Stocking Up and Waiting

I hope that you all have had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did here. The boys were so into Christmas this year - from looking at lights, to hearing about the Christmas story, seeing Santa, and all the fun of anticipating that one special day. I will share some pics from our day here in a few. I felt sort of like a big Scrooge on Christmas night. The hubs was at work, the house was quiet, and all I could think about was that I could sit and watch absolutely nothing on TV - because let's face it, nothing is on Christmas night - or I could be productive. Well, I chose the latter and took down all the decorations. It all went back into boxes and on shelves in the garage until next year. I have never had the urge to rip down decorations on Christmas night. However, I have never been 38 weeks pregnant on Christmas, either. There has been some serious nesting going on around here. Things are clean, organized, and today I tackled freezer meals. In 3 hours, some serious damage was done. I thought I would share the results. I tried to pick recipes that were easy, would make more than one dish, and didn't have a ton of prep. I ended up with this plus a bag of cooked, chopped chicken breasts which will be perfect for casseroles or chicken salad:

Here are the links and yields for each:

Roast Beef and Ham Freezer Sandwiches - I got 12 sandwiches (and I totally used the Cheese Whiz)
Baked Ziti - I did one large pan instead of 2 smaller ones, but you can do whichever works best
Poppy seed Chicken - I divided this into 2 round pans, left off the topping - will add crackers, butter, and poppy seeds right before baking
Cheesy Black Bean and Chicken Enchiladas - I got one large pan and one small pan of these
Crock pot Orange Chicken - this was super easy, no cooking before required, just mix and put in bag
Chicken Pot Pie - I got 3 small round pans. I should have done one more, but I didn't have enough crusts. As it stands now, I still need to place a top crust on the pies before baking but no biggie.

Most of these recipes came from the Six Sisters site. Press here for the link to 50 freezer-friendly dishes. After this bambino comes, I don't really want to have to think about meal planning and this will surely help. Now for the fun stuff.

I said earlier that Christmas was exciting for the boys this year. Jason and I don't go overboard with toys and stuff for them. A)I think that is just dumb to spend excessive amounts of money on toys B) I can't stand clutter C) they don't need a bunch of crap that they aren't going to play with D) that is NOT the meaning of Christmas. That list is in no particular order, mind you, since the last reason should be #1. After all was said and done, they got new toys and books and have enjoyed playing with all of them. Everything happily has a place which makes this OCD Mama very happy. Here are some pictures of the boys at their Christmas program at school and of our Christmas morning.

The Christmas Orange

And while we are talking Christmas, may I just say that at our house Santa does not wrap. I mean, ain't nobody got time for that! Everything is already assembled, those annoying plastic doo hickies meant to make saints curse removed, batteries in place, and toys ready to go. The boys had presents to unwrap from grandparents and other family but not Santa. The man is busy!

Now I must go clean the kitchen and try to induce labor (I am almost 39 weeks and nothing going on), so I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year. Hopefully, we will be back to report news soon :)