When I was a young Cone...

...on the planet Remulak... I got out my cone of cotton yarn and thought of that and had a good chuckle! I finished 2 more Farmer's Market bags this week while doing some mindless knitting. When I get a few more completed, I'll take a picture of them. This is a typical shot of me on a day off...woolly socks, cowboy pajama pants, ratty sweater, and normally some tea and/or yarn nearby...

Oscar Night

Melissa and I spent the day running around together. We went to visit The Supercolon at the hospital just to say we'd seen it. I have to laugh because we both walked out of there and remarked that it wasn't as big as we thought it'd be. We headed over to the mall and did a little shopping before going to see Atonement.

We painted eggs last night which means I had to do some MAJOR championship cleaning to prepare for that. I worked all this last week and this picture of my sink proves that I've been eating nothing but cereal. Oh how I love cool, soothing tones of blue...and then that awful RED spatula has to throw everything off. And yes I individually wash and dry all my eggs, don't you? These are a dozen jumbo sized eggs that I scrutinized for hairline cracks in the store. All the other customers must have thought I have OCD. I rinsed them in some vinegar and water before we began painting. We mixed up 7 new colors last night, including a yellow that actually shows up as yellow! We had take and bake pizza for supper and then enjoyed the Oscars while working.

I forgot to take a picture of Melissa's eggs before she left. I think we were both a little tired by the time we started painting so we only made a few each. I have all kinds of ideas I'd like to try with the new colors. We got rid of the glass jars and put each color in an empty plastic pop bottle which worked REALLY well. The box is still sitting out there on the table and I'm tempted to work on a few more...

Cousin Ella

First and foremost, Happy Valentine's Day! I went home during the week to visit my parents and to have my car repaired (FINALLY!). I was fiendishly working on this baby sweater...for no one in particular. This yarn started life as a felted purse kit and I've made a blue one of the same yarn, but I was so pleased and impressed with how soft and almost roving-like the yarn was. I had since bought this pink kit for a little girl I know, and I've made a number of baby sweaters from this pattern and couldn't help but think how well that yarn would work up. And I suppose the colors were festively appropriate! I like how the colors graduate but I must admit I was a bit nervous when I saw the red creeping out of my ball of yarn. I think the colors look ok though.

Meanwhile my mother mentioned she had some baby clothes and a baby book ready to be mailed to her cousin Freddy for their new baby girl and immediately I knew who would get the sweater! I wrote a card to Freddy and Shelly and told them about Ella's sweater and how to care for it. After I wrote it, I felt a bit sheepish because I'd written "Freddy" without even thinking! He will always be Freddy and not Fred to me because Fred is his dad. He is my mother's first cousin, so therefore my second cousin...and I don't know what that makes Baby Ella! I hope she likes her sweater.

I got to cook a little this weekend which is always fun. We enjoyed a corned beef brisket and New England boiled supper, and for Valentine's I got to fool around with my French lentils. I got them in Rochester and finally got to make French lentils in puff pastry. They were very good. I boiled them with bay leaf and then cooked them up with shallots/garlic/carrot/parsnip. I have a Thyme and Tarragon French lentil soup I'd like to try. I also made the compulsory caramel pots de creme for my mother :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made BUTTER!

I made real butter! As in REAL LIVE butter! I listen to the show "The Splendid Table" whenever I can, and a few months back they did a show all about butter and she posted a recipe on her website. Of course they stress the quality of your cream, ideally unpasteurized and right out of the cow. Unfortunately I can only get supermarket quality heavy whipping cream, in this case--a quart of Sam's Choice store brand.

The recipe says to mix on medium to high speed until it separates, but the guest chef that day said that he would mix it for at least 20 minutes on low for better results. Well I beat that cream on low for twenty minutes and I swear I made myself car sick staring at the bowl and watching the cream--it was so bad I had to go and lay down! I got back up, got the cream out of the fridge and beat it on med and then on to high for another 30 minutes. I thought it would be a quick and drastic change because I remember working at camp one summer and I was in charge of frosting the brunch cakes with freshly whipped cream. They always warned me never to step away from the Hobart because it could be over whipped and turn to butter...


