Christmas Cards

What is Christmas for you?

Tis the season for: twinkling lights, santa visits, jam-packed, candlelit church services, stockings, the yearly taste of rich, creamy eggnog followed by the yearly rush to the bathroom (wink to the Vater kids), playing hours and hours of nostalgic holiday music for my tortured husband, freak-outs at the top of the stairs at 5am on Christmas morning while we wait for everyone to be ready to head down to see if Santa came, a big green pine tree inside, blankets of white snow outside, and of course the string of holiday cards hanging on a bright ribbon from every door frame from loved ones you may only hear from once a year...just to name a few.

This year we will be starting a new tradition of sending out a picture card. I always love seeing friends and family grow from year to year on their Christmas cards. Sending cards is a great way to update faraway friends and family everyone on your year. I can't wait to dress up our little one for the holidays and create a card for 2011 to put in her scrapbook.

With the hundreds of pictures we have taken this year, it should be easy picking out a few special ones from our Shutterfly albums to make into ornaments for our tree. I love the holidays and can't wait to share lots of tradition with our new baby on her first Christmas.

Comfort Food

After months of harassment, I finally found something blogworthy.

One would think that being 7 months pregnant would mean that I would always be hungry for something. Not so. Two boxes of Rice Chex and one of Crispix in the last week tell me that I have been in an eating rut. Jay has become concerned about my lack of pallet pleasers and I was almost sorry for him as I watched him make mini pizzas for himself out of english muffins, salsa and havarti while I ate cereal, again.

Jay, in a very calculated "jay-like" move, researched my better homes and gardens cookbook for ideas and thus was born "THE WEEK OF CROCKERY COOKING". All I know is that he made me a grocery list and I went and purchased all the items for the week and it dawned on me this afternoon that they are all crock pot recipes.



I bought our bright orange crock pot for $2 at the Boulder Junction community church flea market. It has been used off and on for the last two years and will be getting quite the workout this week.

Last night I made polenta beef stew and today I have prepared a pot of split pea and ham soup which we will enjoy tomorrow. Jay will be finishing out the week by making me pulled pork sandwiches in some sort of root beer sauce.



Since most of our readers are also enjoying some cool to downright freezing wintery weather I would encourage you to dust off your crock pots and join us for a big bowl of comfort food. Let me know what you are eating so we get some ideas for next week. Otherwise, I am afraid Jay is going to start purchasing stock in General Mills. Bon Appetit!

Devon Goes to Camp

Brooke's youngest brother, Devon, switched from a 14 day backpacking trip in Isle Royale to a 24 day trip in the Beartooth Mountain Range in Montana. He couldn't be happier. They left on the bus this morning to Montana.






The last picture is with Andy Roe (Devon's trip leader), Devon, Brooke and Mika in the back.

Shave and a haircut...

Our groomer is in the hospital fighting cancer. So, we decided to give grooming a try ourselves. Seems easy enough. Brush dog, shampoo dog, dry dog, shave dog. Hmm. Brushing our dog is like trying to brush a matted afro, so that is out. Don't want to have a wet matted dog so shampooing and drying are out. Great! Straight to shaving. We have eliminated many unnecessary steps. Hm, why does the shaver keep getting stuck...guess I'll just go straight to scissors. Gee, this is tougher than I thought and a much bigger mess than I had anticipated. I'm going to need Jay's help...

Here are the before and after pictures.









As you can clearly see, our dog isn't as huge as she seems. Ha ha ha! I am not sure why I started with a leg instead of her body. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile. Maybe doggie haircuts will be okay after all. We are thinking about putting steps on her ears. Maybe do a spoof on Kid N Play...the possibilities are endless. She will only look like a peg-leg for one day. Jay and I have a "lets finish shaving our dog date" at 5:00 this afternoon.

Artichoke Lasagna

Here is the recipe, finally.

Ingredients

Filling
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cans of artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry vermouth (I didn't use this)

Béchamel sauce
4 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 1/2 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 7 1/2 ounces)
Ground nutmeg

1 9-ounce package oven-ready (no-boil) lasagna noodles
1 bag baby spinach leaves
1 package feta cheese crumbles
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese

For filling:
Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic; sauté until mushrooms release juices and begin to brown, about 7 minutes. Cook until liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped artichoke hearts.

For béchamel sauce:
Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour; stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until sauce thickens and lightly coats spoon, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups Parmesan. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and ground nutmeg.

