Top Ten Favorite Christmas Goodies

Growing up in the Gustafson household means LOTS of goodies around the holidays. My mom recently told me a story about how she would begin baking for Christmas at the beginning of December. While making the goodies, we would beg for samples and before Mom realized it, they were gone. So, she'd bake some more and we'd eat more. My mom said that she would basically bake for the entire month of December. Not much has changed over the years - we still raid the freezer whenever we come over!

Here's a list of my Top Ten Favorite Christmas Goodies:

10. Puppy Chow (rice chex cereal with chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar)
9. Chex Mix
8. Pecan Tassies (sp?)
7. Caramel Brownies
6. Peanut Butter Balls
5. Spritz Cookies
4. Sugar Cookies
3. Raspberry Bars (these are a new favorite as of last year)
2. Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
1. LEFSE!

- Jan

Growing Again

Too short, way too long, ugh.... Amaya is once again at that awkward stage where her current clothes are too short in the sleeves and legs and the next size up we're rolling up the sleeves and legs. It doesn't seem to bother her too much, except when she trying to walk along the furniture and trips on her pant legs. Yesterday morning I only had to put three different outfits on before I realized that I need to go through her clothes (AGAIN!) and start putting some things away. It's a little frustrating because some of the outfits she's only worn a few times and they are just too cute to put away already. Oh, well...

Tagged

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been "tagged" in the blog world. We've been asked by other blog readers to post a few oldie but goodie pictures from our picture file folder. We were supposed to post the 4th picture from the 4th folder and also the 5th picture from our 5th folder. I didn't like either picture considering that there were NO PEOPLE in the pictures, so I chose to post two of my favorites instead. After posting the pictures, I'm supposed to "tag" several more people, but this sort of reminds me of chain letters, so I'm stopping it here. I guess I'm just no fun! Anyway, enjoy the blast from the past!

This is taken Christmas 2006. Steve and his mom were comparing double chins!


Classic picture of our nieces and nephews. Top left to right: Jordan, Ben, Joshua. Bottom left to right: Hannah, Lydia, and Annika. This picture was also taken Christmas 2006.

Lefse!

On Tuesday, Mommy and I went to Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson's house to make lefse and decorate more sugar cookies. My Grandma and Mommy make lefse every year around Christmas-time. Grandma does most of the work beforehand because she has to boil the potatoes and then put them in a ricer to get all the lumps out and then add cream and butter and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Grandma rolled out the lefse with a bumpy rolling pin with a funny looking sock over it and Mommy put it on a gridle and flipped it with a pretty red handled stick. Grandpa and I watched them make it and waited and WAITED for a sample. The lefse was SO YUMMY!! Mommy says that I'm a true Scandinavian - I don't know what that means, but it must be a good thing! I hope that I can roll out the lefse or flip it when I get older. For now, I'll just enjoy eating it!

1/6 Of The Way Done!

As mentioned in the last post, last Tuesday night was the final day of class for the semester. We get 3 weeks off for Christmas and New Year's, then it is really busy in January with class two nights a week for (what is commonly called) "J-term". In February, the schedule normalizes with class again only once a week.

One semester down - five to go!

New Definition of Insanity

This past Tuesday night I decided to brave the weather and drive up to grad school. It took me an hour to drive from Rochester to downtown St. Paul, driving at normal highway speeds. From St. Paul to Bethel University's campus - a whopping 12 miles - it took me 2 HOURS AND 10 MINUTES. The roads were snow covered, but weren't really that bad. I think what happened was when the snow first started to fall, a few drivers didn't slow down enough and got into accidents, which caused traffic jams everywhere. Just in the stretch from St. Paul to Bethel, I saw 6 multi-car accidents and 3 cars in the ditch. I was listening to the traffic reports on the radio, and the reporters were having a difficult time even knowing where to start when listing all the accidents. One report said that in one particular area, there had been about 15 accidents in 15 minutes.

THEN... when I finally arrived at school (an hour late) I find out that the first class has about 5 minutes left and the second class has been shortened to one hour. In other words, I spent over 3 hours on the road to sit in class for about an hour! I should've suspected that we weren't going to accomplish much in class even if the class times had been their normal lengths since it was the last night of the semester.

Entertaining Today

Today is a very special day because ALL FOUR of my grandparents are coming over for dinner and to play with me! I'm going to be a really good helper for mommy today because she has a lot of work to do. She's making roast with gravy, mashed potatoes (my favorite!), corn, rolls, fruit salad, and "Better than almost anything" Cake. (I wonder if it's better than my Yogurt Melts.) Mommy has to dust and vacuum and do some laundry, too. I'm a little scared of the vacuum, so Daddy may have to do that when he comes home from work so Mommy can hold me. I like all the flashing lights, but I'm a little nervous about the sounds it makes. We're going to get more snow tomorrow, so I hope they don't get snowed in at our house. If they do, I'll share my crib and purple blanket with them.

-Amaya

Baby #2?!?

The FAQ - (frequently asked question) of the week is.... "When are you planning for baby #2?" I don't know exactly what happened, but today two of my co-workers - from different areas - asked me about Baby #2. I work in a fairly small area and there are only 3 of us that are in "baby mode." Amaya was born in January of 2008, my co-worker Kari had her baby in April, and my other co-worker Angela had her baby in November. So, for some reason several people think that naturally, it's my turn!

Sorry to disappoint, but Baby #2 is on the back burner for a few years. We have our hands full with Amaya as it is! (Only joking!) We'd like to wait until Steve has finished graduate school and has a job secured. Ideally, I'd like to be home full time and work supplemental - just enough to keep up my license (about 120 hours a year), before Baby #2 makes its appearance. Of course, if God has bigger and better plans, we're all for it!

Thank You

In an attempt to surprise my husband (who is currently on his way back from the cities from grad school), I just got done shoveling our recent snowfall. Whew.. I've forgotten what it's like to have to shovel. There are so many things that Steve does around the house that I often take for granted. I'm really thankful for all the men in my life who go out of their way to take care of me. My dad - thanks for warming up my car and brushing all the snow off my car. My father-in-law - for surprising us last week and snowblowing our driveway. And for Steve - for shoveling our driveway year after year. Thanks a million! You are the greatest!

Christmas Cards

Does anyone still send Christmas Cards? Surprisingly, this year we've only received TWO! I'm not sure if everyone else has procrastinated (like we have) and just haven't gotten them out yet (ours are going out in the mail on MONDAY!) - or if people are cutting back on cards this year to save money - or if emails are replacing cards and letters.

I LOVE snail mail. There's nothing like going to the mailbox and finding a HAND-WRITTEN note in the mail. Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more infrequent and I'm guilty of this as well. Somehow though, it's just so much easier to send a quick email instead of finding stationery, stamps, etc. Amaya gets excited about junk mail - I get excited about letters. Hope to hear from you soon!