Project: Christmas Cards

Confession: I feel guilty throwing away Greeting Cards. No matter what the card says, or why it was given to me there is always a lengthy process that goes into throwing away cards. The first step in this process is, of course, just storing the cards away in a drawer for a while. Then, when it comes time to clean that drawer I have to re-read every single card and relive the occasion it was intended for. After wasting all that time and still not having cleaned the drawer, I must decide which ones will stay and which ones will go...for now. I call this the 'first cut'. For the cards that don't make 'the cut' they will either end up in the 'could probably scrapbook with this pile', the 'I'm only throwing it out because they didn't write enough in it pile', or the 'I guess I'll just throw it back in the drawer again... pile'. And there ya have it, the lengthy process starts all over again.

However, instead of throwing away all my Christmas cards this year (and lets be honest, this is the first year I've actually gotten enough Christmas cards to craft with), I decided to make a "Card Book". Easiest Wednesday night craft, ever!

All you need is all your cards, some thick thread, and a needle.

 ...Yup, that's a Santa taking a poop down a chimney... Funniest card we got all season.

This is what it said inside ---->

Start by weaving the thread through the spine of the cards, there isn't really a wrong way to do it.

  There ya have it, Card Book.

Project: Lefse

Merry Christmas!

Everyone has their own Christmas Traditions. I come from a Norwegian family and the most followed, must-have-this-at-Christmas-and-only-at-Christmas, tradition is Lefse. Lefse is basically a thin potato pancake made with lots of flour. For years I've been enjoying this Holiday staple and helping Grandma and Mom make it, however this was the first year I've tackled this recipe.

I couldn't just use the regular family recipe, though. I had to mix it up (FYI, no successful story seems to ever start by "mixing it up"...). 

 Dough looked similar to moms...

 Because I didn't have a kitchen helper I rolled up the dough into 'lefse sized' balls and stuck them in the fridge until I was ready to use them...

 Rolled out balls of dough...three at a time....

 Because I only have three frying pans... lefse usually works best with a large counter top grill. But for those of us who haven't got married and had the 'gift-showers' that go alone with marriage and babies, frying pans will have to do, until then.

 

Finished!! Looked like lefse... but didn't quite taste the same. Not like momma makes it. It was a fairly good start for my first attempt. Next year I'll be using the family recipe...

 Look at all that Flour!! My kitchen floor was sooo slippery I was 'skating' across the tile from the stove to the rolling station to the stove again. 

Merry Christmas Everyone! Enjoy the time with your family, and carry on traditions (even if they're not quite the same as momma makes 'em).