Spread 2/3 cup béchamel sauce over bottom of 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Top with enough noodles to cover bottom of dish. Spread 1/4 of artichoke mixture over. Spoon 2/3 cup béchamel sauce over. Top béchamel with 1/4 of mozzarella and 1/4 of feta crumbles. Top cheese layer with a layer of fresh baby spinach leaves and a sprinkle of parmesan.

Top with enough noodles to cover. Repeat layering 3 more times, finishing with a layer of noodles, then remaining béchamel. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake lasagna covered with foil 1 hour (or 1 hour 15 minutes if chilled). Remove foil. Increase temperature to 450°F. Bake lasagna until golden on top, about 10 minutes longer.


Hopefully I remembered everything that we did. Kate, let me know if I left anything out. I'll never forget Catherine gagging when we put the layer of vegetables into the dish and an artichoke jumped out near her. At least the adults liked it.


Here is a cute picture of Quinnie and Pip

Birkie Day Timeline

4:20 am - Alarm goes off, brush teeth, brew coffee, pack car.

4:45 - Pick up Ben and Matt.

5:00 - Hit the road!

5:02 - Hit a deer!

5:05 - Drive back to camp to switch cars.

5:13 - Hit the road again.

7:20 - Arrive at Telemark to check-in and pick up bibs and timers.

8:55 - Jay starts his Birkie

9:00 - Brooke turns in donations for - SKI FOR A CURE!  Thanks everyone!  My pledge page is still open for donations in case you still want to donate.  I am still hoping to raise $2,500.  Ben and Matt wait patiently for race to start.

10:05 - Ben, Matt, Andrea and Rick start Birkie.  Brooke starts Kortelopet.

Racing...

12:01 - Jay finishes Birkie (3:06)

12:03 - Brooke finishes Kortelopet (1:58), catches a bus to car, drives to Hayward to see Birkie finishers.

1:14 - Matt finishes Birkie (3:09) - awesome beard-cicles dude.

1:24 - Ben finishes Birkie (3:19)

Rick (3:52) and Andrea (4:47) finish Birkie.  

We all celebrate with chicken noodle soup, water, beer, burgers, rice krispie treats and peanuts.

4:30ish - Pack up car and head to Minocqua

6:30 - Arrive at Gami's to pick up Mika.  Have a Mexican feast.

8:30 - Drive home

8:35 - Hot tub

9:00 - Sleep

SUNDAY

Wake up... assess damage. :)

Mika the Destructive Dog

Mika has been a pretty well behaved young puppy...until this week.  She discovered the bathroom garbage.  On top of that, she figured out that our bathroom door doesn't ever fully shut.  A gentle nudge with the nose will open it right up.

Last night we went out to dinner and returned to the following.

AND

Mika destroyed my cross country ski hat and a quarter of our roll of toilet paper.  We need to figure out what is going on with our puppy and stop this behavior now.  Maybe Mika thought I needed a headband?

The crate is coming back out...

Since posted this morning:  Mika rolled in fish guts on her walk this morning with Brooke!

Mika turns ONE!

She is under the spotted puppy

This year has been awesome because we were able to spend it raising this little pup.  As you can see, she is very happy too.

Still Alive and Well

My brother Rob left a message on my phone last night because he wasn't sure if Jay or I were still around...because we haven't updated the blog in a long time.  Summers sure keep us busy up here.  But we are both winding down and really looking forward to a gorgeous fall and snowy winter.  

So, for all our friends and family worrying about us, we are super happy and feeling good...and tired from the long summer :)

Mika update:

Mika has had an amazing summer full of jumping off the pier and swimming in Boulder Lake and chasing deer around as much as she can.  We lost her the other day for 30 minutes while she caught scent of a big doe and took off.  I think she learned her lesson though after she threw up four times because her body was so excited and tired.  I have never seen anything like it but Jay said it reminded him of a cross country meet.  Ha ha zinkels and rob.

She was recently diagnosed with panosteitis by our vet Dr. Kurt.  Panosteitis is a bone disease that develops in large breed puppies.  When she has growth spurts, the bones in her legs become very painful and she won't want to use them.  Right now her entire right side is not working so well.  She has to lean against chairs or the sofa to get comforted by us.  All we can do is wait for her to grow out of it and give her some baby aspirin so that it doesn't hurt as much.  She is going to be bigger than we originally thought!!  

Upcoming events: Beef-a-rama, more weddings and watching the leaves fall...can't wait!

Flower boxes

Video of Mika

There's a cold going around the northwoods.  Jay and I are both a little bit sick...although I wasn't sure if I had the cold or not since I perpetually have kleenex hanging out of my nose this time of year anyway.  Once I found out it was a runny-nose-cold, I knew it had found me.  I have about a week to get back into shape and then we will both be crazy busy for the next three to four months.

