Christmas 2010

Usually our Christmas is filled with travel troubles as we lug suitcases full of presents through crowded airports to get back to the east coast.  This year we had no trouble at all, because we didn't go anywhere.  Literally, we were Christmas shut-ins.  Jason and I stayed in our pajamas for about 48 hours, and played board games on the wii.  The only time we got up was to eat lol.  While we certainly missed our family, it was nice to have our own little holiday.

We opened a few presents on Christmas morning, which was the most activity we did all day lol.  Gracie Lou helped, of course.  She found a new present under the tree too which kept her occupied all day! 

 We hope everyone had a great holiday, and thanks for the wonderful gifts.

My first solo batch of brittle

Every Christmas I can remember involves peanut brittle.  It's one of few recipes we can trace back several generations.  As far as we know, my great gramma Maude made peanut brittle over the holidays and passed the traditions down to my gramma, my mom, and now me.   It could go back even further, we're not sure. 

This year, for the first time, I made it myself.  Usually, I make it with my mom's supervision, but since I've been away from home now for some time, I decided it was time to give it a try.  

  

I'm happy to say, I remembered all the steps! You have to boil ingredients, use a candy thermometer, and spread the mix fast when it's done.  It's all about timing.  When we were little our job was to spread the peanut brittle.  My mom would say, 'Man your stations!"  And my sister and I would grab heavily greased spatulas and spread the nutty mix all over cookie sheets.  (This year, Jason had to help with that part.)

I made several batches and gave it away as gifts in mason jars.  Not bad for my first attempt, thanks to years of practice.

Snowmageddon

The Metrodome roof collapses under heavy snow and ice!!

There aren't too many snow storms here that rival the ones I grew up with, but this weekend Minnesota had one for the books.  On Saturday we got about 2 feet of snow, which is pretty unheard of here, at least at one time. 

If you haven't seen the video already - check it out.  There was so much snow on the roof of the metrodome, where the Vikings play, that the roof caved in!  Fox Sports was inside the dome when it happened.  It's pretty crazy video.  They're still trying to figure out how long it will take to fix.  In the meantime, they're rearranging the Viks schedule.

This video will, no doubt, be used over and over again here.  The Viks are lobbying for a new stadium, so I bet they will use this to their advantage.

I get it now

Every year my family would decorate the tree my mom would break out old ornaments that we had made over the years.  I never understood why she felt the urge to put our macaroni reindeer on the tree year after year, but now I get it.  Those ornaments have a story.  Now some of ours do too.

The shark has a story.  When Jason and I first started dating we went to a bar in Uptown and had a popular drink called a 'shark tank.'  The shark is filled with grenadine which you dump into the drink.  He kept the shark, added fishing line and hook, and gave it to me for our first Christmas four years ago.

When we were in Hawaii we bought this hand painted ornament.  We decided it would be our little tradition to get holiday ornaments from each place we travel to.

 

Our tree topper is an angel.  My mom gave it to me a few years ago.  It's the same tree topper we put on our tree every year.  My mom tried to retire her, but I wouldn't have it.  She's a little rough around the edges, but I like her.

This little toad in a throne is an ornament my Gramma gave me.  It says, "You have to kiss a lot of toads to find a prince."

This one I made with my grandparents.  They made a lot of crafts and sold things like this at various craft fairs.  I remember making a ton of them one year.

 

This angel was a gift from Jason's mom.  It's been on our tree since we moved into our house.

Eventually we'll have a tree full of stories...

All the rage

Gardeners are used to changing their planters as the season change, and now Minnesotans have come up with a winter idea.  Spruce Tip Planters.  Arrangements like the one above look great, but can cost upwards of $60.  They're all the rage in Minnesota.  They are everywhere.

But why pay $60, when you can make one for free?  I did.  We had to chop off some branches to make our tree fit in the stand so I took the extra branches and made my own planter.  I tossed a few left over decorations on it and now we've got a nice little arrangement right outside our front door.

Decorate a bulldog

Gracie Lou is never really sure what to make of the holidays.  When she watches us drag the tree in the house she tilts her head in confusion.  Unlike other dogs, she is pretty well behaved around the tree.  She doesn't try to knock it down, or eat ornaments, but this year she took interest in the Christmas lights.  She watched them blink as we tested each strand.  Since she was so interested, I decided to 'decorate a bulldog.'  This lasted for about three seconds, before she tried to run away and take the lights with her.

Finding the perfect tree

This year Jason and I stayed pretty close to home to get our Christmas tree, and we got one that is normal size.  Last year we bought a 12 foot tree, but the bigger the tree, the bigger the mess.

As usual I was on the hunt for the perfect tree.  I had Jason drive around the entire tree farm before deciding where to get out to look.

It was a really nice winter day, as nice as a winter day can be.  All the trees were laced with snow, and the temperature wasn't bad either. 

We chopped one down, brought it home, and decorated it.  We put it near the fire place this year, looks pretty good huh?