It took a LONG TIME to get it to butter! On the left here we have nice fluffy, expanding cream. FINALLY on the right...it has gotten heavier and deflated and you can see the buttermilk separating in the bottom of the bowl. This is poured through a sieve and you mash the butter together as if you were making a snowball and you literally WRING buttermilk out of it! You can knead salt into it if you want to but I didn't for this first try. I am curious to see if it will taste anything like clotted cream. You'll get about a pound of butter and a little more than a pint of buttermilk.

The buttermilk was interesting. It reminded me more of coconut milk in it's appearance. It almost looks like skim milk because it is quite translucent. And it is watery--not like the thick, beige stuff we get at the store. Well now all I needed was something to EAT the butter on! I baked some Valentine banana bread loaves and I used the buttermilk in an oatmeal and buttermilk bread recipe! I will be packaging up my Valentines tonight :)

I have had this butter press for EVER and I've always wanted to use it! I will take this butter home to my parents this week! :) I should bake some kringlas to go with this butter...hmmmm.

Knit Your Bit!

I know that there are people who will say I am crazy or weird, but I think it is SO important to support our troops. I have always been enamored of the WWII civilian knitting cause. Had I been alive during WWII, I would have been first in line to knit socks, helmet liners and what not for our soldiers. I also try to chat online somewhat regularly to our troops in Iraq, even if it is just to tell them about our weather, the price of gas, or what I bought at the grocery store that day. I have been told by more troops that they enjoy just hearing about normal day to day activities here at home. Needless to say, I finished two pairs of socks to mail to a soldier and his room mate in Iraq. I made them measure their feet and everything. I promised them a pair of socks way back before Christmas and I'm truly sorry it took me this long to finish them but I had to finish my Christmas knitting first! I am still working on my Toni Jacket sweater as well as a few other charted items that require PAYING ATTENTION to the pattern, but socks are totally mindless so I bring them to work and knit on them for 20 minutes here or there during down time. I'm so self conscious about knitting for the troops that when my co-workers ask me who I'm making them for, I always fib and answer, "They're for my brother." Those poor boys are over there doing a job I know I wouldn't want to do. More importantly, they are doing a job I don't think I'd be CAPABLE of doing! God bless each and every one of them! I wrote a little note to go with each pair saying that these had been knit especially for them right here in Iowa with my own two hands. And I am sure there are people who would say, "Whoop-dee-doo, a pair of socks!" but I know they will be used and appreciated. I also thanked them for the chance to actually "Knit My Bit"! Enjoy your socks Allen and Roy!

Road trip...

I went with Brenda to St. Ansgar yesterday to shop for a wedding dress! I have to say I was very impressed with the bridal shop there! She had a productive day in that she found and ordered not only her dress, but her bridesmaids' dresses and can ALSO order yardage of matching material for her nieces' dresses! I didn't have to do much because there were at LEAST 87 people working in the shop that day and they were SO attentive! At times she had TWO gals in the fitting room with her helping her select and try gowns! While she was busy with her dresses, I had fun looking at all the gowns and surveying all the lace and beadwork! That shop gets nothing but top marks from me! We then trekked over to JoAnn Fabrics and she found patterns for the girls. And THEN...
...she drove me to Clear Lake to the Larson's Mercantile store which is sadly going out of business! :( A co-worker had told me about their 70% off Going-Out-Of-Business-Sale and did I mention that they stock Collinette yarn?!? We got there and the entire store was already being dismantled and everything was PICKED OVER! I literally RAN to the back of the store to the yarn area and there were only 2 skeins of Collinette left in ORANGE but I STILL grabbed them! I also snapped up 20 balls of a fabulous viscose/cotton/acrylic blend sock yarn in Glorious Technicolors and some size 17 dpn's and a pair of size 19 straight bamboo needles! SCORE! All in all, I got over $250 worth of knitting stash for $75! I swore I was going to take it home and just ROLL AROUND IN IT! Of course I was thrilled with my purchase, but I was sad to see that store close! I am sure you can't get Collinette within 150 miles of here! Every now and then on a day off, I'd trek over there to just "visit" the yarn and I'd always leave with a skein or two that I couldn't live without!

