Baking cookies: This year we had the usual line-up: Spritz, mint truffle, rosettes, snowballs, chocolate cherry, candy cane blossoms (a new recipe), oreo truffles and mint oreo truffles, sugar cookie candy canes, green holly candy, plus
krumkake - using our Norwegian krumkake iron that gave us many security issues in the Oslo airport last year. Took a few tries to get the right consistency/color, but in the end they turned out great and were very tasty. Per tradition, we assembled decorative plates and delivered to neighbors and friends, then spent many a night eating assorted cookie trays. Yum.
St. Nick's visit on Dec. 6: This is a unique tradition inherited from the Dobberfuhl side. As Matt tells it, St. Nick (Santa's helper) comes to scout out how good everyone has been. If the forecast looks good, he leaves a few token candies, nuts and a citrus fruit in an old sock. If not, the sock is empty and Santa will undoubtedly be delivering coal.
As you can see from the over-filled socks, everyone in our household was on the "Nice" list this year.
A host of class parties, church parties, work parties, etc. were mingled throughout December - all of them I neglected to photograph with anything but my sad little iphone camera (if at all). When you are the woman behind-the-scenes for such events, one can sometimes forget to memorialize the event itself. Here is Emily as 'the little donkey' in the church Christmas Nativity (far right, in the brown suit). She sang the English carol "Little Donkey" all dressed up, then played her role again in "The Friendly Beasts" carol.
I was mainly in charge of the kids' craft activity during the ward party. They made tri-bead candy cane ornaments and colored gift tags. Both activities were well-received. In fact, many adults joined in as well.
For actual Christmas, we travelled to the Tolleys in Kalispell, Montana this year. Grandma Brooks and both my brothers came home too which made the long-distance travel well worth it. The only disappointment was the lack of big snow, but we managed to find enough to satisfy a few pursuits: Sliding around on the frozen Foys Lake and building snowmen up in Glacier National Park:
Snow "ET" and his girlfriend (pine-cone head).
We also enjoyed movies, Wii games, board games (some invented by Dale), lego building, long afternoon naps by the fire, bedtime stories ad-lib by very cool uncles, presents, and tons of good eating.
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| Dallin tells Chapter 3 of the Robots in the Candy Factory Story |
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| Hu-Hot Mongolian Grill |
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| Theater popcorn machine + newest Harry Potter film |
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| Dale, Alana, and Grandma Brooks |
And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas vacation without flight delays and trips to the Urgent Care. This year was pretty minor though. 2 hours delayed in Nashville, then another 2 hour delay in Denver. Amy enjoyed 10 days of antibiotics for strep throat and I'm now on my 3rd round of antibiotics (plus steroid inhaler) for pneumonia. But hey, at least no one was
stuck in Paris this year.
Santa was very good to us - Harry Potter legos, Home Depot gift cards, books, and chocolates. We had a great time and look forward to seeing the Tolley gang again this summer for the big Canadian reunion in August.
