A Sweet Christmas Treat–Cherry Limeade Recipe

As a part of our homeschool experience, my children are involved in a once-a-week tutorial program.  The wonderful tutorial my kids attend gives them a day of enrichment–art, music, drama, creative writing, Bible, science lab, and PE for my daughter, and some very intense math, history, and English classes for my son.  So even though I thought I’d hung up my “Room Mom” credentials a few years ago, it turns out that the tutorial program has a Christmas party, too.  And hey, I’m not going to be a Scrooge about it–we should celebrate Christmas every chance we get, in my opinion!

The seventh graders in my son’s class were craving a little sugar this morning (when are they not?!). They start the day with algebra and need all the energy they can muster.  I found some darling red and white striped paper straws at Home Goods last week and decided I wanted to contribute a drink so I could use them.

I’m addicted to Sonic’s cherry limeade, and I’ve tried a few different recipes before.  This is a tweak of several of them, but you might want to taste as you go since some like it sweet and some like it tart!

~Cherry Limeade~

1 Two-liter lemon-lime soda

1 jar maraschino cherries

1 c. fresh lime juice (Yes, you can cheat and use the bottled kind!  No judgment here!)

1/2 c. sugar (more or less to taste)

Mix all the ingredients together, including the juice from the jar of cherries, and stir until the sugar dissolves.  I cheated this morning and used bottled lime juice, although the fresh really does taste better.  When I use fresh limes, I cut them up after I juice them and throw them into the mix–they look so pretty with the cherries.  If you don’t have limes or lime juice, a can of frozen limeade concentrate will do in a pinch, although this will make a tarter batch of cherry limeade.  It’s not rocket science, though!

The fun part is garnishing the glass and the pitcher.  Of course, I pulled out my darling striped straws, and some red and white napkins from Target.  I used one of my favorite printables EVER–the “Drink Me” Mad-Hatter-inspired labels–to dress up the pitcher, along with a red ribbon {visit Betsy at B. Nute Productions to print out the Eat Me/ Drink Me labels–clicking the photo below will take you to her site.  While you’re there, take a look around–her other stuff is *awesome*}.

They downed the entire pitcher, so it looks like it was a hit!

Thanks for stopping by!