Our Christmas Celebration

We made it through Christmas! I don't know what it was this year but I just wanted to get through it. My body was telling me I was overly anxious and stressed. I wasn't sure why but apparently it was Christmas because by dinner time on Christmas all the tension in my body finally went away.  It didn't help that on Christmas eve Boo thought she should be awake from 1ish to 4 ish in the morning. That made me super stressed about making it through Christmas day...when I knew a nap wasn't going to really fit in the picture that day. Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely day. 

Here's how we celebrated:

Christmas Eve we had fondue for dinner. And then afterwards we did a Christmas Minute to Win It game.

Jingle Box..they had to shake all the jingle bells out of the box.

 Holiday Kiss- Had to hang the ornament on a string

 Reindeer Nose Dive- had to get the red pom pom to stick to your nose with vaseline.

 Nutstacker..Boo trying to do it after GG and I did it. I won. :)

For Christmas my sister got a crazy idea to do a 12 days of Christmas dinner. That means 12 items that some how correlated with the 12 days. That is A LOT of FOOD. Thankfully, we started around 2:00 with 12 chicken wings drumsticks (?) (12 drummers drumming) and worked our way through the day and ended with a Pear Tart (partridge in a pear tree) around 8:00.  It turned out more lovely than I anticipated. Somethings really didn't relate...some how we ended up with Shirley Temples for 10 Lords a Leaping (????).   But it was a lovely 5 course dinner with some yummy foods- Butternut squash soup, who knew it would be so good? In love.

We are looking forward to another week and a half of just relaxing...and hopefully getting some exercising in after all that eating we've been doing! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was wonderful but I'm thankful it's over too.  ahh sigh.

Passing time

I feel like its been awhile since I've posted.  Just haven't been sure if I've had anything worth blogging about. Thanksgiving was wonderful. It is one of my favorite holidays. I think Christmas will become one of my favorites now that Boo is barely learning that there is such a thing as Christmas. I think next year she'll understand it and maybe remember what's coming and get excited about it.

We have a wooden advent calender we bought from Target a few years back. It has little doors for the 25 days and on top is a wooden nativity scene. We have it up on top of our entertainment center. We get it down so that she can find the candy. After I put it back up one day she said, "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!!" I love that she was asking for Baby Jesus for something she wanted...granted it was candy.

I think I should share some recipes that I've made recently.

Taco Salad-My mother in law introduced it to me when we visited this last summer. One of my friends shared  her recipe for Taco salad but it called for Thousand Island dressings and it reminded me of the salad my mother in law made with Catalina dressing. Its soo good and easy. Well, really its just throwing stuff together, I really don't remember what the actual recipe said.

Lettuce
Ground meat browned and seasoned with Taco Seasoning (I did a little less than a packet for a approximately 1 pound of hamburger)
Can of Kidney Beans
Tomatoes, cut.
Fritos
almost 1/2 a bottle of catalina dressing
probably could throw in some cheese too, maybe even top it with sour cream. maybe.

Mix it all together in a bowl.


Another Recipe I received from a friend from our recipe group was for Chicken Milan. We made this Sunday night and we really enjoyed it. The chicken was fantastic. I was a little weary since there wasn't a sauce for the noodles but they had spices. I was delighted with the results. If you like Olive Garden like foods, I think you'll like this one.

Chicken Milan

Prep/total time: 20 mins

8 ounces uncooked linguine

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, sauté garlic in 1 tablespoon oil for 1 minute or until tender; stir in parsley and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Remove to a small bowl and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, basil, salt and remaining pepper. In another shallow bowl, whisk the eggs. Dredge chicken strips in flour mixture, then dip in eggs.

In the same skillet, cook chicken in remaining oil over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink. Drain linguine and place on a serving platter. Pour reserved garlic mixture over linguine and toss to coat; top with chicken. Yield: 6 servings.

Enjoy friends.