Healthy comfort food

I came across this recipe on Pinterest, and boy am I glad I did! It served three purposes: 1. It was delicious! 2. It forced me to learn how to make cream of "whatever" soup from scratch and 3. It got the picky toddler to eat something other than animal crackers, fruit, or waffles! Success all around!

You can find the recipe here.

Though, I did make some changes. I didn't add any Parmesan on top (it didn't need it), I used olive oil mayo, I added more broccoli than it called for (4 cups instead of 2).

Even with making my own cream of broccoli soup, this was a quick an easy meal. The only complaint I heard from the husband was that I created too many dishes.

Silhouettes on the tree

Every year I am going to try to make (or have him make, when he's older) a new Elliott ornament for the tree. Last year we made Santa out if a clay hand print. This year it was a felt silhouette. I like the way it turned out! We made one for my parents and one for Chris' parents as well! Thanks to dear Ocky, for the three embroidery rings!

Elliott Project #1

Last weekend we decided to take our own Christmas photo for our family Christmas card.  We were going to take Elliott to see Santa at the mall dressed in his cute little outfit, but he had a different idea and decided to have a toddler melt down instead.  I have learned to let plans go a little better, so I figured we would set up a tripod, and take a family self-photo in front of the tree.  We "trained" Elliott, instructing him to look at the camera and say "cheese", and surprisingly he did an excellent job!  After we took the picture we would all run over to the camera to see the result.  Then, Elliott and I would hurry back to our spot in front of the tree while dad pressed the button, and we "cheesed" it up again!  I am pretty happy with the result!

Home project number 1

Our home project for the week was to clean house and put up the Christmas decorations. I decided to pair down the decor this year, as we are trying to purge non necessities in preparation for selling our house come Spring.
The best part of putting up the tree this year was Elliott's reaction upon seeing it for the first time. We turned on the tree lights and E exclaimed, "Wow! Wow! Woooooow!"