Yummm..rommegrot!

Another one of our "before Christmas" traditions is Rommegrot. Rommegrot is a traditional Norwegian dish...I am not sure how to even explain it. It's hot, kind of like pudding, very rich tasting...I need to put a ton of cinnamon and sugar on mine to eat it and I can never finish a bowl. It's actually kind of gross, but the first few bites are great. The Mindekerken, an old Norwegian Lutheran church in downtown Minneapolis, hosts a Rommegrot luncheon on the first Saturday of December every year. I've been going to this since I was a little girl (missed a few years for various reasons)...my mom has gone since she was a little girl. I remember going with my mom, taking my Grandma...seeing all the old Norwegian people in their traditional sweaters. It's an important family tradition and I hope we are able to keep this up. This year was the first time Caleb went. I wasn't sure what he'd think but he did so great. He tried my rommegrot and loved it and ate all our bread. It was also my sister-in-law Stephanie's first time at rommegrot and she did a good job eating it for the first time...no clean plate club, though! Actually I think my mom is the only one who can eat it all. Laura came with, too.

Birthday princess!

Our sweet girl, Ella B, turns 1 year old today. I have mixed feelings about this! It's fun to see her move onto different stages in her life. I look forward to being able to communicate with her more, as she learns new words. I look forward to her being a little more independent. But at the same time, she's always been pretty independent. She crawled early, walked early, she's been quick to grow out of that baby stage. I miss that already! I keep remembering today how anxious I was a year ago to meet this new member of our family. The end of pregnancy is so hard and I couldn't wait for it to be over. What I'd give now to go back to those first days of Ella's life...just for a glimpse, to have that newborn baby snuggled up to me once more! Time flies, we all know that, but it's on days like today when I really feel that's true. So for now, I'll be happy with my precious 1 year old and enjoy this time until we move on to the next...this smart girl who shakes her head 'yes' and 'no', loves to pretend to feed her babies, wipe their faces, pat their backs, she loves the Kitty and her big brother...she's just such a joy to have in our family and I couldn't be more blessed! Happy birthday baby!

Getting ready for Christmas

Let's pretend I posted this a month ago when we really WERE getting ready for Christmas! Caleb really enjoyed the Christmas season this year, probably more than ever before in his short life! We did a lot of fun Christmas activities, some of which are in the pictures below. We painted some ornaments to give out as gifts. We baked cookies at my mom's like every year, with my sister, brother and sister-in-law. Caleb is so good about helping. This year the ordeal took hours (so many different kinds of cookies) and he helped all the way through! His favorite are the roll-out cookies. Ella toddled around and took a nap with Grandpa. Somehow she always can sleep through his snoring!