Our New Favorite Crock-Pot Meal

We had this at a friend's house, and it has quickly become our favorite crock-pot meal.  The gravy is absolutely fantastic!  To keep things quick and easy, you can purchase microwavable mashed potatoes.  We like Reser's Main St. Bistro Yukon Gold at Costco.  The label says it's all natural.  Comes in a two pack, and our family of three will eat both containers in one sitting if we all have seconds.  We make a mound of the potatoes in the center of the plate and ladle the stew over it.  The meat will last us two meals, so it probably serves about 6.  Add frozen corn or peas and fresh French bead with butter for a super winter day comfort meal!

Slow Cooker Manly Stew
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 (1 1/4 oz) package beef with onion soup mix
3 lbs beef stew meat

Pour soups into slow cooker and mix well.  Add beef, cover, cook on low 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  (Our crock-pot will burn food on the edges, so I stir this about 4 or 5 times.)

Icicles

We don't get icicles like this.  Taken at my parents' house.

 



 

 

 

Christmas with My Parents

We picked up Grandma on the first and headed over to my parents' house for Christmas with them, my sister's family, and brother Ryan.





Kylen, Greg, My Parents, and a Yummy Ham Dinner Waiting

 

Kylen had his first guitar "recital."  He plucked two songs, and the other two were strummed as we sang.  He did great!

 

Playing a Game

 

Dad and My Sister

 

Cousins

 

Their Tree

 

Dad Reading from the Bible Before Gifts

Kylen was really into the wrapping paper battles!

 

We were all reluctant to stop playing bananagrams at the end, but we had two hours of driving ahead of us.  So we packed up our stuff (way more than we brought!), said our goodbyes, and headed home.  Thus Christmas officially ended.  It was a busy holiday season but a good one!

Our Favorite Christmas Gifts

I probably wouldn't normally do a Christmas present post, but we got such nice gifts from a variety of friends and family, I wanted to share a few pics.  Plus, it gives a glimpse into some of our interests!



 

So cute!  Friends brought it back from their trip to CA.  Note: we removed the chocolate!

 

Half pound Reece's cups from Hubby from my wishlist!

 

Perfect combo: I'm crazy about tiny things and parties.

 

We'll all enjoy learning some new strategy board games!

From my friend Kris.  I love these!

Kylen's Favorite

Beautiful Chess Set from Greg's Parents

Always my favorite Christmas gift.  Kylen paints this in a class, and it gets wrapped before he brings it home.

 

From Melody.  Sitting next to our nativity set!

Who doesn't like gift cards?!

Then there are the super hero glasses, Kylen's LEGO calendar, Kris got crafty and made us a dry erase board with backgrounds that can be swapped out, my mom set me up to try out Chinese brush painting (always up for trying a new art!), and there were lots more things I could post about, but it's too much work!  Lol!  Thank you everyone!

Christmas Day

 

 

 

 

I can think of no way I'd rather spend Christmas Day in this crazy busy season than quietly at home, just the three of us.  Thankfully, we've managed to do that the last several years.  We cooked enough the day before to have decent left-overs for dinner and made a simple breakfast of sausage, eggs, and toast.  Slept in, relaxed, played.  Works for me!

Christmas with Greg's Parents

We always celebrate Christmas with Greg's parents by eating dinner out followed by dessert and gifts at their house: a pleasant and relaxing way to spend the evening.  :)

 

 

 

 

Painting

What's happening behind the mysterious wall of plastic this time?

 

 

BLUE!!!  Wait.  Blue??  Huh?  Why blue?

 

You'll see.