Fun Filled Weekend, Meatless Monday #3, and Thanksgiving Eve!

I am pretty sure that was one of my longest posts ever, but it was totally necessary. I have been super busy lately, which explains my lack of blogging. So here is a little bit of what is happening in my life.

This past weekend was a cold one here in Texas, which was perfect for Ryan and I to begin decorating our house for Christmas! The first thing we did was go to Target and look for our first Christmas tree!

The rent house we are in right now isn’t that big, so we didn’t need a huge tree. We found a perfect, pre-lit, 6 foot tree. It was the last one left, so we hurried and got it before someone else did!

We also don’t have too many ornaments yet, but we have a few, which is perfect for now! I can’t expect for us to have a ton of ornaments to start with. After all, it is our first married Christmas. 🙂 Here is our tree all decorated in our house!

Ryan’s parents got rid of a bunch of their old Christmas decorations, so Ryan and I took them since we knew we would need them eventually. It was so nice to have a bunch of things to put up in our house and make our home more festive! The tree skirt around our tree was actually Ryan’s parents. Here’s the top of our kitchen cabinets.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! 🙂 

Saturday night my parents also came over to bring us a few things so I cooked crockpot chicken taco chili from Skinnytaste. I have made this for Ryan and I before and we always love it, so I knew my parents would too. This is also a great meal because it makes a ton! So it’s great if you have people coming over, or if you just love leftovers like me. 🙂 I also made these healthy homemade cornbread muffins for the first time, and they were a hit with everyone! I will definitely be making them again!

I also couldn’t help but put on this Santa hat. 🙂

It was a fun night, and I loved getting to host my parents for dinner.

I didn’t get a picture with my Dad, but I did get this one with my Mom. 🙂

Sunday Ryan and I finished decorating our house for Christmas, and we went to our church for a couple of hours that afternoon to help decorate the church with Christmas decorations. While we were there, Ryan and I actually were asked to be Mary and Joseph in our church’s Christmas show this Sunday! I honestly felt honored that we were asked! We don’t have to do much; we just walk in holding a baby and hand it to someone else, so I am glad we don’t have any lines to memorize. So this was definitely unexpected, but pretty cool! 🙂 Our church is doing a different Christmas show starting this Sunday every Sunday until Christmas, but I think we are only in the show this Sunday.

Meatless Monday #3

Monday we had our third Meatless Monday, and it was a success! I used this marinated grilled shrimp recipe, but I sauteed the shrimp in a skillet and cut the recipe in half since I wasn’t cooking two pounds of shrimp. I ate my shrimp with quinoa, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and then broccoli, squash, and mushrooms.

My opinion: This was really good, and if you make this I highly recommend mixing your shrimp with the quinoa because when the marinade mixes in with the quinoa it is delicious!

Ryan ate his shrimp in a wheat tortilla with avocado and cheese and then had sweet potatoes and green beans.

Ryan’s opinion: He really liked it! This was his favorite fish recipe we have had so far. So we will be having shrimp more. 🙂 I still want to experiment with different types of fish though.

Thanksgiving Eve

I am so excited that today is Thanksgiving Eve! I have been up since 5:00 this morning (I woke up naturally without my alarm; I can’t sleep in), and I have already completed a quick workout and am about to eat breakfast. The rest of my day will be spent getting ready for family coming over. My brother-in-law (Ryan’s oldest brother), sister-in-law, and their three kids are all staying with us tonight through Saturday, and then Ryan’s parents are staying with us Saturday night, so I have some last minute cleaning I need to do. I also need to run to the grocery store to get some last minute things to make sure we have plenty of food for everyone here. I don’t have to cook anything for Thanksgiving, but since we will have people staying at our house, I want to make sure we have plenty of food so that everyone can eat here when they are hungry. Tonight we are going out to eat to Cheesecake Factory with Ryan’s whole family, which will be so nice since we aren’t all together much (Ryan, his two brothers, and his parents all live in different parts of the state).

Tomorrow for Thanksgiving we are going to eat lunch with Ryan’s family, and then have dinner with my family. It works out great that this year my family is having their Thanksgiving meal at dinner so that Ryan and I can make both of our families’ celebrations, but that is so much food for one day! I am definitely going to try to not eat too much at either meal so that I can enjoy the food at both without feeling totally stuffed and gross.

Speaking of food on Thanksgiving, I want to challenge everyone to totally enjoy their Thanksgiving with their families and friends. Don’t worry that you aren’t eating the healthiest foods, just enjoy. That doesn’t mean you have to stuff your face and eat until you can’t breathe, just eat proper portions, and savor every bite. No need to stuff yourself, but there is also no need to feel guilty for treating yourself to some yummy Thanksgiving food. It’s all about moderation. 🙂

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and enjoy this time with your family and friends!

Questions:

1. Have you started decorating for Christmas yet?

2. Any different types of fish I should try? The past three weeks we have had tilapia, salmon, and shrimp. Tilapia was my husband’s least favorite.

3. What are your Thanksgiving plans?

4. Favorite Thanksgiving food? My Mammy’s dressing! She makes the best. 🙂 Oh and corn casserole; I could make a meal of these two foods alone. 

5. Are you going black Friday shopping? I don’t know yet. 🙂