmas again sandy
The parable of the cheeseball always comes to mind this time of year.
Merry Christmas. Thank you for years of turning me into a decent cook. Everybody knows if something turns out well to ask “Is this Mel’s?” 🙂
Hope 2022 is a happy, healthy, calmer one for all of us.
“The world is crazy. Jesus Christ is not.” AMEN and Praise God!
Merry Christmas!
The past pics are priceless! Merry Christmas to you and your family. I have made so many of your recipes this year and I’m so thankful you make my life easier! Happy New Year!
Thank you dear girl for just being you. Perfect you.
My mother with her deep faith always said…..Better days ahead!
Enjoy every minute with your family!!
Melanie Rohar