Why I was MIA the week before Christmas . . .

 Hello Everyone!

I HOPE SANTA WAS GOOD TO YOU!!!

Like most people, the week before Christmas was a busy one for us mainly because of the idea we came up with for our grandkids Christmas present.  They are both busy with their jobs and each have a little one they are raising.  We remember how it was (back then) when not only was money tight, but there never seemed to be enough hours in the day to cover everything that needed done ... including dinner!

SO ... we came up with the great idea to cook up a bunch of 'freezer meals' that they could put in the fridge the night before and cook up in a little bit of time after they got home from work.  Here's the different meals we made for them:

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
Broccoli Chicken Casserole
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Sausage Stuffed Manicotti
Taco Stuffed Pasta Shells
Lasagna

 And of course, with winter approaching, we HAD to make soup . . .

Chili
Vegetable Soup
Ham & Bean Soup

I ran out of freezer space so before making up the last set of meals & packages of soup, I drove to my daughter's house (an hour drive one way) and put what we had already made (Phase #1) in her freezer.  She has a couple of freezers so had the open space (thank goodness!).

Phase #1

It was actually my daughter who asked if I had blogged about this idea and I told her 'No, I didn't think about it with so much shopping and preparing needing done' ... so when we made up the last meals & soup I did grab a few photos.

 

The last was the easiest ... LASAGNA!

As you can see, on the top of each meal, I printed up a photo of what was inside along with instructions.  I did this on all the meals but on the soup/chili we portioned it out into quart size freezer bags then after freezing flat, we placed them into a gallon size freezer bag and marked the bag '2021 Christmas - Chili (or whatever the soup is).

All but the Broccoli Chicken Casserole, they received two containers each of all the other meals.  The Chili they received 3 quarts each and the Soups 2 quarts each.

Hopefully this will help them through the cold winter I hear we are to have here in Ohio!

Phase #2

VEGETABLE BEEF SOUP

Our daughter & SIL bought the kids BIG coolers and filled with with other frozen food items from chicken, burger, pizza, chicken pot pies, etc etc.

Of course we bought plenty of toys for the little ones (our GREAT grandsons) but this year with the price of everything going up, we thought a good gift for our adult grandkids would be FOOD ITEMS!  Might not be clothes or jewelry but something we felt they needed more than material things.

And, we can't forget our AMAZING neighbors! 
Since we opted to have an outdoors Octoberfest in lieu of our annual Christmas party, we still wanted to share a little something so we made up cookie & fudge trays for each.  A little tray of goodies is always a welcomed gift (at least in my book lol!).

Nothing Fancy!
Chocolate Chip Cookies, Oatmeal Cherry Cookies & Peanut Butter Fudge
and of course a few holiday chocolates!

Cover in cellophane and they were ready to deliver. 
Was all done in one day and everyone was very appreciative! 

If you've seen my FB page, you've seen that we had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS with our family and the 'Littles' were just such a blessing to be around!!

 

Now we wish you a very HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!