Busy, busy...

So I know I neglected blogging this week but I have a few very good reasons.  Starting with...

Yes I have been busy wrapping presents for Christmas.  Every night I have wrapped a few more and still feel like I have quite a few to go!  Hopefully I will finish tomorrow but as you have all seen it takes me a little extra time to wrap my presents...I add a bit of creative love ;)

I was also busy addressing our Christmas cards.  I ordered them last week and they finally came in so I got started on them right away.  They went out in the mail yesterday so everyone should get them just in time for Christmas.  I started with:

Yes that would be 175 Christmas cards, but don't worry I did order some extra ones just in case so if anyone would like one please leave your name and address in the comments section haha.  Off I went to stamp, address, and return address the cards!

My mom bought me Christmas stamps so this was the perfect reason to use them.  I stamped the front of all the cards with Christmas rubber stamps just to add a bit of personalization since I printed all the addresses on labels.

I also stamped the back of the cards - I used various stamps but I will show the snowman:

I then added the return address label over the seal and was all set...just 119 more to go!  In the end I mailed out 120 Christmas cards - all completed on a Friday night...a great sign that I am getting old!

As you can see only about 2/3 had stamps on them - I had to buy more as I only started with 90, I was a fool to think that would be enough!  Ok on to the next thing - buffalo chicken mac 'n cheese.  I have seen this on many menus but never tried it and wasn't sure where to start but I decided to just try and work it out on my own instead of consulting with a higher force - Google.  First I marinated chicken in some spices and hot sauce as I normally do when I make buffalo chicken wraps.  A lot of the recipes are for breaded buffalo chicken but I am not into the breaded or fried kind so I just cooked it in a pan.

Once the chicken was cooked I put it aside and boiled my pasta and sliced the cheese (VT cheddar of course).  I like to leave the cheese out for a little while on the counter because it makes it easier to cut.

Next up was making the cheese sauce - butter, flour, milk, and cheese - so simple yet a bit time consuming and tempermental!

Then I stirred, waited, stirred, waited....added milk...stirred, waited, stirred, waited, and then added the cheddar but instead of just cheddar I also added blue cheese.

I thought this might add a little kick to the cheese sauce.  Next up I mixed the chicken with the pasta then the cheese sauce.

In the end it came out really well - I have never had it before so I am not sure if it came out as well as it should have but it was on the table that night and every last bite was eaten!  Although that is pretty standard at our house :) 

This week my future sister-in-law is celebrating a big, big birthday...so stay tuned for a posting about the great wrapping job I did ;) as well as another baking project. 

Again I apologize for the neglection this week and hope to be back on track after the holidays!

Until next time...stay creative!!