Halland Mittens

Last night I finished Melissa's mittens! :) This pattern came from Folk Mittens and is based on the logging jerseys of the Halland area of Sweden. They were knit from Lamb's Pride worsted on size 3 dpn's. I altered the cuffs to insert her initials and the year (they ARE legal because I finished the 2007 one while it was still 2007!). I am pleased with the way they turned out although I am not crazy about set in thumbs. I'd much rather knit around a gusset for thumbs. And just in time because it has been bitterly cold here and it snowed again last night. I will give these to her tonight! :)

Melissa held a Lia Sophia jewelery party at her home on Saturday night. She served a lovely lunch and had a lot of company! We all parted with a lot of money! Her sister also came with her new baby and I got to meet Aspen! This had been her first big road trip! I knit her a cap from the Star Lace Baby set found in Homespun Handknit. I started out with some homespun silk but after 3 hours realized it was going to be too small. I started over again with some Koigu left over from my niece's Kottou cardigan...only to RUN out just short of finishing! I 'edged' it in ribbing knit with more Koigu--left over from Lisa's Christmas socks a few years ago. I finished it AT the party and was able to get a picture of her in it, but at that point she was getting a little disgruntled and didn't want to sit still for long. She had had a big day! Melissa hosted a very nice party. She is now officially an established Lady Of The House!

Mmmmm.....butter

I made a 2 pound batch of puff pastry dough and baked pastry straws out of the ENTIRE batch to take to Melissa's house! I sing the praises of puff pastry all the time and I can't stress how it is WORTH the time and effort to produce from scratch! It really isn't LABOR intensive, just time consuming. It took me most of the day to make the dough and maybe an hour to roll, cut, and bake it. And I just marvel at the way it behaves every time I bake it! If you'll note above, the pastry straws look almost like wide egg noodles after they are rolled out and cut. But then they turn into...

...THIS! They puff up SO tall that they actually tip over when baked! I was going to fold in a layer of freshly grated parmesan cheese but I didn't have time. They are SO tasty and worth the trouble!

Yarn Boogers!

This is a pair of mittens I'm working on for my friend Melissa. It is knit on size 3 dpn's with worsted weight Lamb's Pride yarn. I love how fuzzies always collect onto one of the strands and just gets pushed along down through the skein as the work progresses. This booger is actually a shade of purple because the 2 colors of fuzzies blended together! Melissa has had a terrible year so I am commemorating it in these mittens with the hope of a better year. One cuff has "2007" knit into the design and this one has her initials. Incidentally, since I penciled in the design a bit differently than called for, the cuffs were also when I did the most SWEARING! These are turning out so well and they will keep her hands nice and warm! :) I met Melissa on our very first day of orientation when we started working at the hospital and I don't know what I did without her.

Christmas Socks

Now imagine that in the baritone and seldom heard voice of Mr. Bean.... I just got home from a family weekend at my sister's lovely home in Rochester. My brother in law cooked us a ham dinner and we exchanged gifts and opened our stockings the following morning. I always try to knit socks for the women every year at Christmas and I drew my brother's name so I knit him a pair as well. Here they all are for the compulsory blog photo. The four socks on the left were knit from "Licorice" which is a thick and thin plied 100% wool yarn from Sensations brand yarn, distributed by Jo-Ann Fabric stores. They are a nice, thick, wooly sock and were very comfy. I will have to knit myself a pair out of the remnants of these since it took 2 and a bit of a 3rd ball for each pair. I knit them with my basic sock formula but I used only 36 stitches instead of 48 on size 9 US dpn's. They knit up quickly too: you can easily knit one whole sock in an afternoon. Thank you everyone for such a fun family weekend! Happy Late Christmas!

Christmas Spoilers!

We are getting together as a family officially later today in Rochester so I feel I can safely post pictures of some of my gifts...

I knit this pair of busy Fraggle looking socks out of my skein of Mango Moon yarn edged with a little Lion Brand Fun Fur. I thought they would capture the attention of a 6 year old! These are for my older niece who recently had a birthday and will be given to her as a belated gift.

