Lefse

I didn't post any Christmas pictures, so I thought I would share our traditional Christmas dinner. I captured everyone hard at work preparing the lefse. Our family (my mom's side) is Norwegian, so lefse is eaten on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I'm sharing cute photos of my grandma making the lefse and I'll share our other traditions.



Sam, the newbie hasn't quite gotten down the whole "hold in your hand while buttering technique."

We eat our lefse straight up with butter. I know some people put cinnamon and sugar on it, but that's not done around our house. Someone also told me that the toppings each family placed on the lefse had to do with how much money they had. I'm not sure if butter is the poor man's lefse or not, I must confirm this with my grandma.

Collections

My husband collects old typewriters. I think he has about 6 or 7 right now. I always catch him looking at them in thrift stores. For Christmas this year my parents found him a really awesome one. One day I will share with you the cute brown Switzerland one that is like a laptop- it's so tiny and light.

I am quite a collector. This gene definitely comes from my dad- he' always collecting something. I used to collect teddy bears when I was little (ceramic figures and stuffed animals), sea shells, alabaster figurines, care bears, and stuffed animals (I spent about 20 minutes arranging them on my bed after I made it). I'm sure my family could give many others. I used to be really embarrassed by my collecting. I thought I was being a packrat and really weird. Now I kinda appreciate it. It's fun to be a hunter and gather things you love together in little collections. I definitely limit myself these days to smaller collections of things. I like to collect vintage hand mirrors, old red or orange kitchen items, wooden crates, metal bins, milk glass, french canning jars, vintage sheets, and vintage lace and trim. I can't go to a beach without a handful of rocks in my pocket. I can't help but save bottle caps and corks from wine. Is anyone else out there guilty? I saw this blog Lisa Congdon is doing, she's featuring a new collection everyday. She's going to share with us 365 collections. I can't wait to see them all. If you recall Lisa is the one who had the awesome plate wall (you can see her whole house, it's awesome), that inspired mine.

Tell me, what do you collect?

Bubble Mailer DIY

I finally ran out of all the bubble mailers I had, so I decided to make one. I found this awesome tutorial from Randi, so click here for the full tutorial. I had this vintage wallpaper from an antique shop and I was dying to use it. Don't be intimidated, it really is quick and easy, it only took about 5 minutes to make. Because as the girl at the post office said... "Cute packages are a must!"

Walk at the Y

We went on a little walk out at Snow Mountain Ranch.

This is Amy's dream cabin made from old barn wood. (It's for sale too!)

Here I am with most of the Peterson gang.

And here we are with David, he owns the Subway in Winterpark. They are the nicest and most hilarious family!

Devil's Thumb

Here we are at our friends the Peterson's, where we stayed in Winterpark:

Notice the yurt outside?

No, not really, it's Devil's Thumb ranch. The place we were going to go Cross country skiing, it also went big and turned into a huge and expensive hotel, but we figured we should get a tour while we were there. This would be a gorgeous place to get married.

They even let us in the wine cellar, where you can have an intimate dinner.

After this, we headed to the YMCA, where you can also cross country ski and snowshoe.

I'm Back

I needed a nice long break from the computer. It was nice and refreshing and now I'm back for a new year.

I went to Minnesota and got to enjoy the perfect white Christmas with my fam, and now I just returned from a ski vaca to visit my bestie in Denver - (I know rough life, huh?) I'm rejuvenated and missing my friends and fam, but life will go on!

Where to begin? I think I'll start with Denver and work my way back.

Here we are at the Denver airport. I am taking pictures because I always thought it was super cool that they have a whole revolving rack just for skis. I thought it would be cool one day to pretend we're off on our Vail vacation picking up our skis. I always wanted to secretly jump inside and ride on it, like any 8 year old would!
Here is Sam giving me that look- it pretty much says it all- "Becca you're a nut for thinking it's so cool and for taking pictures, put away the camera and act like a normal adult!"

And then he just about missed them and I barely got a shot of him taking them off!

Amy picked us up and straight away we headed up to Winterpark. Here is a sad look at what all the Beetle Kill is doing to the landscape, killing all the trees.
Sam and Amy here, trying to send a Facebook message, and I was just bored and antsy (acting like an 8 year old again), soaking in all the new stuff at the resort.
Here is the new Gondola and the bus. The bus took us from our place to the ski place everyday.
None of this was here before. Intrawest (the same company that owns Whistler) bought Winterpark the year we worked there and now they dumped a ton of money into it, and it looks more like Aspen than Winterpark.
Here is the Winter Park Tennis Club. Our old place where lots of mischief happened. You could see the mountain from our place. Sunny and gorgeous.

Tired, but Happy

This season turned out to be busier than I thought it would. Isn't that life? I didn't get to all the places I thought I would. I love this time of year. I really do. I love the decorations, love the music, love the food, love the gatherings- hate the stress and craziness. Last night it was really nice to slip away, escape craziness and spend time with Sam. We headed first to the thrift store (it really is our favorite kind of shopping) and then we went to the Flour mill and into Chocolate Apothecary- heaven on earth! If you have seen Chocolat, this is the real deal. Their hot chocolate is amazing. I got the Mayan blend, it has cayenne pepper in it, so at the end of each sip their is a nice spiciness- oh it's good. Then we went to Auntie's bookstore. I picked up Builders of the Pacific Coast (if you follow the link you'll see pictures in the book) I can't wait to pour over it. It's filled with little 2 page spreads of handmade shelters- vans, yurts, cob houses, stone houses, log cabins, structures made of driftwood. It's a collaboration of hippie homes at their finest. Nice, cozy little unique buildings.

Alrighty, enough procrastination. Gotta go pack up and get ready. We're flying out tonight and will be in freezing Minnesota in the morning. I hope you can relax and celebrate Christ's birth with loved ones!