Creamy Chicken Florentine

Usually, the weekend after Thanksgiving is a blur of me trying to put up all the Christmas decorations.  Each of the girls get their own tree, there's one in the dining room, one in the lving room, and even one in the playroom!  In past years, I have stressed myself out trying to get everything up and out of the way.  I end up in such a hurry that no one else really gets to participate. Feed yourselves, people, I'm busy! The perfectionist in me demands that everything look a certain way, which usually means I am dictating orders to everyone else.  After a little self-examination, I decided to slow things down a bit and add back in the fun.

I've never wanted a real tree.  It seemed like such a hassle!  Sap, needles, it not being a perfect triangle.....(I have issues, I know!).  This year, in my quest to bring back the magic to Christmas, I decided to completely change it up.  We went to a farm to cut down our own tree!  Ken raised his eyebrows at me, thinking I was not going to be able to handle the spontaneity.  The day was beautiful, with crisp air and bright sun.  It did take a little while to find one that met my qualifications, but I think we did alright!  Afterwards, we enjoyed an apple donut and hot apple cider.  Oh what fun!!  We may have started a new tradition. 

Upon arriving home, we were chilled to the bone, and needed something quick, creamy and warm to fill our bellies.  After scouring the fridge, here is what I made.

CREAMY CHICKEN FLORENTINE

1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 oz fresh baby spinich
3 cups chicken broth
8 oz cream cheese
4 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1 T cornstarch
1 T olive oil
1 lb bowtie pasta
Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in large saute pan, saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.  Add garlic, cook 1 minute more.  Add spinach, cook 2-3 minutes until spinach has wilted.  Add chicken, and stir to combine.  Add chicken broth, heat until just to a boil. 

In a small bowl, wisk together cornstarch with a few tablespoons of the hot broth from the pan until their are no lumps.  Wisk into the pan, stirring until the broth thickens.  Reduce heat to low.  Cut cream cheese into chunks and wisk into the pan, until sauce is nice a creamy.  Heat through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

When pasta is done, add directly to pan and combine.  Top with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.  Serves 6.

 

 

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Fabulous Felt Ornaments

One of the most stressful things about gift giving in the holiday season?  Those small gifts we have to give to everyone that is involved in our lives one way or the other...mailperson, teachers, milkman, neighbors, hostess gifts.  I always feel like they are so impersonal.  Does the mailperson really want a Starbucks gift card....again???

I feel like at the end of the day, I've spent a whole lot of money on these small gifts that no one really wants or remembers.  My mission this year is two-fold---spend less money, and be meaningful!  Oh wait, I aslo don't want to spend forever on getting this done.

Pinterest is the answer to my prayers.  I mean really.  My life was meaningless before Pinterest.  There are so many ideas for cute, clever, handmade gifts.  And ideas for snacks to eat while making said gifts.  There are so many that I want to try!

I saw this pin depicting cute Christmas tree ornaments made from felt on Etsy.  Click here.

Instantly I remembered some ornaments on my mom’s tree that she had made when I was a baby.  I thought to myself, “Self, you can make those!”  So, I was off to Hobby Lobby to investigate.  I picked up some felt, embroidery floss, thread, and some small buttons.  I thought I could use some batting that I already had.  When I got home I set about making a template.  I just drew out my simple shapes on cardstock and cut them out.

 

After cutting out the template, I cut two of each shape out of my chosen felt.  I took one of the Christmas trees and sewed buttons on them to look like ornaments.

 

 

Then I attached the stems to each tree piece, taking care to make sure that both tree pieces match up.   I cut out some batting to put in between my two pieces of felt, so the ornament would be more puffy.  This step is entirely optional.  Making sure the pretty sides were facing out, I sewed the two trees together.  A straight stitch can be used all the way around.  Or even a blanket stitch.

Then I thought, why couldn’t I make a monogram oranament??  I opened up a Word document, found a suitable font (cooper black) and size (375 for mine).  Print and cut.

 

 

Here’s a pic of how I sewed the edges together.  Make sure to sew in a ribbon at the top to hang it!

I was pretty satisfied with my efforts!  I needed more ideas.  Back to Pinterest.  I found these cute felt ornaments.  Please check out this link!  Click here.

I of course had to change it up a bit, so mine look like this!

 

Then, just like I always do, I have to take it too far!  LOL.  I scoured Pinterest for felt ornament templates and coloring page printables that might be useful and/or inspirational for my own ornaments.  Here are some that I used...

Felt Ornament Templates

Coloring Template 1

Coloring Template 2

There are so many ideas out there on Pinterest.  See what inspires you!

