Helicopters & Christmas Records

We kept it simple this morning, and just ate cereal for breakfast. Something about this just makes her seem like such a big girl though! (Jeff left early to go help his work friend Ed with a few projects at his house, so it was just Emmie and I until after noon.)

After breakfast, Emmie and I spent about an hour just laying in my bed, playing around and being silly, and playing with Pretzel. It was dark and warm and cozy, and I could have stayed there even longer.Eventually we got up and got dressed, so we could go to Walmart. I had a grocery order to pick-up, and a few things extra we needed to go in the store for. I chose her outfit for the morning, but she chose her own socks & shoes 🤣

This girl was super sweet and precious riding around in the buggy. I actually just kept wandering around longer than necessary, because she was doing so good, and we didn’t have anything more pressing to rush off too. We found a couple of crafts (which we will probably do tomorrow afternoon), a new $5 Christmas nightgown for me and a $5 new pair of llama jammies for Emmie. Plus a new sweater for me too, which ingot in place of a plaid shirt I bought a few weeks ago but returned today, because even though I wanted to be a plaid-wearing girl, it just didn’t look like me…She LOVED throwing things in the buggy! (Those are her llama jammies she’s throwing in below.)

This little sweatshirt is not only adorable, and a super cute color, but it was absolutely the softest thing I’ve ever felt in my life. If someone wants to buy it for me as a Christmas gift, I would totally be ok with that. 😉 I think it’s technically like a sleeping sweatshirt or something, and it seems like the coziest thing to sleep in, maybe ever.

After we finished up at Walmart, we went through the Dunkin drive-thru to get a caramel iced coffee for Mommy and a chocolate Munchkin for Emmie.

She still loves wearing her unicorn costume every now and then. Today, she was taking care of her baby, and reading books, all while dressed as a unicorn.

My toes were cold too, so she helped me find my slippers, and she loved that we were matching with blue slippers on our walk to the mailbox.

She had some leftover cheese noodles and fries (from her Village Inn dinner with Daddy and Nana the other day) for her lunch, and she discovered that she likes dipping her noodles in ketchup too. This girl loves to dip!

Around 11am, we heard a super loud noise outside (the whole house was shaking and vibrating actually!), we went out to check and saw two huge helicopters. We saw them pass by again a few minutes later. Then a few minutes before noon, three of them came back again (presumably on the way to the FSU stadium), and it was so cool! They were so huge and flying so low, and we loved it! This photo below was standing in the driveway, and that’s the roof of our carport! We were squealing and whooping, and we both thought it was so cool!

Emerson was a big helper getting her load of laundry into the washer, and even put a scoop of detergent in all by herself!

I got Emmie put down for her nap after this, and she was really tired and sweet, and it went really easily. Jeff got home while I was doing lullabies, and threw a pizza in the oven for our lunch. (This one from Walmart was surprisingly really, really good!) While it baked, I tidied up the living room and dining room, and then we ate while watching “How I Met Your Mother.” (We’ve already watched the whole series multiple times, but we still like watching re-run episodes.)

After a bit of rest & pizza, I washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen.

Emmie ended up napping for about two hours, and once she woke up, she just laid in her bed for a few minutes. She was playing with all the animals and lovies she keeps in her crib, just being so sweet. I loved going in her room & finding her like this, all sprawled out, surrounded by and covered up with all her things!

After hanging out at home for a little while, playing and watching a few videos, we went to the Dollar Tree to fill up our box for Operation Christmas Child. I had a conversation with Emerson about picking out toys and things to give away go another little girl. Not sure how much of it sunk in, but she did a good job helping me pick stuff out. (Even though I did have to continually take random thinks out of the basket that she kept tossing in.) But since she was good, I let her pick out a couple treats for herself too, like this stocking-shaped bag with puppies on it.

Once we got it all back home, she helped me pack it all up too, by taking some of the things out of the packages, and putting it all in the box.

She also got a new coloring book and new jumbo princess crayons.

I’ve been listening to Christmas music since September, but only 10 songs (for Singing Christmas Tree). But on November 1st of every year, I start listening to allll the Christmas music. But tonight was the first night we listened to Christmas music in the house. We put on a Perry Como Christmas record while dinner was simmering on the stove, and it was so good! We got it over the summer, but hadn’t listened to it yet. But we loved it. We actually have a small collection of about 6-8 Christmas records, so I’m excited to hear those in the coming holiday season!

Then I had a baby unicorn checking on things in the kitchen.

So, the other day, I saw one of the Instagram ladies I follow make chicken & yellow rice, and she shared the recipe in her stories. I made a few alterations, and made it tonight, and it was really good! It was also super stinking easy.

One-Pot Chicken & Yellow Rice with Peas

Ingredients – 2 large cans of chicken, 2 5oz bags Mahatma yellow rice, 1 diced onion, 1 tsp minced garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 cups frozen peas, 5 cups chicken broth.

Directions – saute diced onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in large pot, add 1 tsp minced garlic; bring broth to a boil, add in rice packets & 1 tbsp olive oil, stir, & boil for one minute. Drain canned chicken, add to rice, lower heat, cover & simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add peas, cook 10 more minutes.

It came out so creamy, and the yellow rice (which we always love) is so flavorful. Easy to cook, barely any dirty dishes, starch, meat & veggies all in one pot! Win, win, win!

Emmie ate a small bowl, but she didn’t like the peas, so once she finished the little bit of rice I had given her, she wanted some applesauce instead.

After playing and cuddling for a little bit after dinner, she had a bath, and then we got her jammies on. We played and cuddled some more, and started our bedtime routine, with teeth brushing and books and lullabies. (Oh by the way, the bathroom trashcan is on the back of the toilet, because otherwise, Pretzel gets in it…)

Getting her down wasn’t too difficult tonight, although we did have to repeat the last lullaby song one time, which isn’t really a big deal anyways.

I pulled out some of last year’s winter-flavor wax melts, and this one is one of my favorites. It’s hard to explain, but it’s really nice and kind of light and really does smell like winter, somehow.

We actually skipped our tea routine last night (maybe because we had coffee at Jeff’s parents’ house?), but we’re back on the tea train tonight. Plus, I got this delicious pie for dessert, after seeing this old video floating around the internet this past week. It’s actually four years old (and there’s some foul language in it), but it’s funny, and we just happened to pass by the display with the pie at Walmart this morning. Since it was only $4, I figured it was worth a try, and it is goooood y’all.

Now that we’ve got tea and dessert (the one pot and three bowls can wait until tomorrow to get washed), it’s time to settle down after a busy day!