Here is a picture of her actual birthday gift in this AWESOME cowboy boots gift bag! She is going through a major cowboy/cowgirl/horse phase right now so I think she'll like the bag! I also found some awesome faux leather fabric and made a box bag for her with some western-y trim. I used 2 different shades of the leatherette and it's the exact same embossed design as the gift bag! And since it is for my cowgirl niece, I started calling it a "saddle bag"!

My baby niece was a bit trickier this year as far as gifts. I got her some baby dishes and a sippy cup because she is eating more solids, and I bought her two nice books, but she was kind of tricky as far as making things because she is growing so fast. This baby bonnet was knit from a pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (I absolutely LOVE this book!) from some Lamb's Pride worsted in a Martha green and edged with an I-cord of some remaining hand dyed Lamb's Pride. I love this yarn because it is a mohair blend and it gets fuzzier the more you wear it! It is very soft too and will keep her nice and warm!

I couldn't resist making her a pair of elf slippers! This is a pattern I found over at Allsorts and was just a snap to make! I enlarged the pattern though to fit a 5 1/2 inch little foot! I'm tempted to try enlarging it for MY foot! She is just starting to walk so I might need to take along some elastic to hand sew into them to help keep them on her feet!

We have started drawing names for our family gift exchange, but I usually make a little something for the women. These are some felt candle mats with tiny confetti buttons sewn on. Each mat has about 120 buttons sewn onto the top piece which is then blanket stitched onto a bottom piece to hide the button stitching. I was very pleased with they way they turned out. I was going to make a green one for myself but ran out of buttons so I'll have to think of another way to decorate mine. I thought about using the remainder of the buttons on my niece's elf shoes, but I hate to sew too much of anything onto them for fear she'll pull them off and put them in her MOUTH!
We also have the tradition of having Christmas crackers on the table every year for Christmas lunch. We've done this for several years now. I used to order them from Absolutely Crackers every year but it got to be a challenge to find a package large enough (we needed over 12) and frankly, the best part of the cracker is the PRIZE! ;) Then I found Olde English Crackers where you can order the snaps and hats individually and I've made them every year since. I ordered a gross of snaps and hats which will keep us in crackers for some time! I always have my eyes open for a nice foil wrapping paper for them, and not only do you have to save your toilet paper centers for MONTHS, but all year you have to watch out for prizes that will fit INSIDE the rolls!
And here are the finished crackers! I found some appropriate mottos and riddles and typed them up to put inside with the hat, snap and prize, cut out the wrapping paper to 15 x 6" and rolled them up using double sided tape. The secret to crimping them smoothly is to roll up an extra toilet paper roll on either side of the wrapper edge. Then pull the extra roll out to create 2" gap between the cracker roll and your extra roll. Then you gently twist the two while pushing them together. This will crimp off the paper over the edge of the actual cracker roll to keep the contents inside. Then remove the extra roll. This way your wrapper end of the cracker stays nicely shaped and smooth. Do this on either side. The paper was cut 15" wide but after crimped they were about 12" wide because so much is used to twist and crimp over the edges of the cracker roll.

I am so excited to go and spend 2 days with my family! I hope everyone had a good Christmas this year! And I got flexed tonight from work so I'd better take advantage of this extra time that was given me! Happy Late Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I had Christmas Eve off but I work tonight and very soon will don my kerchief and settle my brain for a short winter's nap. We will be getting together to celebrate as a family this coming Saturday at my sister's home. I am keeping busy with last minute preparations and finishing up a few stray projects. Tonight I am bringing a gallon of spiced cider (well, less the amount I spilled on my kitchen floor while trying to pour it back into the jug!) and my tupperware full of frosted sugar cookies! And I think tonight you get to have anything you want from the canteen as your Christmas meal! Have a wonderful day everyone! Travel safely and exercise food safety! ;) Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

I'm tired of baking!

