Christmas Cheer

*~~*~~*December 23, 2012*~~*~~*

Why, hello there!

It would seem that you caught our little family in the height of Christmas preparation. At the moment, we're in  a nice little lull while T treks through the (not) snow to find the remaining ingredients for his favorite Christmas treat-Crispy Peanut Butter Balls (also known as Crispy Buckeyes but due to this last year's fiasco with OSU and our general distaste of Ohio in general, we've gone with the former name). I told him I would make them if he went out and got the stuff for it.

This has definitely been the season of home-made goodness around here. I made a strong attempt at beer-cheese soup a few days ago and it didn't go very well. That particular beer was on discount at our local liquor store and every time T drank it, he'd have some kind of weird internal reaction that made me think he might be allergic to it. He likes dark beers and I don't really like to drink much beer at all, but I figured if I boiled the hell out of it, it'd be fine, right??

Not so much. The consistency was weird and the taste was VERY sour and made both of us feel icky on the inside. So we made a pizza instead. Such is life!! I don't ALWAYS succeed at every attempt to try something new, but usually I get pretty close. This time I blame the beer. T says we don't need to put a blame on anything...but I still blame the beer.

Today, we are celebrating the Norweigian tradition of "Lille Julaften", or "Little Christmas Eve." This website does a decent job explaining Lille Julaften better than I can (being new still to this and all), but I figure I can still sum it up a bit. Norwegians celebrate December 24th as Christmas and the 25th as 1.juledag (First Christmas Day) and actually the 26th as 2.juledag (Second Christmas Day). If you know anything about Norwegians, they are a very quite, slow to anger people who like to take their time and take things in moderation, so it makes perfect sense to me that they would be the ones to come up with the idea of spreading Christmas out over a period of four days. That way, on the 27th, you are fully rested, full of joy and Christmas cheer, and ready to go back to work. I really like this idea, actually. I've discovered I like the Norwegian attitude of "slowly but surely," and I think it helps to really enjoy the Christmas holiday, rather than just doing it all on one day and going back to work the next day, almost like it never happened.

ANYWAY, getting off my soapbox now.

Now, normally today would be the day in which the Norwegian families would pick out, put up, and decorate the Christmas tree with decorations they created over the last few weeks. We aren't as patient as T's ancestors and did go ahead and put the tree up and decorated it a few weeks ago. In our defense, there are several hand-made ornaments on the tree, so I think we're good with the tradition still. Once the tree is up and decorated, then the gifts are placed under the tree.

Since today is the first day of the celebration, of course we have to do something special for one of our meals. Traditionally, today is the first taste of the Christmas foods (such as the __ which is a dried and spiced leg of mutton), so I did go ahead and try something that reminded me of the Norwegian tradition of wholesome, hearty foods eaten in moderation and well-balanced:

Tada! Home-made butternut squash soup!! It took just over two hours from start to finish, and it's DELICIOUS!! Even T liked it (he usually likes soups that are more broth-y and less creamy) and I was sure to warm the French loaf slices just like his mother does (a little butter on one side of each slice, wrap in tin foil and put in the oven for 20-30 minutes on low) and we were VERY satisfied, but not stuffed or uncomfortable. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of myself on this one! If you want the recipe, let me know-I'd be happy to share!!

Anywho, back to baking. Last year I tried the traditional "kringla," a Norwegian cookie dusted in powdered sugar.

You can wrap them like pretzels (shown), wrap them in "Q" shapes, or wrap them in the "infinity" shape. I went ahead with the infinity shape and brought them with us on our trip home. Honestly, they weren't really a big hit, which was a bit of a disappointment to me, but it was worth a try. I think the flavor was too understated for my side of the family, and his side had a BAJILLION cookies to choose from. At any rate, I'm glad I tried it, and I feel like I learned something about popularity and the nature of the cookie at the same time. *smiles*

I also made Anisette cookies:

I actually took a picture of these!! Yay! Now that I think about it, I think I was going for a "Heritage Christmas" theme. These are actually supposed to be a German tradition (according to the internet...) and they were...okay. They were also a little dry, and didn't flatten the way i expected them to. The glaze was supposed to be thicker, I think, but I really didn't know what the outcome was supposed to look like, so I just followed the recipe.

And of course, can't have Christmas without the sugar cookies!!

Obviously I only had two colors of frosting, so we did what we could with what we had. Those were really good!! They were gone first. =)

This year, I branched out just a little to include some of my favorite sweet treats that I just never have the time to make:

Sugar cookies!!

This year, we had a little thing of food coloring, and I kinda went to town with it just a little. I'm not sorry!! They look really good and I'm just DYING to sample one...

Lemon bars!

Somehow, the crisp, refreshing lemon flavor just got under my skin this year and I had to do the lemon bars. I am really excited to take a taste of these as well!! This is sans powdered sugar.

Banana bread!

I really just like banana bread, and I REALLY don't like having a ton of black bananas in my freezer.

Seriously. A ton.

And of course, the Crispy Peanut Butter Balls!

T's personal favorite. Both of our families have a tradition of these, but I really liked his family's tradition of adding the extra crunch. I think it helps to keep the peanut butter off the roof of my mouth a little.

And, Lucy gets to lick the jar.

So, yes. Lots of baking.

And in keeping with the tradition of Lille Julaften, we will each open one present from the other tonight. We threw in just a tiny twist-he gets to choose which one he wants me to open, and vice versa. We plan to make a light dinner (in preparation for the rich foods to come tomorrow) and just enjoy the anticipation of tomorrow and the fun things we do to celebrate. Most traditional Norwegian celebrations include 7 different kinds of treats, but frankly I'm just not that motivated.

Merry Lille Julaften, friends, and we'll be back tomorrow with our Julaften celebration!!

*~~*~~*December 24, 2012*~~*~~*

Merry Julaften!!!!!

Today we started out with a DELICIOUS couple of pieces of banana bread and a couple of cups of apple juice. Then T finished the Crispy Peanut Butter Balls and Lucy got a hair cut!

We did run into a problem with the Christmas dinner, though. We were supposed to have Peking Duck with our favorite appetizer, soup, and dessert from our favorite gourmet Chinese restaurant here in the area.

We ordered it on Friday and they said they'd be able to do it, no problem. Two days went by and we heard nothing from them, so we figured we were good to go. I had T give them a call yesterday evening to verify our order and they very nonchalantly said they couldn't do it. We were shocked! No call? No attempt to contact us at all? They said they tried to call on Saturday but we didn't have any missed calls. I was so angry! I'm not one of those people who likes to stereotype others but it was clear to the woman on the phone that this just wasn't a big deal. She asked if we'd like to order something else and T told her no! Why would we after this crappy interaction!?! She didn't care. He basically just hung up and we sat in angry silence for a few minutes.

Then we decided to take a break from it. We went ahead and did the last Sunday in Advent stuff, had dinner, each opened a present, and had a couple of cookies. I got T the portable iHome speaker so that we aren't tripping over a bunch of cords when we want to stream something on Netflix and we want to use the speakers. It's a VERY powerful speaker!! T loves it. =) He got me an Izod teal wallet. It's very nice, and the perfect color!! We had a great time playing with the speaker and finishing baking.

We then talked about dinner, and decided to go with Bob Evans's Family Take-Out. We're getting turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, broccoli, coleslaw, and pie. We're going to stuff ourselves silly and then go for a lovely midnight jaunt to walk it all off. Then, of course, the presents and cookies!!!!

We are very excited to celebrate with our little family, and we hope your celebration is full of happiness, delicious things to eat, and love all around.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!