Not only are cranberry desserts absolutely delish, they add a festive touch to your holiday table that most people can't resist. Cranberry pairs perfectly with orange and white chocolate and makes cookies and cakes especially yummy.

Below are my favorite Christmas cranberry dessert recipes from some very talented bloggers. I'm sure you'll find one or three that you will want to add to your holiday baking! Don't forget to pin this post to your holiday baking pin board!  

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It's been years since we've been to the state fair so this year we're hopefully going to get up to the Twin Cities for the Minnesota State Fair. Everyone just raves about the state fair here and now that we've been residents for over a year, I think we need to find out what all the excitement is about. I'm guessing it's all about the food though! 

Here are 10 State Fair foods you can make at home!

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Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, however I did receive products for my review. All opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.

Now that our new deck space is complete and the weather is nice, we've finally been able to spend some time out there. Holy heck does it get hot out there with the space being on the south side of the house - and I love it. I've already got a decent summer tan going on and every time I step out there, I feel like I'm on vacation. I have zero desire right now to "get away" and go on vacation. I want to vacation right here at home and spend time relaxing out on the deck, explore our new state of Minnesota, and hang out with our new friends. 

I've been seeing a ton of fun adult drinks on Pinterest lately and I wanted to try out something with fruit and wine. Although I prefer beer, when I do drink wine, I definitely fancy Moscato. 

Glass and disposable drinkware isn't going to cut it for entertaining out on our deck. Glass sweats and will heat up in the sun and disposable cups are not sturdy enough and could easily blow over. It gets pretty windy out on the deck since Rochester, MN is considered the 2nd windiest city in America according to Weather.com. 

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.
#MemoriesInTheBaking #CollectiveBias

This weekend I'm hosting my first ever cookie exchange here in our new state of Minnesota. Out of the 17 neighbors in our subdivision that I invited, I only know one of them. Sounds a little crazy and terrifying, huh? Our neighborhood is pretty new. There are houses going up all the time and those houses are filling up fast. Most of our neighbors who are new to the subdivision probably know just as many people as I do. If it wasn't for our neighbor Marla, who went out of her way to introduce herself and her extended family right away, even before our basement was dug, I would have been feeling even more homesick for my friends than I already was. We left behind some pretty awesome neighbors when we moved out of Wisconsin, but thanks to Marla, we have new equally awesome neighbors that we became fast friends with. Her grandsons play with my son, her son and my husband have been working on home projects together, and her daughter-in-law Jammie is stuck with me. :) 

For years and years I knew all of the neighbors around me so living in this new subdivision where I know only one neighbor has been hard on me. Last month I attended my new friend Alison's party (who I met through selling some household items from our last house) and at this party her mother and I got to talking about my new neighborhood. I was telling her how I don't really know anyone around us except one of our neighbors and she suggested I have a holiday open house. I left the party considering this idea but I wasn't sure our house could hold all of the families since we did downsize. I could however, invite the ladies in the neighborhood for a cookie exchange!

And that's exactly what I did. I made invites using PicMonkey by creating a "picture". I then got those pictures developed, hole punched one corner, and then tied a cookie cutter to the invite with some festive holiday ribbon. I even created a board on Pinterest and added the link on the invite for those that were looking for ideas.

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.
#SendHallmark #CollectiveBias

Christmas sure is going to be different for my family this year. This is the first year we are away from friends and family and it feels so odd, especially since I've been homesick for my friends lately. This is the first year I'm not attending my friend Kari's cookie exchange. The first year we're not attending the high school holiday choir concert. And the first year we're not making hundreds and hundreds of Italian chocolate cookies (<-- recipe there).

On the flip side though, this is the first year we don't have to juggle schedules. The first year we don't spend more time away from home than at home. The first year it's just going to be us. And ya know what? I am totally looking forward to it!

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