Never thought you'd hear me say that, did you? I had some fun fooling around in my kitchen on my last days off. All this lovely, chocolatey goodness is part of an experiment I've been wanting to try for some time. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am just crazy for McVities biscuits from the UK! We have a recipe from Skogfjorden for some crackers/flatbread made with crushed corn and bran flakes, as well as oatmeal. Normally you roll them out thinly and just cut them into crackers with a pizza cutter and bake. But I was thinking how similar they kind of are to McVities and how lovely they'd be if they were thicker and coated with some milk chocolate (what WOULDN'T be lovely with a coating of chocolate?!?) Instead of crushing the flakes, I pulverized them as WELL as the oatmeal in my blender and mixed them up, rolled the dough to 1/8"ish thickness and cut them into rounds and baked them.
Here is the finished product and I was quite pleased with them. Of COURSE, the only suitable chocolate could ONLY be Cadbury's and I had a stash of Dairy Milk bars I had been saving for this express purpose. I thought they turned out quite well and I sent the batch home with my dad when he stopped in on his way through town on Wednesday. I baked these crackers and entered them in the local county fair when I was a young 4-Her! :) I got a "Super Blue" on them as I recall. And I also remember that my judge had actually BEEN to Skogfjorden and was excited about them after reading my little write-up that accompanied them. Ah the days of the 4-H fair...
I just made a triple batch of THESE fussy things at my parents house earlier in the week. They are safely tucked in their chest freezer in the garage. I kind of cheated on MY cookies because I didn't make any star shapes! They are my LEAST favorite to frost! And I'd always frost them blue, and really blue isn't a Christmas color. I am pleased with the assortment I arrived at though. Just think of all the carcinogens in those artificial colors! I will bake some EASY round cookies in January and frost them in different shades of Martha Blues for our Urban Family Winterfest. They will be "Winter Solstice" cookies! And then in February we have hearts. I like easy-to-frost shapes! We are having pot luck at work tonight and I will bring these and a gallon of spiced cider. It is heating/mulling on my stove as I type and smelling up the whole house! Num num!

Lefse Tutorial

This weekend I tried to commit Suicide-By-Baking! I had to call on my friends Deedee and Rick Rack to get me un-STUCK from my driveway so I could get to Aldi's and buy ingredients in BULK! I had another "I AM CRAZY" moment when I piled them all up in my living room and just HAD to take a picture of it! I slept that afternoon and got up and began baking around 0000. I baked FORTY as in 4-0 DOZEN kringlas! It only took about 14 hours and my feet were KILLING me by the time I finished! Then I loaded up the car with half of my kitchen including but NOT limited to: my trusty stockpot, my HUGE steel bowl, my lefse spoon, my lefse griddle and stick, my footed rolling board, my pastry cloth and sock, my potato ricer, all those FLIPPING kringlas, and everything you see here! It must have taken 82 trips out to the car!

Now, to start lefse, you need to peel, cook, and drain 10 pounds of potatoes. I had boiled a batch that morning and had them sitting in the car next to me on the ride home. I had set the pot out in the front seat while I showered so they'd cool a little faster (they HAVE to be cool before you start to mix them) and honest to god, I'd STIR them every now and then while I was driving home so they'd keep cooling! My childhood babysitter and surrogate Grandmother Daisy had ordered 6 dozen kringlas and I delivered them to her on my way home and I mentioned this to her and she just LAUGHED. She also said that she had a potato ricer that she would loan me in case I wanted to RICE them during the remainder of my drive! I got a real kick out of that!
Now the RICING! If you have carpal tunnel, you probably should recruit someone to do this FOR you! Or if you are a man and you plan on having kids, you probably shouldn't do this either because I swear I could feel veins standing out in my NECK as I did this! This is the fussiest part! But you rice them TWICE so they are SMOOO-T (smooth in Iowegian). The second ricing is my favorite because it is SO much easier! My hands hurt more than they do after a day of Temari stitching or spinning!

Next you add your liquids which consists of cream, butter and some salt (only the FINEST ingredients! ;) Note my AWESOME lefse spoon! I got that at Gold Rush Days in Rochester! It is my tallest and most sturdy spoon and I just love that it is an antique! It is perfect for mixing BIG batches of stiff dough because you can brace it against your forearm and get some fulcrum action going! After you mix in all that lovely fatty goodness, you have the most DELICIOUS mashed potatoes you've ever tasted. It's also about this time that my mother will come and dish out a bowl for herself to EAT! The big wooden spoon also comes in handy to BEAT interlopers like mothers to get them away from the bowl!

