Here’s our Food and Fun: December 24-30 post!
Big Family Food and Fun: December 24-30, 2023
We enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Eve service at church Sunday morning, then came home and set out a simple but fun Sub Sandwich Station. We had a variety of breads, meats, cheeses, and chips. After we built our sandwiches, we toasted them in our Air Fryer to melt the cheese and crisp up the bread. So good!
After lunch, we exchanged Christmas gifts with one of our housemates. She gave the kids soft blankets and fun snacks for a movie night. :)
After we put the littlest kids down for naps and older-littles downstairs for a movie, Elias, Malachi, and I surprised Matt with a brand new Settlers of Catan game. We all love this game and hardly get a chance to play because of lack of time. This was a perfect way to enjoy Christmas Eve afternoon! (P.S. I was sooooo close to winning, but then Elias snuck in the win. Stinker.)
Asa and Eva were enjoying Christmas Eve with her family, and Justus and Kelsey came over that evening after they were finished with their responsibilities at church where Justus is worship minister. We had a simple meal of Nachos and would you look at that? Matt and I got to actually sit down together to eat!
Kelsey made her family’s traditional Christmas Eve Hot Fudge for us to enjoy on ice cream after dinner!
We found some interactive Christmas Dance Party videos on Youtube and Justus led the kids in getting lots of wiggles out before bed.
Everyone settled in surprisingly well that night, then Kelsey helped me stuff stockings and set up everything for Christmas morning. “Santa” got the kids new coats or a new outfit, clocks for their bedrooms, and a weighted stuffed animal to help them with calming needs. (The kids have no idea that their awesome new animals are therapeutic. They just think they got an adorable new friend.) :)
The next morning, I stuffed stockings and set out a few extra gifts for all the older kids too. :)
We ate Egg Casserole and Monkey Bread (<—that our neighbor had made!) as everyone woke up that morning. Asa and Eva came over around 8:15 to enjoy the day with us.
We had pulled the living room doors closed and put wrapping paper on them so that the kids wouldn’t see into the room before we were all gathered to enjoy our Christmas morning together!
Then the doors opened to reveal all the treasures!
It snowed all day long, creating a feeling of special Christmas magic!
We took turns opening gifts from each other while the snow fell outside.
Keith got ear protective headphones (that we found used at a Restore and knew he’d love because working with Daddy is his favorite!) and a hat with built in light. If those were his only two gifts, he would have been as happy as can be.
We made Chicken Strips and Fries for lunch. Asa and Eva had picked up a huge cup of Cane’s Sauce for us – a family favorite. I made a couple bowls of salad, some buttered toast, and we had a Costco cheesecake for dessert. Everyone loved this meal for Christmas!
Asa went outside during the afternoon and took this photo of our snowy Castle.
For dinner that evening I set out a variety of meats, cheeses, crackers, chips, and dips that I’d picked up at Costco, Sam’s, or Aldi. It was a perfectly easy meal we could all snack on that evening.
Tuesday morning we warmed up leftover Egg Casserole. Then at lunch I felt the big need to give us some vegetables so I made these spinach-filled smoothies for the kids and these for the grown-ups. The kids had gotten oatmeal packets in their stockings so they requested those also. A weird lunch? Yes. But it filled their bellies and we got lots of greens into our systems.
Brayden, Kiya, and I went to hand out food at our weekly Food Distribution that afternoon. Before we got home, Elias warmed up leftover Lasagna for dinner that night plus steamed some broccoli.
Food Distribution was different that week because of the holiday. There was extra food but fewer people to go through the line. The lady in charge let everyone go through twice, which I loved to see as everyone was able to go home with a lot of free food for their families. When that was finished, there was still plenty leftover so all of the volunteers took home quite a bit too.
We brought home a lot of organic greens, several bunches of bananas, a large selection of breads/rolls/buns, and a few other miscellaneous items.
Wednesday morning we warmed up more Egg Casserole leftovers and ate it with some muffins we’d brought home from the Food Distribution. (I cut them in half so everyone could have a little bit.)
I cut up all the bananas from Food Distribution because they were on their last leg. They went into the freezer to be used for smoothies or Banana Bread.
Anna had a dentist appointment that morning so she and I enjoyed reading some books together in the waiting room. Any one-on-one time with our kids is rare and special.
Picking out a new toothbrush is so fun, but also, making decisions is hard, ha.
For lunch we warmed up leftover Roast and Carrots from the week before plus leftover green beans and corn. It felt good to be slowly getting the fridge cleaned out!
We had a lot of bread from Food Distribution plus several bits of lunchmeat from last week’s Sub Sandwiches. So for dinner I made a big pile of Grilled Meat and Cheese Sandwiches with Tomato Soup.
Thursday morning I baked several sheet pans worth of bacon to enjoy with breakfast and to have leftovers for upcoming meals. I also made a lot of French Toast and we ate it with syrup or applesauce.
