Busy People's Fun, Fast, Festive Christmas Cookbook
Christmas Eve Appetizer and Dessert Buffet Menu
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Holiday Punch Bowl
What's unique about this punch is the way I use ordinary ingredients in extraordinary ways to make this special for the holidays. I've never seen another punch like it.

2

 empty ice cube trays

24

 red maraschino cherries
24 green maraschino cherries 1/2 (2-liter) sugar-free lemon-lime soda, chilled, plus enough for the ice cube trays
1/2 (2-liter) sugar-free red raspberry soda, chilled 1 (64-ounce) container light cranberry juice cocktail (2/3 less sugar), chilled
1 quart frozen raspberry sherbet    

Put 1 red cherry and 1 green cherry into every empty mold in the ice cube tray. Usually there are about 12 ice cube molds per tray.
Pour just enough lemon-lime soda into every ice cube mold to fill it. The cherries may rise and that is okay.
Freeze for about 2 hours or until ice cubes are completely frozen. To save time, I freeze these ahead of time and store in a zip-top plastic bag.
Once you are ready to assemble your punch, place the ice cubes in the bottom of the punch bowl.
Pour 1/2 a 2-liter bottle of sugar-free lemon-lime soda, 1/2 a 2-liter bottle of sugar-free red raspberry soda, and the cranberry juice into the punch bowl.
Using an ice cream scoop, make balls of sherbet and place them into the punch bowl.
Place the ladle in the punch bowl and the cups around the bowl. Serve immediately.
Yield: 20 (1-cup) servings.
Calories: 88; Fat: 0g; Percent Fat Calories: 0%; Cholesterol: 0mg; Carbohydrate: 20g; Dietary Fiber: 0g; Protein: 0g; Sodium: 59mg; Diabetic Exchanges: 1-1/2 other carbohydrate
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Freezing time: 2 hours
Total time: 2 hours 10 minutes