The Friday Five!

It's me - hi - I'm back again and decided to start doing The Friday Five again! I wanted to kick off this lovely December season with five things happening in our lives or things I'm loving - whether that be a recipe or something I purchased... or even just something I saw, ha-ha! I hope you enjoy!

One. Our First Christmas Tree - I must confess that for as long as I've been doing my own Christmas tree, I've been a fan of the artificial tree! While my hubby mentioned a live tree, we both knew it wouldn't survive until Christmas and so with some of our wedding gift cards - we headed to Lowe's on Black Friday and found the perfect tree for us!

 

The tree is not quite fat... but also not a pencil tree... and I think my favorite thing about it is the multitude of light settings! The tree can be either white lights or color but it can also blink, flash between colors and more! I also love that it has actual lifelike looking branches as opposed to the old school and clearly very fakes branches!

I am loving how warm, wonderful and cozy our home looks for our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs.

Two. A Tradition Continues - Our tree topper for our new tree is an angel! I wasn't quite sure what we were going to use and then Ryan suggested that we place an angel on the top of our tree. We kept forgetting to pick one up... and then Ryan found a terrifying one stashed in our attic from previous owners (no thanks)...

The start of this week at work - a lovely client brought us in a wedding gift and in the midst of the package was an angel that is perfectly sized for our tree! So, Wednesday night Ryan did the honors and placed the angel atop the tree! 

His mother told me that placing the angel was a special tradition that Ryan shared with his Dad - so I'm thrilled we are continuing that with our family!

Three. Pastalaya - Pastalaya is a dish that my Dad started making a few years ago and the first time Ryan had it, he fell in love. I've been trying out different recipes over the last few months and finally found "the one" so I wanted to share it here! 

What You Need

• 1 package Hillshire Farm Andouille Sausage; sliced
• 2 cans white meat chicken; shredded
• 1 bag of frozen onions & bell peppers
• 3 Beef bouillon cubes (or scoops of beef bouillon paste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon Tony Chachere's seasoning mix (plus some extra for serving)
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce of your choice
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup
• 3 and 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of water
• 1 pound pasta of your choice (I used penne)

What To Do

• Empty your can chicken with the water/broth from the can into your stock pot and season with Tony Chacere's (this is separate from the 1/2 tablespoon you have set aside). Cook until most of the broth has evaporated and the seasonings have "bloomed". 
• Remove the seasoned chicken and set aside. Add in your sausage to the pot and cook until browned on the sides. Remove from the pot and set aside.
• Add in 1/4 cup of water and your frozen onions/bell peppers. Cook on medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until they are soft and the onions are translucent. 
• Add in beef bouillon, garlic powder, Tony Chacere's and hot sauce and cook together for about 5 minutes. 
• Add in Cream of Chicken soup, shredded chicken and sausage and stir to combine.
• Add in 3 and 1/2 cups of water, stir to combine and bring to a boil.
• Add in pasta and stir to make sure all noodles are touching the liquid. Lower the heat to medium-high and cover the dish.
• Let the pastalaya boil for about three minutes, stir gently and then cover and let boil for another three minutes. Continue until the pasta is al dente (about 10-12 minutes).
• Let sit for about 5-10 minutes and then enjoy!

Four. Santa's Helper - I am so glad to have my sweet pup still with us this Christmas season... but I must say when I call him "Santa's Helper" it's not necessarily because he's very helpful! The little guy's eyesight is pretty poor and so when I sit down to wrap gifts, he just makes circles around me....

His constant pacing means everyone's gifts have been stepped on at least once or twice in the wrapping process... *sigh* He's cute but bless him... I sure do wish he'd stop stepping on all the gifts! *laughs*

Five. Our Wedding Team - As promised on yesterday's post, I wanted to share the wonderful team of people that helped make our wedding the most perfect day! If you're getting married in the Northern Virginia or DMV area, I cannot recommend better vendors that these listed below!

The Venue: Stoneyman Valley Ranch, Luray VA: https://www.stoneymanvalleyranch.com/

The Wedding Dress: Ashley Grace Bridal, Lynchburg, VA: https://ashleygracebridal.com/

The Photographer: Brooke Danielle Photography: https://brookedaniellephotography.com/

The Catering: Classic Catering, LLC: https://classiccateringinfo.com/

The Flowers: Ling's Moment: https://www.lingsmoment.com/

The Wedding Cake & Macarons: Crumbs & Crumbles, Winchester, VA: https://www.crumbsandcrumbles.com/

The Bridesmaids Dresses: Azazie: https://www.azazie.com/

The Hairstylist: Tiffany of TDR Artistry: https://tdrartistry.com/

DJ Randy of MSE Productions: http://mseproductions.com/

The Make-up was done by a dear friend named Julie Kandahari; she has a Facebook page for her services, called Beauty by Julie.

The Groomsmen's attire came from Men's Wearhouse but we were not thrilled with them, so I'm not linking them here. I hope I didn't leave anyone out - our wedding day was perfection and we couldn't have done it without all the wonderful people who helped make it so special.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!