Wordless Wednesday

Lefse Fest 2009!

I began the preparations for Lefse Fest with extreme trepidation.
I had concerns you see.....because I decided to try a new recipe.

I had to shield my eyes, from the hand written recipe....made out by my Grandma Ekern.
With her cute smiley face at the end, and the word AMEN! written nice and big.

It was not out of disrespect, but I guess a decision that is matching my overall mood.
Nothing is the same. Everything is different.
Lots of things are sad.
What is REALLY important?
What isn't??
What matters?
Lefse recipe? Let's try a new one.

And we did!
I was scared, that the angry viking members of my heritage would strike me down for abandoning the family recipe....but that didn't happen!

Making it every year is something I look forward to...because it is something I do with my dear friend Maggie. Maggie and I are friends from college, we worked at Roses R Read together and have made Lefse Fest a regular tradition. One thing that I had forgotten about traditions is that they are such a great time for reflection. Looking back to last year, I was thinking about how Maggie and I both had long hair, how Finn was just kind of toddling around, and where I was at that point in time.


It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.
This year we added heavy cream and butter.
Yum.
Refrigerated the dough overnight.
And kept the rolled out balls refrigerated as we cooked some..seemed to keep them from getting too sticky.

For whatever reason....it was easier to work with. We cranked it out like naturals. Check out the size and perfect round shape of THIS one!

Finnegan was helping out by taste testing, but actually stayed out of our way most of the day!

We baked over 55 pieces and wrapped them up with delight. And oooohhh man, when you eat that last piece, and you watch the melted butter seep into it, and you roll it up and sink your teeth into it, it's a tradition you look forward to, year after year.

Santa

Does "Knucks" now.....



Awesome.

Live from the field - an EMERGENCY

So tonight I bring you some action blogging, complete with iPhone photos.

So there is this new creature in our lives...his name is Cheers.
He's an elf.
He is an awesome elf, that came with an awesome book and he is single handed-ly persuading Finn into a 1st class model citizen, based completely on his arresting manner.

You see! Cheers (named by Finn) is a Santa spy......at night he high tails it for the North Pole to check in with Santa, doing the usual naughty or nice reporting. And then in the morning when Finny wakes up! Cheers can be found in a NEW location in the house.

Well! I must say that Cheers, just tonight has overseen Finn picking up ALL his toys, eating a HUGE dinner (usually an enormous feat) and handing out LOTS of extra please, thank you's and some additional hugs and kisses. And it's SO darn cute, because after he knows he's done something well...he glances up at Cheers outta the corner of his wee little brown eye.

So TONIGHT! When Finn gobbled down the delicious dinner Nick made us......he wanted a treat! Pretty standard in our house....since dinner time can be rough. Finn gets a treat when he eats a good dinner. SO....good dinner! Good manners, good consumption.....Finn is giving Cheers the thumbs up...."Mama! Get a Treat!"

So I start looking. If you know Nick you know he has a MAJOR weakness for sweets. That is why we don't have any in our house. I am digging through cupboards, checking shelves, freezer for some summertime leftover ice cream sandwiches.....NOTHING.

And then I remember this:
Given to me by dear friend Kresha...I had been hiding it away from NICK for my own chocolate emergency and it ended up that Finn needed it more than I. So we cracked it open, and the emergency chocolate bar SAVED the night.


This is Mama Keaty, reporting live from the kitchen in somewhere Hyde Park, Chicago, Il
Good night.

We Share A Love of Music

December is the anniversary month of my enlistment in the military. This is my 14th year of playing the saxophone for the US ARMY. It is always hard leaving Nick and Finn for my monthly drills, so I thought this month I would surprise Finn by bringing my saxophone home to show him.
He was PUMPED.....immediately telling me to "put it together Mama!"


His arms aren't quite long enough to reach the keys while his yap is on the mouthpiece, but I am sure soon enough they will be. He loved breathing/humming into it and also listening to me play rousing editions of British Eighth, On Wisconsin, and the Beer Barrel Polka. I am sure our neighbor upstairs was THRILLED. The dog maintained a safe distance...


The other day when he was at Open Books with me, Kevin, our store manager was playing a jazz album through the store's sound system. Finn stopped and said "MAMA! Listen!! (pointing to his ears) SAXOPHONE!" and then "I'm gonna find it Mama!"

Poor guy was running up and down the rows of shelves looking for the saxophone. It became pretty clear that it was going to be tough to explain to Finn how the music was actually an mP3 file....put onto an iPod, playing through speakers....etc! So we quickly gave up our search.

But I will say that I was PRETTY proud that he can pick out the sound of the instrument I have been playing since I was in 5th grade. I wonder if Finn will want to play one someday...only time will tell!

Inspiration

If you are struggling to get in the Holiday spirit this year like I am, you too might be searching for inspiration.

I LOVE getting Holiday cards, but always find myself scrambling to figure out what to do for our own! I always have grand ideas in my head of these beautiful works of art, that I never seem to get the time to create.

Take a look at these beauties.......

Thanks to the Smithsonian web site for sharing these Artists' Homemade Christmas Cards.

I especially like this one....
How are you, my dear readers getting the spirit?