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.