Christmas 2013

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  We celebrated Christmas as our usual.  We spent Christmas Eve at home.  We had our traditional supper of ham, comle, and lefse.  This year with it we had cranberry sauce and green beans.  To drink, for a special treat, we always get sparkling  juice.
After supper, we open presents from each other.  We tried to make it take a while this year, by taking turns opening.

We woke up to a beautiful fresh snow fall on Christmas Day.  It truly was a white Christmas.  Christmas Day usual wakes us up earlier - everyone (kids) are anxious to see what Santa has brought.

 After we open our Santa presents and get ready for the day, we head to my grandparents'.  There we celebrate with relatives.  We eat a late lunch.  We usually have ham, meatballs, potatoes, a bunch of side dishes, and bread.  We open presents, have desserts, play, and visit.

 We usually stay up at my grandparents' for a couple days afterwards, but this year we didn't.... besides John and Sarah.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I love Christmas time!  I love:
                                                 the music
                                                 the present wrapping
                                                 the giving of presents
                                                 the baking
                                                 the decorating
                                                 ... and much more.
But, we need to remember the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus coming to Earth to eventually die on the cross and forgive us for our sins.

I have been doing A LOT of baking.  The pictures right above and right below is all the baking I did for just one bake sale (to earn point for my choir trip).  I went a little over board.

We made these ornaments for the Sunday School kids (2 &3 year olds) to give to their parents for Christmas.  The kids' work was to have to have their picture taken.  Then the ones that were there the day we painted the frame part, painted it.  My Mom and I painted the others.  Some of the kids picked out what background they wanted.  And, they colored a white paper bag to put the ornament in and picked a ribbon to tie it with.  I did all the assembling.

 Our Christmas tree(s).  The one on the left is our actually Christmas tree... but it is fake.  We used to always get a real tree, but a few years ago we switched to a fake one.  I like REAL ones.  When I have my own house I am going to go cut down my own tree.  Well, since our tree is fake, I go this cute, little, real tree.  I was at Menards with my Mom one day and I saw this tree.  I just had to get it!  It is outside on our porch.  We put some soil in a pot, put the tree on the pot, added some water, and let the tree freeze into the pot. 

 I put together a little goodie bag for my Sunday School kids.

I little Christmas treat for my friends.

 More baking!

 I have been making it a tradition to make and give my relatives fudge.

Last Sunday night we had a girls and boys cross country Christmas party.  We forgot to get a picture.

Merry Christmas!

White Mice

I have seen many different names for these cookies:  Snowballs, Pecan Sandras, Powdered Sugar Dainties, Pecan Shorts.  But, my Grandma calls them White Mice, so that is what I am going to call them.  I have never really had one of these cookies before, until just a week or so ago when I made them.  My Grandma has always made these around Christmas, but I have never had one.  Well, I decided to give them a try.  THEY ARE SO GOOD!  I made them a week or so ago and then again last night.  I thought they would make a great little Christmas treat for friends.

But, I also decided to test to see which is the best temperature to bake them at.  My Grandma's recipe says to bake them at a low temperature for about 40 minuets.  I tried them at 275, 300, 325, and  350.  I for sure liked the 350 ones least.  They were done on the outside but still a little doughy on the inside.  The 275, 300, and 325 were all about the same.

I called my Grandma to see what temperature she actually bakes them at.  She said 300 or 325.  Different ovens bake differently.  She said that as long as they are done.

White Mice

1 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar + extra for rolling
2 cups flour
1 t. water
1 t. vanilla
1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix ingredients together.
Form into balls, maybe a little smaller then a walnut.
Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 min.
When cooled shake/roll in powdered sugar.

Some recipes say to roll them in powdered sugar while they are still warm.  I think waiting till the cookies have cooled is better.  Otherwise the powdered sugar starts to melt on the cookies and becomes more gummy.  They still taste fine, but they aren't as pretty.

Enjoy!  They are kind of addicting:)

 I packaged them up and made some little tags for them to give to my friends for a little Christmas treat.

What I Have Been Wearing Lately - Before Chirstmas

I"M JOGGING!!

Ok.  It's been a while that I haven't any any cast on... since the beginning of October.  Lots has changed since then... so I haven't blogged about my ankle for a while.  After I got that darn cast off, I could barely walk.

