Eli is out of school for a school break so he came running with me. He is 40 lbs! I think this is the last time I run with him. He does give me a great workout pushing him 4 miles and up all those hills!
At the top of the hill there is some new construction and Eli loves every minute of it. There is always some type of construction vehicle moving. Excavators are his favorite!
He had a great time watching the road grader.
We heard the high school band play, so we had to run over there and listen.
We started running again and met the band in our neighborhood. We had to stop and rest, I mean watch the band 🙂 Time to teach Eli how to play!
That afternoon we stopped at mom and dad’s house and walked through the car show.
Bryan stopped in as well.
Paul, Bryan, and Aaron came to the show.
Paul had to take my picture in front of this truck. Reminded him of a truck from his childhood.
Eli was getting bored of the cars until this truck pulled in!
I had a few things to do at the stores today. Eli got straight to work. He set the tables with baskets.
All the tables with baskets.
He filled the ice machine with ice.
He grabbed his favorite snack. Cheese.
Played with water.
When we started out the day it was sunny and only a few white clouds in the sky. An hour later it started hailing! And not just a little hail, it looked like it was snowing.
The hail was the size of quarters. It left dents in my car.
This is what happens when employees don’t show for work. So at the last minute, I had to come in and get the day started. Paul and Eli came to help me out.
Christmas eve was at our house this year. I tried to decorate to make sure everyone had some great memories of Christmas this year. Growing up I looked forward going to mormor and morfar’s house and seeing all their decorations. Their decorations became so familiar and fun, I looked forward to them every year. I didn’t feel it was Christmas until we were at their house smelling the traditional Norwegian dinner cooking.
Our Norwegian Christmas dinner was mutton (so glad I’m vegetarian 🙂 ), Surkal, kalrabi, and risengrot for dessert. I’m sad we are not carrying on that tradition. The only thing I’m making is risengrot. Maybe next year we will make the full traditional dinner.
I love getting together with my family. They are so fun to be with.
I love all the smiles.
After dinner we decorated tiny houses. I ordered them online, but din’t look at the dimensions. They were so small! Oh, well. They were fun to decorate.
My attempt at making the risengrot, or rice pudding. It turned out wonderful! Growing up I didn’t like mormor’s rice pudding and now that I made my own, I know why I didn’t like hers. I used arborio rice and she used just regular rice. I also used real heavy whipping cream and sweetened the cream before mixing into the risengrot. I also used a danish red sauce to add a little flavor and sweetness.
I also made krumkake. This also turned out fantastic and was a great cookie to eat along with the risengrot.
Eli loved it.
My mother was supposed to bring the marzipan pig for the almond winner, but instead brought marzipan fruit for all of us. She is always so sweet to think of us. Maybe one year I will put an almond in all the cups so we all will really win the marzipan fruit 🙂
Unwrapping gifts. Charlie really wanted to get in on the action, but he waited patiently. He is such a good dog!
Unwrapping gifts.
Even Charlie was tired at the end of the night.
After everyone left, we had our Christmas Eve as a family. We unwrapped our Christmas pajamas.
Santa came! 🙂 Paul and I brought up all the wrapped gifts from downstairs to be ready for Christmas morning.
