Our crazy Christmas season

We are so blessed to have a wonderful family and so many amazing friends and for that I am truly BLESSED!  Here is a look at some of the fun things and (not so fun) we did during our crazy holiday season.

Kevin worked about 60+ hours every week delivering packages for UPS.

Jennifer worked a lot of hours helping her mom with Hearts Desire Gift Baskets....it was the biggest year ever for Hearts Desire!

Makenzie and Kylan worked their very first jobs for Hearts Desire and they both earned several paychecks.

We went to several Christmas parties

Legacy Project Christmas Party

Heritage Homeschool Christmas party

Heritage ugly sweater Christmas party-parents only

Lights at Rhema

Boy's Club 1st annual Christmas party

(they watched Cars 2)

Girls Club 4th Annual Christmas Tea

(pics are courtesy of Christy from Mom of 2 Girly Girlz)

5th annual movie with Grammy and gingerbread house making day

We saw Arthur Christmas, it was really cute!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Wedemeyer's house

Christmas at our house and with Grammy

The kids giving each other a  little Christmas lovin!

My mixer...whoooooohoooo!

Christmas lunch with Grammy

Whew, it was a crazy, crazy Christmas season but we didn't forget about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, it's about celebrating Jesus' birth!  We always make a Happy Birthday cake or cupcakes for Jesus.

Thanks for reading,

  

New Recipe of the week 10-Garlic chicken farfalle

We shop at Aldi a lot and a couple of weeks ago they had a bunch of different types of pasta for a great price so I bought them all and I'm trying out different recipes with each pasta.  This week I made Garlic Chicken Farfalle and if you don't know what farfalle is then I'll let you in on a little secret, it's just a fancy name for bow tie pasta.

My homeschool group had a MNO (mom's night out) this week and it was a crock pot party.  Very fun idea by some creative ladies in our group.  Everyone brings their favorite crock pot recipe and  copies for everyone else then we eat, vote on the best recipe and make a cookbook out of all the recipes.

GARLIC CHICKEN FARFALLE 16 oz. Farfalle pasta
1 c. heavy whipping cream
3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed OR garlic salt (I do a spoonful of crushed garlic)
1 Tbsp. pepper*
1/2 c. butter
1 lb. bacon, crumpled**
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (12 oz) Lawry’s mesquite marinade with lime juice
*Seems like a lot of pepper, but it has a wonderful flavor when everything mixes together. If you’re apprehensive, do less pepper. You can always add more. ( I changed mine to 1/2 tbsp)
**We like to cook our bacon in the oven (400 degrees, convection). Way less messy. And it’s crispy every time. Time varies, so you just have to watch it. I think it’s usually around 30 minutes. Allow to cool and then crumple (I totally wear disposable gloves for this part – surprise, surprise).
[ directions ]
Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred (I pull it apart). Set this aside. About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded Parmesan cheese on top.

This is the chicken after it's cooked with the Lawry's seasoning.

Making the cream sauce

Cream sauce, noodles and bacon on top of the chicken

This is what it looks like totally finished, it was so good and simple to make!

Our finished cookbooks

Some of my wonderful home school group moms


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