Auntie Kim's Party Punch

It's almost Christmas eve, which means party time over here at the Peony Farmhouse!

We have an accidental family tradition that we look forward to every year... on Christmas eve, we always do all-appetizers for dinner! It actually started over a decade ago. We were spending our first Christmas at home on our own. Up until that point, we'd always travelled to visit family, but the nature of working in healthcare means you work on the holidays. That happened to be our situation that particular year. We knew we were planning a Christmas dinner with all the fixin's the next day, so when I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner on Christmas eve, he suggested appetizers. What a fabulous idea! So that night, a family tradition was accidentally born.

Now it's become one of the things we look forward to every year. Everyone in the family gets to pick a few things they'd like, then we cook it all up, and then do dinner buffet-style. It's been quite a hit, and some of our friends have even started doing it now!

A family staple on appetizer night is ALWAYS party punch! We serve this at nearly every big or fun gathering we have. The son of a friend always calls me Auntie Kim, and we served it at a birthday party they attended. The whole batch was gone pretty quickly as all the guests went back for 3 and 4 cups of punch... lots of jokes were made about how good it was, hence how it got it's name... Auntie Kim's Party Punch.

The base recipe is always the same...

• (1) 2-liter of Ginger Ale or 7-up (your choice - I prefer Ginger Ale)

• (1) large can of pineapple juice (they usually come in 46-64 oz & are found in the soda/juice aisle of the grocery store)

• (2) qts of lemonade - regular or raspberry (or) Raspberry soda

Combine all three ingredients in a large punch bowl, and serve chilled. I like to keep all my beverages in the fridge until time to serve so it's cold, but you could also freeze some of the pineapple juice into ice cubes prior to serving.

You can also jazz it up with some of these fun optional ideas below depending on the time of the year.

• Sherbert Ice Cream (quantity is to your taste)

• Sparkling Grape Juice instead of pineapple juice

• Favorite Juices frozen into ice cubes

• Fresh Fruits (lemons, oranges, etc.)

• Berries (strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, etc.)

• Sprigs of Rosemary, Cinnamon Sticks

• Candy canes draping the bowl at Christmas

• the possibilities are endless

We have also changed out the raspberry lemonade for different flavors of sodas or juice mixes to get various colors or flavors (like lime for Grinch & Ninja Turtle themed parties). We love citrus-y flavors in the spring and summer months, and more berry flavors in the cooler months.

You really can't mess this up, and there's an endless amount of combinations you can add!

If you give it a try, make sure to share it on social media & tag @ThePeonyFarmhouse so we can see all your fun combinations!