Our Family Holiday Party with Ragu {$300 Giveaway!}

Living hours away from my family is tough. I can’t stop by for a visit or go shopping with my mom when I want to. I can’t invite everyone over for dinner or have an impromptu game night. But thankfully they are close enough that I can go for a visit a few times each year. This year I decided to organize a family holiday party and going against tradition, I served an Italian meal.

As a Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner Ambassador I have enjoyed experimenting with new recipes and learning more about the Ragu brand. I even visited New York City for the first time thanks to the great people at Ragu! As a part of my ambassadorship I was to throw two parties featuring Ragu products. I had the first party for my birthday in August and it was a lot of fun. The second party was our Family Holiday Party held in mid-December.

I decided to keep our party menu fairly simple. I made Three Cheese Baked Ziti using one of Ragu’s recipes. I also served salad with Italian dressing and garlic bread.

It was delicious! For dessert I was planning on make a tiramisu cake but I ran out of time. Instead I purchased this gorgeous cake and some red velvet cupcakes.

Everyone really enjoyed their meal and I loved spending some quality time with my favorite people – my family!

As a thank you for coming to the party I put together some fun gift packs to hand out. Each gift pack included a jar of Ragu sauce, a spaghetti measuring tool, a box of spaghetti, parmesan cheese and a kitchen towel. I packaged everything inside a handy plastic kitchen storage container. Everyone loved their gifts, including my uncle Sam!

I have had so much fun as a Mom’s the Word on Dinner Ambassador for Ragu. I have learned what works at dinnertime for other moms and what doesn’t. I have met some of the other Mom’s the Word on Dinner Ambassadors. And I have even spoken with one of Ragu’s farmers to learn more about how the tomatoes are grown and harvested for the sauce. (more on that coming in soon!)

If you haven’t already, I would suggest you like Ragu on Facebook. There are many great discussions going on where you can learn tips about making dinnertime a success. You can also talk directly with the folks at Ragu, I’m sure they would love to hear from you!