Next you add your flour. Lefse is a VERY Norwegian food and it is made differently all over the country depending on the region. One of the fun things Mom and I did was to go through ALL of her cookbooks. You know how EVERY church/community/Ladies' Circle has their own cookbook. Mom dug out at least a dozen and most of them belonged to my late Grandmother. Some recipes call for yeast, some call for whole wheat flour, some are crispy, etc. We had fun looking through all those old cookbooks. My mother truly has a goldmine on her kitchen counter. Almost an oral history of Norwegian cooking (but it can't be oral because it's printed!) But for the most part, I think most midwestern Norwegians are familiar with the generic lefse we make. My mother made a good point, "Lefse should taste like POTATOES, not like flour," and I concur. So the flour part is not always absolute. There has to be enough where you can roll it out, but not so much that flour is all you taste. The mixture should resemble a VERY STIFF mashed potatoes and just be the slightest bit sticky. I swear you use more flour rolling it out than you do in the actual mixture.
A 10 pound potato batch will make 60-72ish pieces of lefse, depending on how how big you want them to be. We made 12-14" pieces. They are rolled PAPER thin. Note all the flour all over the counter. I can't stress enough to be liberal with the flour as you roll them or you will have a MESS. Your pastry board and rolling pin sock should be impeccably clean too. Any little dough booger on your pin sock will tear holes in your

lefse. It is handy to keep a butter knife next to your work area to scrape off any 'acquired' boogers. I always like to use stainless steel scoops to portion out the dough (especially if I'm cooking for the Public so that the pieces are uniform).

Roll your piece of dough up onto your pin to transfer it to the griddle. Your griddle should be 500 degrees. I have a Bethany griddle, made right here in Cresco, IA. Mine is teflon coated and I just LOVE it! I remember as a little girl standing on a chair in front of the stove and flipping over Mother's flat stovetop griddle. This electric one is SO slick!
Here is my mother demonstrating her "Swish and Flick" technique! She is using the traditional lefse stick. This stick is also a Bethany brand stick and it has a lovely blunt end so you don't tear your lefse. Bethany grills and accessories can be purchased in the Decorah and Rochester Walmarts--or I suppose anywhere there is a large Scandinavian population (or online of course).

We got some weather while we were baking! We had my mother's 20 cup electric coffee maker (ANY self respecting Lutheran woman has one of these for when she hosts a luncheon!) full of cider and mulling spices and we sipped on it all day to fortify ourselves! What a lovely thing to do during a snow shower! We stayed nice and warm huddled around the lefse grill! :)
And FINALLY.....we had labored to produce.....a stack of lefse! We made 3-60ish pieces of lefse batches and piled them 20 to a stack (any more than that and they get too heavy and SQUISH and you'll never get them separated) and kept them covered in towels until they were cooled. Then we separated them and folded them up into quarters and packaged them 6 per bag. We had a really good response from the community and my dad was SO GOOD and DELIVERED them to people! I felt like I had been a good Norwegian girl! It was a lot of work and I was falling asleep in my chair at 2200 but I was glad I had done it! I had a lot of people ask if we'd do it again in the spring! We even got a MAIL ORDER! A woman in Williamsburg, IA called and wanted us to send her 4 dozen kringlas! We sent them Priority Mail and I talked to her on the phone and assured her that they'd get there OK because I had mailed kringlas to Iraq in AUGUST and they'd gotten there OK.

