We woke up relatively early the AM after our Chicago road trip...
Some of us took a bit longer to wake up than others...
The smoked salmon from the previous night was calling our names...
Just add an Asiago bagel...
Some coffee...
And a schmear and you're good to go! I felt like I was back in NY!
I visited Joe's friend Steve's gym as a guest in the afternoon and put in a good 4 miles- it has BEEN forever since I've run- it's humbling to think that this summer 10 + mile runs were the norm and now 4 miles feels long, but it's good motivation to take advantage of my school break to get back into the swing of things!
After the gym, we finished our shopping and then headed home to shower and have dinner- Fridays are pizza nights in the Kurtz household- and then it was tree trimming time!
I LOVE looking through other people's Christmas ornaments- it's so fun to hear the stories behind them. It made me think about my family's tree back in NY- I was missing my 'rents and sibs hard core, but then I found this gem. A philosopher's quote on Christmas traditions, by my husband as a 3rd grader.
And then there was this...
My darling husband has perfect vision, but evidently one year his precious childhood self decided that he NEEDED glasses, despite the fact that he could see with no problem. The year of the glasses...
After an all-in round of rock-paper-scissors with Joe and his sister Liz, I won the honor of placing the angel on top of the tree.
Joe went out to play with his friends after the tree-trimming festivities, so I got a Krumkake making lesson from the MIL.
Krumkake is a Norwegian Christmas cookie and a tradition for my husband's family. I got to learn the easy way, since last year Santa brought the MIL a fancy krumkake iron (instead of the old-school stovetop cast-iron press).
There's a bit of technique involved, but for the most part these are pretty simple!
This cone form is used to shape the still-soft cookies as soon as they're removed from the press.
This small bowl of dough makes A LOT of krumkake!
We switched back and forth between operating the iron and rolling the cookies so that I got to try both.
They turned out beautifully! Mission accomplished!
