Questions unasked & unanswered: Christmas is OVER!

I LOVE to read blogs, but for some reason I don't feel like I have as much to say as I had originally thought when I started my own. My resolution for this week will be to post more often no matter how boring I am. No one reads this thing yet anyway so who cares if I'm boring? I can amuse myself! So, over the next few days I'll be trying to post from the past.

Let's backtrack to catch up, shall we?

1. Christmas is over as evidenced by our skinny tree with no branches. Rather than dragging the tree back through the door, I clip all of the branches off and stick them in the yard debris bin. It protects the trim from getting all scratched up and green streaky. Brown Eyed Man then cuts the trunk into manageable pieces and stuffs them in the bin as well.

I managed to make it all the way until 4:30 p.m. on December 27 before I started taking down the Christmas decorations. May be a record. I love Christmas, we usually have the tree up on Thanksgiving weekend but once it's over, it it OVER. I want it all down and put away.

Everything is packed up and the Girl schlepped it all back up into the attic for me on the 28th. It's nice to have kids home on Christmas break. I wish I had one at home all the time to do my chores. What's that you say? Brown Eyed Man works and home and should be doing those sorts of things? That lasted about one month after he started working at home and now he's "too busy".

2. Christmas was great! We went to my In-Law's house on Christmas Eve. They do Christmas all wrong there so there is no present opening on Christmas Eve. Everything is done on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we eat LASAGNA! Can you believe that? And we don't open any presents. Have they never heard of spreading this thing out a little bit?

The correct way to do Christmas is to have Christmas supper on Christmas Eve. After all the dishes are done, we get to open our presents. In the morning, we opening our stockings and the presents that Santa brought to us. Then we have the whole day to lie around and watch football, look at our new presents, eat leftovers, etc. We alternate between my folks and his every year so next year we'll do it right.

3. The reasons I haven't been updating my blog:
A. I made a quilt for the Boy. At the beginning of November, I got the bright idea to start making a quilt for him for Christmas. The entire top is made of Pendleton wool. Some are shirts that belonged to my Dad or Grandpa and some is some wool that my Brother bought me a few years ago to make stockings for his sons. I pieced this quilt, but I didn't quilt it. I took it to a local shop and the lady there did it for me. Why do I look like I'm pregnant in this picture?

B. I crocheted an afghan for the Girl. I couldn't hardly make a quilt for the Boy and not do something home-made for the Girl. Next year I think I'll switch and do the quilt for the Girl and the afghan for the Boy. Anyway, it was harder to work on her gift because she was always home. I could only do it when she was at work. In the end I had to hide in my bedroom to finish it. Why do I look like I'm pregnant in this picture? By the way, do you see how perfect my Mother-in-laws' tree is? Perfect shape, ornaments spaced perfectly throughout. Perfect.

    C. I made slippers for Brown Eyed Man's Grandpa's widow. Why can't we just call her Step-Grandma? Brown-Eyed Man will not allow another woman, no matter how sweet and kind she may be, to go by the name of Grandma, even if we put "Step" in front of it. Why didn't I take a picture of these slippers? I don't know.
    D. In addition to the gifts, I tried to make some traditional Scandinavian treats. We had krumkake one night (no picture), Girl and I made almond butter sticks, which may not be scandinavian, but they taste just like every other scandinavian treat. I made my first and second Kransekake (Norwegian Wedding Cake). The first one had rings that were too small. I had used my cookie press to shoot out the rings and the diameter of the hole was only about 3/8". In addition to the rings being so small, the cake batter/dough doesn't have anything in it that will make it rise so they won't grow.

Fortunately for me, I'm married to a machinist and he made me a plate with a bigger hole. So, as you can see this tasty, almondy cake is make with rings that get progressively smaller as they reach the top and you would normally put a bottle of champagne in the middle and you would decorate it with Norwegian flags and other little trinkets. I used several national flags as I was taking this one to work and there are several nationalities represented there.

You can form the rings on your own, but I went to my favorite Scandinavian shop, http://www.ingebretsons.com/ and found the specially made pans that have the rings in them.