New Year's 2008

For New Year's Eve,

we headed down to the cities to spend time with friends.

We had dinner at a wonderful fondue restaurant. http://www.meltingpot.com/

This is the LP crew we spent New Year's with:

Nathan and Beth,

Greg and Amy, and

Joe and Jae (taking the picture).

We started with a cheese fondue they made right in front of us and had veggies, bread and apples to dip in it. Next we had a salad and then they brought out the main course.

Adam tried to skewer more than just the meat! The main course consisted of chicken, pork, filet mignon, tortellinis, scallops, and tiliapia. We had an endless amount of vegetables to add to the boiling broth on our table as well. It was delicious and so filling!

Here is Adam using the search and rescue spoon

for things lost in the pot.

I had quite a few tortellinis that needed saving! After dinner we went back Nathan and Beth's house and kicked everyone's butt at Cranium!
It was a really fun night!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas

We had Christmas a little late this year to

accomodate everyone's schedules.

We started out with a fantastic spaghetti dinner made by Josh.

Then, of course we had to move on to presents! We gave Kaitlyn Shrek the Third because of her love for that big green ogre. Jaccob and Lexi waste no time ripping into one of their many gifts.

Here is Piper in the hat I knitted her. She'll have to grow into it!

Jaccob and Lexi were super pumped about their goggles from Megan and Josh.
They can't wait to get to the condo in DL in a few weeks to hit that pool! Kaitlyn had more fun jumping in the wrapping paper trash than opening gifts. Then we took some family photos.

Here is Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids.

My Grandpa and Grandma Megan, Josh, and Piper Brooke, Jeremy, Jaccob, Lexi, and Kaitlyn My our family is growing!

Piper Makes an Appearance in Minnesota

We finally got to meet Megan & Josh's little girl, Piper! They flew in on December 23rd and are staying for 10 whole days.

She's a little angel and of course, everyone wants to hold her! Look at my darling nieces and nephew, Jaccob, Kaitlyn, Piper & Lexi!

Even Kaitlyn got in on the hugging.Here is the proud auntie, and of course the proud grandparents!

2008 Christmas Guard Ball

Even though we're out of the Guard,

we got an invite back to the infamous Christmas ball.

This is such a fun event because:

1. We get to dress up - and

2. We get to see lots of old friends!

Here I am with Tami, Amy & Erin.

We all joined the Guard around the same time 8 years ago.

We also had an Iraq reunion!

We were deployed with this whole crew below.

As always, a good time was had by all!

The Sequel

The first weekend of late goose hunting season was a success. Gale (far left) even shot a Pheasant.

Got a little captain in ya?

The lineup of geese that met their fate.

These are the geese we are going to give Amber's judge, Lisa Borgen. She has never eaten goose before. I wish her good luck. Also I would like to note the hat Gale is wearing in this photo. It is a Minnesota Vikings hat. I always knew deep down that he supported the Vikes! The video below is a documentary about what happens to geese that try to run away after they are shot out of the sky.

How to Make Lefse

Lefse is a holiday tradition in my family. My wonderful aunt Diane taught me how to make it from scratch and I got all of the equipment as a wedding gift. Here is how we make lefse.

First you need to peel, slice and cook the potatoes on the stove.

If you use 5 lbs. of potoatoes it will = 10 cups riced, which is double the lefse recipe. It is best to make only one recipe at a time and to keep them separately. We use half white potatoes and half red potatoes because it keeps the lefse soft - dry lefse is bad!

Next you put the potatoes in the ricer and squish them out.

Here is our secret recipe:

5 c. riced potatoes - hot

1/3 c. whipping cream

2 T. oil

2 T. sugar

Mix while hot, cool and refrigerate uncovered.

Once cold, add 2 c. flour and scoop into balls (approx. 1/3 c. each) Keep the mix cool, so chill again if necessary.

Now it is time to roll out the lefse. You need to roll a lot of flour onto the board with a rolling pin covered with a sleeve. Don't begin rolling the lefse until both the cloth covered board and the rolling pin cover are smooth and completely filled with flour, otherwise it will stick.

Turn your griddle on to warm up!

This is my wonderful teflon lefse griddle.

After you roll out a piece of lefse on the board, use one of your lefse sticks to roll the piece up, transport it to the griddle and unroll it on the griddle to cook. Wipe any excess flour off of the griddle with a paper towel in between pieces and REPEAT!

As the lefse comes off the griddle store it on the counter and cover it with a dry dish towel. Don't stack the hot lefse too high - moisture and lefse don't mix! Let it cool completely before bagging up for your fridge or freezer or they can get moldy fast.

It may seem like a lot of work, but lefse is so much better fresh and it's fun and easy when you enlist helpers like my aunt Diane and sister Brooke!

The Slaughter

I went down to the farm in Fergus Falls with my father-in-law and brother-in-law with the hope of shooting at some geese. We hid in the cat tails and called them in.The slough was frozen over. Our idea to try and draw the geese to us was to drill a hole in the ice with an ice auger and after we break ice keep the auger going so it floods water on top of the ice. This method is designed to trick the geese into thinking there is open water for them to drink and land in. The geese are not smarter than us. They fell for it.

6 people, 2 days, 24 geese. We got our limit of 2 per person before 11am each day. After a weekend like that it is safe to say I am hooked on shooting birds out of the sky. It is also safe to say Amber is not so hot on the idea that I like hunting now. There will probably be blog entries up coming with me and her spending "quality time" to make up for my hunting expeditions. What a win-win situation for me. I get to have great times hunting and then I get to spend awesome weekends with my favorite girl :) This is the whole crew minus the picture taker (Gale) and the poor little geese we shot and killed. Don't call PETA on us. On second thought, call them up and invite them out to the farm and we will show them a good time!