I guess I had forgotten how fussy lefse is. I still had 10 dozen or so kringlas left and I know many people will make their own kringlas, but not too many people make their own lefse. I am so thankful I grew up surrounded by so many proud Norwegians and I was lucky enough to learn about our traditions and I am proud to carry them on. When I first started making lefse, my Grandpa Maynerd gave me his hobnail lefse rolling pin. It was carved out of a branch from a tree that grew on the Family Farm. I nearly cried when he gave it to me. I miss him dearly. His brother is in Colorado and Mother and I sent him a box full of kringlas and lefse! :) That was our good deed for the whole MONTH!
Merry Christmas everyone! I know it is still early, but I am just feeling so Christmassy! I love all the preparations! Christmas seems to be the time when all our family traditions come out. We should try to make family traditions all the year through. We can be thankful and remember the reason for the season all year. We must remember and thank Him all year. Christmas is a nice reminder though. So now you know everything you'd ever wanted to know about lefse, so go and BAKE SOME!

Oh, and as an added note...our Dear neighbor Bill came and had lunch with us. He is in his ninety's and is a Good Norwegian. We put some fresh and hot off the griddle lefse in front of him to eat. It was SO GOOD to visit with him. His wife was Swedish and we talked about Lutefisk and traditions. Bill used to come down to our basement during Christmas dressed in his Santa costume and we have pictures and fond memories of him. And Mother talked about the varieties of lefse in Norway. My Grandpa Maynerd and his wife Grandma Joann had family backgrounds totally different because of the area in which their parents grew up in Norway. It was so awesome to hear about how their families arrived in the United States (Mom talks about how when my Grandma's family arrived in Canada and traveled south, it was during the Fall and they saw pumpkins growing on the vine and they thought they were oranges! Because remember how 100 years ago the talk of America was so wonderful--the streets are paved with gold and there are pigs running thru the streets with forks stuck in their backs calling "Eat me! Eat me!" Just ask Lillebjorn Nielsen!) And eating Lutefisk is an event in and of itself! Mother said how my grandpa ate his lutefisk on a plate with the potatoes and you'd just roll up your lefse and use it to push your fish onto your fork, but the ROGALAND area of Norway (where Grandma was from) would lay the lefse on a plate, pile your potatoes and fish onto it and then roll it up and eat it.....and how Grandpa thought Grandma was just a BARBARIAN because she ate it that way! My OTHER favorite story about them is that Grandpa and his sister Thelma and brother Stewart could all speak Norwegian but my Grandma Joann could NOT. Grandpa's parents would always say that "Joann can't be very smart because she can't speak Norwegian". Can you IMAGINE?! My grandpa started school not being able to speak English. And he didn't ever SPEAK Norwegian when I knew him, but he could always understand me when I'd speak it to him. :) I know he is proud of me. And I know he watches over me. :) Jeg elsker deg Morfar! Og jeg savner deg!

Glede Jul!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAK!

We MISS you! Call us! We couldn't have Urban Family Christmas in December due to an Urban Family Emergency, so we're going to all get together in January sometime and have Urban Family Winterfest! Melissa has a turkey, and I don't have my gifts sewn yet (are you SURPRISED?!) and we'll have it at Melissa's house when our schedules mesh. And I have a card for you but I don't know your address and I can't get ahold of you or Summer. I miss you and love you both!

I am the luckiest sister!

I have the best sister in the WHOLE world! :) Because I work as a nurse, and NIGHTS at that, it is a BIG DEAL when I get to celebrate a holiday ON THE DAY. And even then I don't usually get to be with family because I would have to travel to get to them and be awake during the day, etc. So needless to say, I was off on Thanksgiving, but I was here alone. That is Ok though. I don't need to eat a big meal and then take a nap to be Thankful, but I really missed my family that day. Oh well. Every year it seems Thanksgiving is just a chore as far as getting to celebrate with my family. But my sister had a weekend off and so did I and she came down here to stay with me! She hasn't slept here for YEARS so it was nice to have her here! We get miffed with each other and we argue like normal sisters do, but we TRULY are close. She knows me better than anyone on this earth. I was SO excited that she was coming for a visit, but she totally surprised me! She brought a box of stuffing mix, a box of scalloped potato mix, french fried onions, green beans, corn muffin mix and creamed corn for scalloped corn, and a turkey loaf! All so she could cook me a Thanksgiving Dinner! I was SO pleasantly surprised! And she used to live with me in this apartment while we went through nursing school so she knows where EVERYTHING is! We ate like kings and watched Christmas specials! I love my sister!