Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas! We had a nice Christmas here. It was a busy Christmas season and lots of going here and there for festivities. We had a wonderful time with family. We are so blessed to have wonderful families! Erik and I also got to sleep in our own bed this year which was nice. Hope you had a great Christmas too!

I went back to work on Monday and Tuesday and took vacation Wednesday. I was just not quite ready to go back to work. I miss being in school and having a couple of weeks off to goof around. So this year is a little different and that is okay, just makes me appreciate the time off a little more.

Today, Erik and I both had off. That was nice. We hung out at home for a while and then we went to Fort Snelling State Park. We saw turkeys, deer and bald eagles. It was a nice walk in the snow. It was about zero degrees out. Our thermometer said 2 when we got back home.

Here are some pictures from our outing:

Annual Christmas Cookie Baking & Decorating

On Sunday, Katie, Mom and I baked and decorated sugar cookies. We've done this every year since I was little. I think Katie and I are a little better helps now than when we were little. We always have a great time making our cookies.

Here is my favorite one that Katie made: The greatest State: Minnesota!



My cowboy boot - I like it, I like it a lot!


Mom showing off her Christmas tree cookie.


My favorite cookie that Mom always decorates: Santa.


Mom

Katie

Here is our finished cookies.

Spritz Cookies

On Saturday, I went to my friends Barb and TJ's to make some spritz cookies. We made almond, orange and chocolate cookies. They were very good. It took a little practice to get the cookies to form just right, and just as we got it figured out then we changed the form - just kidding, we had some turn out really nice. It was a good time on a snowy Saturday morning.

Here is some of our delectable buttery cookies.

Mears Park in Lights

Last week, I walked from the bus to work instead of hopping on another bus, as I do when it is cold or rainy. I walked through Mears Park in St. Paul. It was snowing during the bus ride and I thought it would be fun to catch it snowing here, but I guess the snow paused for my walk. I had a very nice walk in the park though. It was still fairly cool (15 degrees) and I was happy when I got to work for the nice walk and being in some warm air.

Tis the Season

About 2 weeks ago I was involved in a cookie exchange, so a Monday and Tuesday night I made 12 dozen peppermint twist cookies. 7 dozen on Monday night and 5 dozen on Tuesday night. Quite a task. I don't think I've made that many cookies at once, and of course I picked time consuming recipe. Next time - drop cookies.


Last night I made some presents of Wild Mushroom, Beans and Barley Soup Mix. The recipe I had only filled up the pint jars about 2/3 of the way, so I had to change it slightly, but I think it will all work out - hopefully and most importantly - it tastes good.

Luna Park

I worked on a picture project for a Christmas present for Erik's Grandpa of when he was in the army during WWII. This is one of Erik's Grandpa's pictures from Luna Park in Sydney, Australia. Luna Park is still a part of Sydney: http://www.lunaparksydney.com/. Cool to see it is still there.

Lefse!

It was Lefse making time at the Laings!

Karen rolling out the potato ball.


I rolled out the lefse very slowly, but I did it without too much trouble.


Erik and Ryan watched the griddles.


There is an artform to transferring the lefse to the griddles.


Ryan was good at flipping the lefse.


86 potato balls made into lefse with very few rejects.


Rich enjoyed the lefse. It was very good right off the heat! Yum!

It has been a busy time... full of shopping, decorating, baking and sewing. Here is our Christmas tree with some presents and below is a pic out our sliding glass door of the snow. We got the first significant snow yesterday.

Erik has been playing his guitar quite a bit lately. He played earlier this week while I made pumpkin cookies for work. I love pumpkin cookies! They went over very well too. I send Erik to work with some too.


Last night we had a friend, Melissa, come hang out with us. We went out for Chinese nearby. Then Erik played guitar and Melissa was working on knitting a very nice scarf and I pulled out a blanket I've been working on for quite some time. You know me with projects... more than I have time for.


This morning we had a little snow gracing our presence. It was nice, although I'd like about two feet more please. I went for a run in it this morning while it was still coming down a little bit. I was mostly prepared for it so it was an enjoyable run.


I'm also very determined to get one of my projects finished before Christmas. I made great progress on it this weekend and hopefully this momentum will continue to the finish line.


The weekend seemed to fly by, but it was a very nice one with family and friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a very nice Thanksgiving, with my family that I'm SO Thankful for! Erik and I hung out at home for a little bit yesterday morning, but I could not sit still, so we were off to my parents fairly quickly.

Katie, Erik and I went for a run around Cleary Lake. It was a nice jog/walk/run... I think it was sort of that order too. Good way to burn off some calories to be consumed later in the day. The sun even peaked out for a little bit too.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving meal and had a great time just hanging out with each other. I love hanging out with my family and talking. I love how we can just be and have a wonderful time!

