Oh Christmas Tree…

It’s  beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house.  If you remember back a few weeks, Alyssa couldn’t wait to get her Christmas decorations up.  I made her wait until at least the day after Thanksgiving because I was “defending November.”  Well obviously now that we are about two weeks from Christmas day, she has decorations up all over.  The last thing to go up was our Christmas tree.  We both wanted a real tree this year.  We love the smell and there is just no way a fake tree can truly look and feel like a real fir.  Monday night we went out in the cold to Storheim’s where we hmmmd and hawwwd for half an hour before finally picking the one we wanted.  We loaded it in the truck, brought it home and I struggled with my dull hacksaw to cut the end off, but finally we got it in the stand.  Since Alyssa was on call Tuesday night and we wanted to be able to have a glass of New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red while listening to Christmas music, we waited to decorate til Wednesday night.  Since this was our first Christmas after marriage our ornaments are a bit of a mismatch.  

We picked up a few at Presents of Mine, a few at Hobby Lobby, a couple at Shopko, and so on.

Our tree topper is the best mismatch of all though.  During our two years in Davenport we never had a true tree topper so last year I threw a trapper hat on top and called it good.  After looking at the ornaments we picked up this year and seeing how they all fit a sort of ski lodge theme, we knew that the hat had to go back up.

Guardian of the Tree

So now it sits proudly up on top of our real Christmas tree waiting to guard the presents.

Now if only it could protect the skirt from Ellie.

Skirt Thief

 

Busy week…

We were slacking on posting the past week. With a short work week and lots of family to see, the blog was on the back burner. We had 6 family parties in 4 days; including 3 Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday and one on Saturday. Needless to say we are stuffed to the gills after all the eating. It was great to spend time with family and friends and even more so that we didn’t have to travel to see them for the first time in 7 years for me. The long drives were definitely the worst part of coming home for the holidays. We are blessed that all four sets of our grandparents live in town so it makes seeing everyone easy for us, especially now that we live back in the area. Since last week was so busy with family and friends, this coming week we have lots of projects we want to work on before Christmas so we will share them all with you. We have decorating, table building, finished pictures of our bedroom and a crafty project up there, plus a recipe or two. I’ll leave you with a picture that sums up our week, the Spring Dog laying down for a nap at 5:00. That rarely if ever happens but she was beat after the busy week.

Krapsua and Spring Dog Coffee: Our weekend

This weekend we were supposed to go to Milwaukee to spend a “cousin’s weekend” with Korey, Amy, Elina, Angela, and Alison, but we had things to get done around the house that we would have had to put off almost til Christmas if we went.    When we moved in there was a pedestal sink and no electrical outlets or storage in the bathroom.  This was fine when I was the only one living here all summer; I don’t need to blow dry my hair or set my makeup anywhere.  Alyssa didn’t want to go with this set up for long.  A few weeks ago we installed electrical outlets throughout the 2nd floor and I had built a towel rack earlier this fall so next up was a place for Alyssa to set her stuff.  We had ordered a vanity from True Value and Alyssa’s dad was free on Saturday to help put it in.  With Thanksgiving and a few other trips coming up in the coming weekends, cousin’s weekend was switched to vanity installation weekend.  Before we installed the vanity I had to fuel up.  I love breakfast food and one of my favorite breakfasts is krapsua.  It’s a Finnish oven pancake that is a mix between crepes, Swedish pancakes, and a souffle.  I remember we used to have it on Christmas morning every year growing up after opening presents.  I think it has been a couple years since we had kropsua on Christmas morning and I had never made it on my own until a recently, maybe a couple weeks after the wedding.  One night I was flipping through Fantastically Finnish , a cookbook my grandma had given me for Christmas a couple years ago when I came across a few recipes for Finnish Oven Pancakes.  I decided to make it the next morning and surprise Alyssa.  I wasn’t sure if she would like it but took the chance anyway. Turns out she loves it and has requested it almost every Saturday morning since.  It’s extremely easy and tastes fantastic, probably even better if you have memories of it like me, but Alyssa thinks so too.  Every kitchen I know has all the ingredients on hand so you can try it next weekend and thank me later.

Gather all of your ingredients together and preheat your oven.

Put your pan in the oven and throw some butter in while they are heating. Whisk together a couple  of beaten eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and salt until the batter is smooth.  You can use 2 cups of regular milk or one cup of milk and one cup evaporated milk or half and half.  Evaporated milk gives it more flavor I think, but use what you have.

Pour the batter into your sizzling pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.

When you pull it out it will be airy and bubbly, but it collapses on itself out of the oven.  Cut a big hunk and spread some strawberry or raspberry jam on it and slather maple syrup on top.  The only thing that makes them better is a cup of hot Spring Dog coffee to wash it down, which as promised, will make its appearance here in a few weeks.

After fueling up with krapsua and coffee we got the vanity installed with only one minor mishap.  I will post pictures of the finished bathroom once we get the new medicine cabinet installed soon.  Alyssa is very happy to have somewhere to set her stuff while she gets ready now.

 

Krapsua (Finnish Oven Pancake)

• 1/4 Cup Butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups milk or 1 cup milk and 1 cup evaporated milk or half and half
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375.  Melt butter in 2 8-inch round metal pans or a 13×9 pan (I use 2 8-inch square pans usually).  In a large bowl, with wire whisk, beat eggs and add milk, flour, sugar, and salt, beating until mixture is very smooth.  Pour batter into sizzling hot pans and bake for 30-40 minutes.  Remove from pans as soon as possible to avoid sticking.  Makes 3 large or 6 regular servings.

Defending November

The decorative “in-between” season is upon us.  The fall pumpkins, leaves and gourds can still be displayed, but Halloween has come and gone, and Christmas is not too far off on the horizon.   While putting away the sparkly spiders and witch shoes, it is so tempting to bring out the new Christmas decorations.  In fact, if I had my say they would most likely already be out.  However, the hubby has stated that we are going to “defend November”…and not succumb to putting out the Christmas items just yet.   My sister, Erika, was over this past weekend and said “I think that people who have their Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving are a little iffy.”  Iffy?!  I don’t want to be iffy.

     Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped me from putting out a few “wintery” items.  Ready or not, winter is coming.  This little moose was too cute to pass up.  I’ve taken a liking to the website pinterest.  I might even frequent it more than Facebook!  I recommend checking it out only when you have some spare time on your hands, because it is very addicting.  It has all kinds of recipes, DIY projects, house decor ideas, etc. etc. etc.  I recently found a simple way to make a rustic looking Christmas tree:  all you have to do is take a tomato cage and wrap it tightly with white lights = cute little tree for out on the porch or even indoors!

It may be pushing it, but I also put out some pre-lit garland over our fireplace.  I must say that it looks even better with Elf playing on the TV directly above it (playing on USA, I didn’t put in the DVD!).  If this movie doesn’t get you in the mood for the upcoming holidays, I don’t know what will!  Something tells me I’m going to have a hard time holding out until after Thanksgiving, but I’m giving it a whirl.  I’ll part with one of my favorite lines in the movie…

“First we’ll make snow angels for two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.”