At physical therapy I pretty much had to re-learn how to walk.  Limping can cause other problems, and I really didn't want that to happen.  The physical therapist gave me some exercises to do to strength my ankle back up.  With a couple visits, I was making progress.  I started to go out for walks (...and, ok, I did do a LITTLE jogging during them).  Then, the physical therapist gave me the ok to walk for a couple minuets, then jog for a couple minuets, and repeat that a couple times.  Each week I was to increase the amount of jogging.

The first couple times I went for a walk/jog (about mid-November) I felt like I was flying.  But, then my leg realized that it hadn't been used for a while.  Everything in my leg hurt!  A day after I would do some walking/jogging I was pretty much limping.

About two weeks ago I biked a little on our stationary bike.  The next day jogging felt good!  Then about last week, someone suggested to me that I maybe I should do some biking.  So, this past week, I have been biking and walk/jogging every other day, and it so far has been making jogging a lot nicer.

Last Saturday there was a benefit 5k for this guy at our church who has cancer.  I really wanted to walk/jog it.  I did.  It was very laid back.  It was slow... but that was ok.  It was so nice outside.  It was on a bike path and then did a loop on a trail in the woods.  Everything was covered with snow and it was pretty warm out.  It a great "race" to start back with.

So, I haven't really had any contact with my coach since the cross country season.  He sent me an email with just a question mark.  But, I wasn't going to respond to just a question mark.  Then, he sent me an email actually with words.  I responded that I was doing some walking/jogging.  Then, last week, we sent me an email saying "update".  My Mom replied that I was going to walk/jog a benefit 5k.  And, he replied, "Too soon!!!!".  Well, I discarded that.  He can't tell me what to do.  And, I felt like a robot with those emails.  I could tell that this benefit 5k was going to be very laid back... and it was.  I didn't plan to go "hard", I wanted to do it to motivate me to get out and walk/jog and because it was for a guy with cancer.  I am so glad I did it!

Only a couple weeks ago did my ankle look actually normal.  I could actually see all my bones down near my ankle.  That was pretty exciting!

Happy 16th Birthday Thomas!

Today is my brother Thomas' 16th Birthday.  It's his golden birthday - 16 on the 16th of December!

Last night it started to lightly snow.  We were all hoping for a snow day.  When Thomas was in elementary school, there was a streak of years that there was a snow day on Thomas' birthday.  So, we thought we maybe had a chance of today being a snow day.  No.  It wasn't though... oh, well.  So, the day went on with celebrating Thomas' birthday.

 

He woke up to a decorated bedroom door, he did a dollar hunt, had hamburgers for supper, opened presents, and had cake.

We did our traditional dollar hunt.

Looking for 16 $1 bills.

My Mom got some cut gold wrapping paper!

My grandma and grandpa sent him a card with money... and 16 $1 gold coins.... it is his golden birthday.

Above, he is... I don't know... but to me he looks like jolly gray giant soldier.  He is wearing most of what he got... MUC boots, a belt, an Underarmour sweatshirt, a waste basket for his room, and he is holding a few little thing he got.

Birthday Cake!

He successfully blew the candles out in one breath.

Happy 16th Golden Birthday Thomas!

So... I Made Another Rag Quilt

 So, I made another rag quilt.  This one took me a bit longer to make than the ones I have made in the past.  My Mom asked me one day if I would like to make another rag quilt.  She had been going through our fabric and we had a lot of just the solid colors left.  She also had gotten some coupons to Jo-Ann's for flannel.  I said sure and that I was actually kind of feeling like making one.

I love the way this one turned out.  It is NOT one bit perfect.  But, that's o.k.  It is a rag quilt.

Adding it to the collection.  Now there are enough for everyone in my family.

You can follow my directions here on how to make a rag quilt.

Grandma's Casserole

This is one of those easy, go-to meals.  My Mom makes it often.  It is one that her Mom, my Grandma, has made.  It is super yummy!

Roughly chop the potatoes and carrots.  Just remember the larger they are, the longer it will take the casserole to bake.

You can peel the potatoes if you want, or just wash them good, and then chop them.

Mix it all together.

Grandma's Casserole

2 lbs. hamburger, cooked and drained
Carrots, about 1 lb.
Potatoes, about 2 lbs.
2 cans Healthy Choice Cream of Mushroom soup

Cook and drain the hamburger.
Peel and roughly chop the carrots.
Peel potatoes and chop them, or just wash and chop them.
Mix the hamburger, carrots, potatoes, and the cream of mushroom soup together.
Bake in a large casserole dish at 350 degree until the carrots and potatoes are tender (at least an hour, usually longer).

Enjoy!