7 Days of Love | PINspiration for a Romantic Dinner at Home

Today marks Day 6 of our "7 Days of Love" collaboration. It seems like this week is just flying by, doesn't it? If today is your first day on the blog, the "7 Days of Love" is a week-long collaboration between The Green Eyed Lady Blog, Baby Teems, The Chic SAHM and myself. Since Saturday we've been blogging about love and romance per 7 given prompts. And it's been so much fun blogging with them these last 5 days! Now, it wouldn't be a Valentine's Day collaboration if we didn't share our take on a romantic dinner date, would it? Today's prompt gives us the opportunity to showcase that for you. 

Since the snow and icky weather is upon us, our Valentine's Day plans have been up in the air. Everything looks a little uncertain. But, if you know me well, you know I don't approach anything without having a plan or a list. If we aren't able to go out for a romantic dinner, I have plans to create one right here at home! Thanks to Pinterest,  I have a few cool ideas to go by.

My first concern was creating a romantic, yet simple ambiance in the living area. I came across Stacy Naquin's beautiful Valentine's Day Tablescape on Pinterest and instantly fell in love with her beautiful theme! It had a very elegant and romantic feel. It was a design that would work for just J and I, but also for the entire family, should we all be together having this dinner.

{Stacy Naquin Interiors}

As far as the actual dinner is concerned, I'm keeping it simple and sweet. I'll prepare a grilled chicken Caesar Salad, for starters. My husband always loves to begin his dining experience with a good, hearty salad. I might even take the time to ditch a store-bought dressing and hit up Brittnei for a homemade dressing recipe.

We all love pasta around here, so the main dish would be some type of pasta. And since it's a special occasion, I'll spare hubby the usual Baked  Ziti, Rigatoni, Pizza Casserole, Manicotti or Alfredo. I found a recipe for Bacon Ranch Chicken Pasta on Pinterest by The Pink Gourmet and would love to try this out. That's four things J loves all wrapped into one simple dish! 

{Just a Good Recipe}

For dessert, I'm trying out these Red Velvet + Cheesecake Brownies I found on Spark People Recipes via Pinterest. Don't they look divine? Hubby doesn't really like sweets, so the children and I will probably wind up devouring them before the weekend's out.

{Spark People Recipes}

After wrapping up dinner, I'll be sure to get my babies to bed promptly. I'm planning to score some alone time with hubby. Check back tomorrow for a great playlist to "set the mood" for love!

WILL YOU BE STAYING IN FOR YOUR ROMANTIC DINNER?

IF SO, WHAT WILL YOU BE EATING?

For more romantic dinner date ideas, be sure to check out the girls!

The Chic SAHM

Baby Teems

Carissa via The Green Eyed Lady Blog

5 Christmas Traditions for New Families

Usually for the holidays, my family always packed our suitcases and head to my hometown to celebrate Christmas with my parents and siblings. My siblings and I would always come "home" and get together to discuss Christmas memories, listen to Christmas music, and muster up some Christmas cheer to pass along to my children with mama & daddy.  But for the last couple of years, I have been looking for my own Christmas traditions to practice with my husband and children. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with everyone over at mama's. But now that I have my own family, I want to start a tradition within my own home-- something my children can look forward to each year. And since we have a new baby in our new home, I thought this would be a great year to start something new!

On the search for new traditions to begin, I found a plethora of ideas on ever-so-faithful Pinterest. And just in case some of you guys were thinking of beginning new traditions, I decided to share a few ideas I found there with you, too.

1. The Christmas Jar

The Christmas Jar is such a great way to teach our little ones about giving-- in the true spirit of Christmas. With this activity, everyone puts money in a mason jar (or whatever jar you have in your home) throughout the year. On Christmas Eve, the family delivers the money jar anonymously to a selected special someone. This beautiful idea was created in 2005 by author Jason F. Wright, who also chronicled this notion in his novel Christmas Jars. To read more about this idea, read here and here.

2. The Christmas Eve Surprise Box

The Christmas Eve Surprise Box would be ideal for my family. With this tradition, there's a box loaded with goodies such as new pajamas, hot chocolate, marshmallows, mugs, popcorn, holiday movies, and books. J and I would pack this box with said goodies and open it with the kiddies on Christmas Eve (at sunset). This sounds like so much fun, especially since we already do movie night with snacks each week anyways. To read more about this idea, click here.

3. Annual Christmas Book

Now if you're more of a book person than a movie person, you may like the "Annual Christmas Book" tradition better. In reading this idea, I found that "Santa" sends a new book to the children for them to read each Christmas Eve before heading to bed. While I like this idea in theory, I would probably have the books sent via the grandparents or from J and I to the children. Read more about this tradition here.

4. Christmas Cookie Baking

Since I'm a cookie lover, I'm all about baking cookies for Christmas. When I looked for different cookies to bake on Pinterest, I found so many cool ideas!The one that stuck out the most was the 12 Days of Christmas Cookie Project. With this project, several baking bloggers got together and baked Christmas cookies, using the twelve days of Christmas as their theme. Click here to read more about that project.

As for my family, we may choose a couple of those ideas and bake cookies on Christmas Eve, to enjoy in the evening along with our hot chocolate and Christmas movie choices. And if we don't stick to that theme, we'll be trying these cute snowman cookies out I found here.

5. Soundtrack to the Holidays

This is actually a tradition that I came up with on my own. Since I'm so big on holiday music and making mixtapes, I decided to create a mixtape each Christmas. Each of us will add a few songs to the mix and explain to the family why we chose those particular songs. I'm letting the kids create the album cover art, and everything! I will upload the songs and make copies for the extended family to give out at my mom's annual tree-trimming party. Look out for more information about this tradition in an upcoming post!

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

Will you be trying any of these?