By now my mind was reeling with all the possibilities.  I could include these with my small gifts! Include one with that bottle of wine brought as a hostess gift!  I could make some fancy ones for my mom!  I could make my newest niece some animals!   I think the best thing about these is that they are quick and can be as simple or as difficult as you want to make them.  They provide almost instant gratification, and don’t require lugging out a lot of supplies.  Here are some of my finished ornaments.

So, I have a tendancy to get a little obsessed with these things.  So, I thought, while I am sitting at the table working on these, wouldn’t it be great if the kids could get in on the fun??  So, while they are too young to sew, I thought paper, glue and stickers would be great.  I gathered some Christmas and winter themed scrapbook paper and stickers.  So, using simple shapes inspired by the shapes of the ornaments I was making, the kids were able to create their own!  These ornaments can go on your own Christmas tree, or even gifts to teachers or grandmas and grandpas!

 

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My Quest to Reclaim Christmas

I used to love Christmas.  As soon as the Thanksgiving plates were cleared, I was in full Christmas mode. Queuing up the Christmas music, playing carols on the piano.  The hustle and the bustle of the stores, the beautiful lights.  The cold, crisp air.  Oh, the magic of it all!

Then I got married and had kids.

It seemed as every year went by, the stress of the holiday season became greater and greater.  It started as soon as Ken and I got married.  Trying to juggle each other’s family traditions and finding time for them all proved quite complicated.  Every year involved a huge discussion deciding just how our time would be split up between our families.  And it didn’t just affect our own families—the domino effect of all the extended family involved made scheduling the holidays a near impossibility.  Tensions would rise on every side.  I would inevitably end up having a huge meltdown.  Usually on the way over to whoever won the coin toss that year.  Three years into our marriage Ken exclaimed, “It’s not Christmas unless Jen is crying!”  (Nice.)  (But also true.)

When the kids came along, I was spending Christmas Eve driving all over Northern Illinois, kids (and all their stuff) in tow.  I spent all day (and night) making sure the kids were not breaking anything, were behaving, not eating all the cookies.  At two a.m., when the last present was opened (yes, one at a time!), I was a hot mess.  My husband was a hot mess.  The kids were a hot mess.  This sucked.

Then when we arrived home, I would set out a mountain of toys out from Santa, and Ken would spend an eternity putting together all the last minute big-ticket items.  (Think play kitchens, tricycles, wagons, Scooby-Doo Mansions.)  I would help (usually by falling asleep on the couch).  Finally off to bed by five, the kids would awake two hours later, eager to see the fruits of Santa’s visit.  I loved to see them so excited, don’t get me wrong.  But ten minutes in, even they didn’t want to open up any more presents.  And I would be looking at the clock, rushing them along.  After all, whatever family lost the coin toss yesterday was coming over today.  I would have a dinner to prepare, with all the trimmings.  All the gifts from yesterday and from Santa needed to be put away.  (Because my house would NOT be a mess!!) A new set of holiday dresses, and yes, more presents.

I began to loathe Christmas.  I would see the decorations in the store after Halloween (really, isn’t that a little early?) and a feeling of dread would come over me.  Immediately the lists would start forming in my head—pictures need to be taken of the girls for Christmas cards, teachers’ gifts, family lists, what to get my mom, all the holiday parties, menus, cookies… Everything that I had loved about Christmas was gone, and all that remained was panic.

Last year, I had enough.  After a rough year of job changes and long hours, I was mentally incapable of dealing with the holiday drama.  If it were not for my kids, I would not have even put up the tree.  I told Ken, we will go to one house on Christmas Eve.  We will have the other set of grandparents for an uncomplicated meal late on Christmas Day.  No one else.  With no huge obligations to speak of on Christmas Day, we stayed in our pajamas until noon.  We hung out!  We relaxed!  The kids actually played with the toys they received!  I think I might be on to something here…

This year I am taking it further.  I’m on a quest to reclaim Christmas!  Those moments of magic were getting buried under all the, well, crap.  Too many presents.  Too much trying to jam it all in and missing everything that’s important about Christmas.  I know I can’t change all of it.  But I can make it better.  I can stop buying my kids piles of presents, and just get a few, meaningful ones.  I can stop trying to do everything, and just do a few things….really well.  I can pause and make sure we are spending time together as a family, whether it’s enjoying a meal together or doing a craft with the kids.  I can take a deep breath and look around and enjoy it all.  I’m going to get that magic back! 

So join me this holiday season as I explore simple ways to put the meaning back into Christmas.  We’ll do some crafts, we’ll make some homemade gifts, we’ll save some money, and we will certainly have some delicious food.  Hopefully by the end, the merry will be back in Christmas, and the bah humbug out!

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