Merry Monday

We are in the thick of it people!  Christmas is less than a week away and the excitement is hardly containable.  We have wrapped a plethora of presents, baked dozens of dozens of cookies and decorated to our heart's content.

We have a tradition at our house when it comes to presents that we started with Molly's 1st Christmas.  Santa brings only three gifts for each child plus a few stocking stuffers.  Why, you might ask?  Because that is the amount of presents Baby Jesus got for Christmas.  This tradition has proven to be a tremendous help to us.  First, our house doesn't have a thousand plastic toys sitting and collecting dust a week after Christmas.  Second, friends and family members that wish to purchase a gift for our children can do so and we have ideas for them because Santa hasn't used all of them.  Third, it really saves a lot of money.  Fourth, the children seem to appreciate their gifts even more because there aren't too many of them.  Fifth and the most important thing, it teaches the story of Christ's birth and how people from all over the land followed a star to come to see this amazing babe and bring him gifts.

We have only three full days of school this week before the kids have their Christmas vacation.  We will be doing our best to make this week's lunches as fun as possible for Molly.

Our main entrée is a cold tortellini pasta salad.  These are Trader Joe's Fresh Cheese Tortellini.  We've added light Italian dressing to coat.  (Notice the red and green flecks of color that keep with our Christmas theme.)

Our vegetable side is canned green beans with no salt added.  These are an all time favorite of Molly's.  She's just like her Mother. ☺

Our fruit side is pomegranate arils or seeds.  These are sweet and mildly bitter with a juicy pop to them.  The health benefits of this "super fruit" are too numerous to list.
*We removed the seeds from the pomegranate by slicing a cone around the top at about 1/2 inch down.  We then scored the pom with 1/4 inch deep slices going from top to bottom in four sections.  We then submerged the pomegranate in a bowl of water and started to tear it apart.  (This keeps your hands and kitchen counter from turning pink.) The seeds sink to the bottom of the bowl while the pulp floats to the top.  We removed the pulp then strained the contents of the bowl, and were left with the seeds...YUM!

Finally, our dessert is Chewy Egg Nog Cookies from Trader Joe's that according to Trader Joe himself, "exude egg nogginess from the moment you open the box."  They are INCREDIBLE!  Plus, they are a nice way to finish up a festive lunch.