Merry Christmas from the North Shore!

A Very Snowy Day!

It has been snowing since eight this morning and it doesn't show any signs of stopping! So I ran to Target and picked up some supplies for baking and bought the girls a big girl sled! Our neighbors have a small sledding hill in their backyard so we headed over there for a little. The girls had fun and thought it was silly. They especially loved throwing snow on Ginger- so funny! Right now the girls and Jason are napping and I am enjoying George C. Scott in the Christmas Carol and some yummy eggnog. I LOVE winter break! The snow will probably cancel my dinner plans with my college friend Jodi, but I would rather not end up in a ditch in St. Paul or worse. The temperature is supposed to drop dramatically tonight and the wind chill will hit a lovely -30 again. So the blowing and drifting snow will create a frozen tundra out there. I am glad that we got outside to enjoy a beautiful snowy day. God bless!

Christmas Cookies

It is Christmas cookie time! The girls and I cheated the last few nights and made store bought sugar cookies. Kate and Annika had so much fun placing the cookies on the sheet. First they were all along the edges, then stacked in towers, then spread all over the place. They were being really silly, but they loved it. This weekend we will do some real baking to get ready for my annual cookie baking get together with my college friends Jodi, Jenni and Laura. We've been getting together every December since 2002. This year the event includes doing all of the baking ahead of time and then just relaxing with some appetizers and wine while the husbands and children play. We usually spend an entire day mixing, baking, cleaning and sorting all of the goodies between the four of us- this year we decided to just have the fun part together, rather than the work. I think it will be great! Hopefully the next two snow storms won't interfere with our plans. We are going to get more snow tonight into Friday and then again on Sunday. We are heading up to Two Harbors on Monday morning for a week up north. We are looking forward to some time away in the great northwoods of Minnesota, plus all of the yummy food we plan to make. Jason and I are going to attempt to make Norwegian Christmas bread and sweet soup this year, just like Grandma Luella. Cross your fingers!

A Winter Wonderland

We are in the middle of a wintry blast of snow and wind. It started yesterday afternoon, unfortunately Jason was out running in it- yuck! Today our high temperature did not get above -1 degrees with a windchill of around -28 degrees. BRRRR! For a few days it was around 33 degrees and the snow was starting to melt, but after last nights snowfall we are all white again for Christmas. My parents had a blizzard over the weekend and ended up with about 12 inches of snow- we can't wait to see it! Only four more days until winter break or rather a much needed mental health break- ha!

A New Adventure....

We are officially potty training! We are using big girl pants, well sort of-they are called pull-ups. Annika doing great! She told us three times today that she had to go potty and she did! She was so proud. We keep asking Kate if she has to go and she just says, "No, I'm good." Typical! Annika has always been the leader of the two, so I am sure Kate will follow in her footsteps quickly.

A Gingerbread House!

Tonight we decorated a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa Cloutier. It was a lot of sticky fun. Thanks to Uncle Nathan and Auntie Jen for a great early Christmas present.

Cousin Fun!

Last weekend we were back in Avoca at Grandma Bakke and Great Grandma's farm. The girls got to see their cousins Brooke and Brayden. They haven't seen each other since summer, but they picked up right where they left off....having fun!