A couple of the kids had appointments that morning so while I was with them for those, Matt and Malachi held down the fort. At lunchtime, Malachi made six boxes of mac and cheese and a pan of peas. (Someone who shall remain nameless put a pea up her nose during lunch. Never a dull moment.)
That afternoon during nap/rest time, I ran to Walmart and Sam’s to pick up some items for an upcoming birthday meal. While I was at Walmart, I checked for clearance items and I HIT THE JACKPOT. Their spiral cut hams were marked down to $0.50/pound!!!! I’ve never seen anything like this. I decided to “only” buy eight hams, ha. They were 10ish-pound hams for just $5.00. Crazy good. We have a freezer full now and I can share with our married kids plus anyone else who might need or want one.
At Sam’s I found chicken tenderloins marked down so I picked up two packages. I plan to use these for Pizza Chicken Bake and Crunchy Ranch Chicken Strips.
Later that afternoon, the kids were acting hungry so I made everyone a big cup of Smoothie using some of the greens I’d gotten at the Food Distribution that week.
While I had the spinach out, and because I really had a lot in the fridge and didn’t want it to go bad, I made these muffins with both spinach and pumpkin. Hooray for sneaking in veggies!
I can’t remember what we ate for dinner that night, and I can’t find any pictures so that must mean that we ate leftovers and I didn’t think about documenting it. :)
For breakfast on Friday morning we enjoyed Brayden’s birthday request of biscuits (that we’d gotten at Food Distribution) plus sausage links, muffins, and fruit.
I mixed up a double batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies that morning so we could put together and deliver Happy New Year gifts for our neighbors.
We knew an outing would benefit the kids after being cooped up for so many days in a row, so we loaded up and headed to The Front Porch, which is a coffee shop/play area at a church here in Lincoln.
I packed Capri Sun and cracker/cheese packs for the kids to snack on during a play break.
When we got home, Brayden, Keith, Anna, and I worked together to make Brownies for his birthday dessert that night.
Malachi had put pizzas in the oven to bake for us so we took those out, slid the brownies in, and had our lunch.
That evening we planned to have a big birthday dinner for not one, but two birthday boys! Yep, Brayden and BabyBoy#11 share a birthday. Kiya used salad kits to put together two bowls of salad for us. I love that I can turn this job over to her (or to Brayden) now!
BabyBoy#11 didn’t have any opinions about the meal choices for the day. :) But Brayden requested Orange Chicken (the boxed kind from Sam’s) for dinner. I baked a dish of Stick of Butter Rice to go with it and of course, we had Kiya’s salads.
Dinner was awesome, with Asa and Eva plus our friend Allan joining us.
BabyBoy#11 is battling eating challenges so he enjoyed his bottle for dinner. (And then puked up his bottle, the poor dear. Pray that we can find the right specialist for him and get to the bottom of his eating needs.) We still put a candle in the Birthday Brownies for him to “blow out” even though food is a no-go.
Then, per Brayden’s request, we added the 0 candle to turn the one candle into a 10!
After brownies, we all headed into the living room for present time. Of course, BabyBoy#11 mostly loved the tags on his new sweatshirt. :)
Saturday morning we packaged up the cookies we’d made for neighbors along with some others goodies, tea, hot cocoa, and chocolates.
I’d saved the Trader Joe’s bags we’d gotten while Christmas shopping and these made perfect gift bags.
It was sunny and 40 degrees so a perfect day to take a walk around the neighborhood delivering packages.
Whenever we try to do anything like this, I do question my sanity. It’s hard enough to keep up with laundry, dishes, and keeping everyone fed and happy. To get anything extra accomplished and then head out the door with this many little ones (stopping every few minutes to deal with a behavior issue or an ouchie or a diaper need or…) – well. I always wonder if it’s worth it.
Yes. It’s worth it.
The kids LOVED this. They took turns ringing doorbells, handing over gifts, and whenever we caught someone at home, the kids felt so loved and appreciated by our neighbors who gushed over the gift. It was also fun to leave surprises on the porches of neighbors who weren’t home at the time. :)
Lunch was a tasty but simple meal of Croissants with Turkey, Bacon, and Cheese (with snuck in spinach) melted in the oven.
We all had an afternoon rest time and then it was Birthday Party time! We had invited a few York friends to come for the afternoon/evening to celebrate Brayden’s 10th. We usually just have family birthday time (which we’d had the night before), but since it was a significant year for Brayden, we told him he could have a party. The kids played, the adults caught up and visited. It was wonderful.
We ate Brayden’s birthday choice of Chicken Nuggets and Fries along with a tray of fresh fruit and a plate of veggies.
There was cake, there were cookies, there was a lot of laughing and joy.
After all the excitement of Christmas along with three birthdays within the past nine days, I felt some relief that we could maybe settle down for a while. Ha. And then I remembered that we have two more birthdays coming up in January. Party on!