Christmas 2012

Our Christmas Cookie Baking Marathon was a tradition again this year.  However, we were able to spread it over 3 days time instead of cramming it all into one, which made the planning and process much smoother.

 Aaron's least favorite cookie to make due to the great detail it takes to put it together.  It's so pretty and Christmasy that we have to make it every year now.  And it's tradition for Aaron to get mad while making it too.

We spent Christmas here with just the two of us, for the first time and last time ever.  It was the most relaxing Christmas we have ever had, even though it was different.  We really enjoyed the day.

Christmas Morning

 Starting with some percolated coffee

And cherries in front of the Christmas tree

Stockings and gifts were next

And of course our Christmas tradition of German pancakes and the movie Elf

Later in the day we took a family sunset walk

Kiah loves the snow, almost more than water.  This is her favorite thing to do--have us chuck snowballs at her face as hard as we can so she can catch them in her mouth and eat them.

The moon even came out to greet us as the sun went down.

Best buds

We finished off the day with a nice goose dinner, compliments of Aaron's hunt earlier this fall..  It turned out really well.  We stuffed it with apple and orange slices and baked it just like a turkey.  It tasted kind of like roast beef.

The season went by quickly, but we were extremely blessed and look forward to what the New Year brings!

Thanks Oma and Opa!

This is what we did with the picture frames you sent us....

Finished product!

The Holidays!

The river has been freezing up for quite some time now and is probably just about thick enough to drive on.  It's amazing how this location transforms from summer to winter and looks completely different.  Even though the temperatures have been consistently cold (the high for this week is supposed to be something like -5, which doesn't even factor in the windchill), we are lacking in snow.  It's the strangest thing, like it's too cold to snow.  So instead there is ice everywhere.  A few weeks ago we had an "ice storm" of sorts that made the entire town of Bethel into an ice rink, but it was not a fun one.  I've never experienced ice that is so hard to walk on, mostly because it was inescapable.  No matter which way you turned, there was glare ice with no snow coverage, sand, or dirt to give you any traction.  Needless to say, we have already made good use of our ice cleats this winter.  We did have a slight warm-up yesterday that gave us a little dusting of snow, so at least we might see a white Christmas yet.

With the holiday season underway, we have also gone to Saturday Market several weekends in a row, which is a local crafts and hobby market that is especially exuberant during the holiday season.  We managed to get some pretty unique and fun Christmas gifts for a few people, but these little booties were more of a gift to ourselves for the little one coming!  Handmade booties were one of the few things I knew I wanted to get as a "specialty, but not really necessary" item for the baby.  However, I still think they will be very useful and practical for the wintertime.

 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with some friends, and I experienced deep-fried turkey for the first time!  It was an interesting process but not one that seemed any harder than a traditionally baked turkey.  Plus, it turned out to be really good!  I thought it might be a little too greasy for my liking, but it was actually just a lot more tender and juicy than baked turkey.

 It was a bit cold, however, to be standing outside to fry a turkey, but our fryers did a good job!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we commenced our holiday decorating but this time with a new tradition to complement it: homemade donuts!

 Snacking on these with some spiced coffee made decorating that much more fun, and we're excited to keep up traditions like this with our kids in the years to come (which will most likely require some additional elements like sprinkles and hot cocoa).

We ended the day with some egg nog, a homemade tea ring, and Home Alone, of course, to officially kick off the Christmas season.