Last Sunday, Erik, Katie and I ran in the Turkey Run around Como Lake. Katie and I ran together the whole way, which was very nice, although I think Katie could have gone faster than me, but it was very nice to run with someone and it wasn't about the time we got. Below is a picture of the two of us finishing the run. Not a great picture after running around the lake, but that's okay.

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough"
— Mae West

November Catch Up

A little catching up is in order for November as it is already November 9th!

Last Saturday we had we had a birthday party for Mom. It was a lot of fun! We had a great group of friends and family show up and had a really great time! I enjoyed helping throw a party too! I enjoy that sort of thing.


A funny thing about it was the sandwiches... when we were planning it we decided we needed 3 6ft sandwiches from E&G's. So when we went to get them in my little car it was pretty comedic. Not only were the sandwiches 6ft long and just barely fit, but they were also about 8in wide too. Much wider than we expected! Yikes we had so much food - we needed about 3 times the people for that much food! But we definitely didn't need to worry about running out! Erik ended up bringing some to work and we sent some with other people too.

Sunday I went for a horseback ride with my Mom and Connie. I rode Cowboy, since LauraBell was a little sore. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time!

During the week I worked on my dresser, putting a polyurethane coat on it. I also went and helped my Dad coach pitching.

Erik left for hunting on Thursday so I was on my own for the weekend. He had a bit of a frustrating time and didn't get anything, but he did get to sit in northern Minnesota in some beautiful spots.

Friday I had the day off. I was headed over to Erik's parents to put one more coat on the top of the dresser and got about a block away from our apartment and decided something was wrong with my tire. So I pulled over and I had a screw in my tire about 1/3 inch in diameter, so I went to the dealership and they put a plug in it, but it was an unscheduled stop. I did make it over to put another coat on the dresser and Karen and I went in search of knobs and drawer pulls. I found some, but I will have to wait for some of the pulls to be ordered.

Later in the afternoon I met up with Katie at the mall in search of shoes. I found two very cute pairs of shoes, but both were not available in my size. So that was a bummer.

Funniest thing happened at the mall we got carded, for potentially being to young to be in the mall. They were about 10 years off. :)

Yesterday I got a cold, or at least it hit me like a blow to the head. I didn't do much since I was under the weather. I finished reading The Secret Life of Bees. It was a very good book. I don't think I need to see the movie, because the book was so good I'd hate to ruin it.

Today, I did a bit more of the same as yesterday. I did feel a bit better today and I made Pumpkin Seed Granola. It came out pretty good, but I'd like to play with the recipe a bit. I did find out that honey is denser than molasses (the scientist in me). I also went and saw Kates for a little bit.

So I didn't do some of the things that I wanted to do, because of this silly cold, but that is okay. I was glad I wasn't at work with this cold - hopefully tomorrow I feel even better.

Snow and Mosquito Bite

This week it snowed and I got a mosquito bite - strange. It has been a busy week and continuing to be a busy weekend. Yesterday I had off and I went for a little run, then Erik and I went to go buy some stain. We went over to Erik's parent's house and I worked on staining our dresser.... I like how it turned out. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I like it. That took most of the afternoon since I took my time doing it. Then Erik and I and Erik's Mom went shopping and out to dinner at Big Bowl. I like it there. We had a nice time. Then we handed out candy for the trick-or-treaters. It was fun seeing all the little kids dressed up.

Weekend at Home

I have thoroughly enjoyed being home this weekend. I enjoy weekends away too, but it was just time to catch up with a few things and enjoy home. Friday night, I went to dinner with my family to celebrate my Mom's birthday. It was very nice and we had a good time.

Saturday I ran with Katie and some of her friends from school in 5K around Lake Harriet - Monster Dash. It was fun to see all of the people dressed up in costume and dogs too. I was wishing I had a dog to run with too. Erik ran around the Lake without entering in the race, but I got a cool shirt and gloves for entering and it went to a good cause.


Today, we woke up and it was 45 degrees out and sunny. We went to the farmers market and enjoyed a quiet morning. By the time we got back from the market... it was snowing and super windy. Erik went to work and I've been putzing and catching up with laundry. I finally could no longer just go over to my parents or Erik's to do my laundry... it got out of control how much was dirty. So I finally used the washer and driers in our apartment building. I feel much better after having caught up. Tonight I'm making Pasta Fagioli Soup for dinner. It will be a nice offset to the weather which the temperature is still plummeting (currently 35 degrees outside our door).

Horse Camping

Mom and I went horse camping at Wild River State Park. Here are some pictures from our weekend. We had a really nice time and the horses were good. It was only Chance's second trip camping and Mom and him did great. Laura Bell was good too!

Northern Minnesota

Erik and I took a nice trip up to the cabin last weekend. Here are some pictures from our trip.