On Thursday, my boss at 3b called in sick so I spent the day taking video of Mika and playing with our new Macbook.  I officially am in love with our Mac.  Someday when we have a real video camera and not just my old digital, I will make movies all day.  Here is what I did on Thursday afternoon.  I still have a lot to learn about imovie, but I got some of the basics down.   Grab a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a box of tissues and enjoy!

**note** wells fargo is a camp game involving a lot of running and brick throwing...Craig can explain.

Mika Post

I chatted with Lauren on the phone last night and she made a request for "More Mika Pictures!".  Here you go :)

This morning

We went for a run and came back to Mika.  She missed us and wanted to snuggle a lot with me and lick my sweaty face.

Mika playing with Ebb.  All she does is chase him around everywhere.  He is 11 years-old, so an hour of running around with Mika he is wiped out for the day.  But they sure do have fun. 

Memorial Day Weekend

Jay and I haven't updated in a while.  Mostly because we are boring and we work too much.  We both worked through the last weekend but did have Monday off together.  I had a project that I have been wanting done for use this summer.  See if you can figure it out...

TA DA!

Another beautiful day in Paradise

We were planning on heading up to Indianhead to ski this afternoon but decided against it when it was -5º out this morning. We thought it would be too icy. Right around 9:30 the sun came out and it has been gorgeous all day. I shoveled off the back deck while Mika trucked around the back yard. I knew it was time to come in when I saw her dozing off in the snow, I didn't realize I had been shoveling for an hour and a half. Guess we had a lot of snow piled up!

Jay spent the morning waxing all of our skis. (That means two pair of downhill, skate and classic skis...quite a large/time consuming task!) We tried out our freshly waxed skate skis on the lake this afternoon because we might not have many chances left this spring. It was so nice to be outside in the sunshine. Now we know how all those Arizonians feel! After a long ski we were both sweating and decided to enjoy the sun and a beer on our back porch. It is only about 35º right now but it feels like 70º to us.

Craig organized a spring-break "volunteer-work-weekend" at Camp so I spent a few hours yesterday and today helping clean out and organize the equipment repair room. We are so lucky to be able to live here, it is always nice to try and help out when and where I can.

Wishing everyone a great week and hope you are enjoying the spring weather as much as we are. I know I can't wait to get our summer garden started...I have a few months to plan though :)

Next season: BOATING!

This week in review

We have a French bakery in Minocqua that is quite amazing. I treat myself once every couple of months to a sandwich on their fresh baked crunchy baguettes. This week, we ran out of lunch meat and I wasn't feeling the PB&J so I decided it was time to hit up the frenchies for le sandwich since I was going to be in the area anyway.

I know every time I go in that if there is even one other person at the restaurant I am in for a little wait because the owners are not fluent in english and I am not fluent in French. However, that gives me time to drool over the chocolate croissants, tarts and turnovers in the pastry case. When I walked in there were 8 people already there and the french guy looked like he was going to have a brain aneurysm. He took their orders and asked me what I wanted and I said "one parisian to go." A parisian is a baguette with butter, ham, swiss cheese and these beautiful, crunchy little sweet gherkins. He mumbled something in Frenchglish that sounded like "no soup for you" and walked away. I wasn't sure if I was going to get my sandwich or not so I just stood there because I really wanted it. After a few minutes I suggested that I could come back and pick it up when he wasn't so busy and he nodded and looked relieved.

So I left and walked around for 10 minutes and came back and he jumped up and started apologizing because he had forgotten to make my sandwich. Two minutes and $5.80 later I had my parisian and the wait was well worth it. That was the most exciting thing that happened to me this week. For those of you that insist that we update the blog all the time...hope you are entertained. ha ha.

On another note... Mika experienced her first horses yesterday. She was totally freaked out and growled, was super scared and tried to run away but I had her on a leash so she couldn't. Horses are big.

She also got into some compost and had what I think was her first really stinky gas. She looked all around after she farted and was confused. I told her, "yes that came out of you and it smells really bad". Then she just looked proud. That is what some rotting tomatoes will get you.

Separated at birth?

Brooke and Jay Update

We have been ready for the new year for two months now; can't believe it is already March 8th!

January was a busy month for both of us. Jay was on the road quite a bit visiting the Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison areas for camper and staff recruitment. I was working at the coffee shop, the office at camp and at coons. We still made plenty of time for our little pup. We have had so much fun with Mika. She is sweet, goofy, smart and 90% of the time just wants to be cuddled. On the last week in January, we took a trip out to Bozeman to visit our friends Stew and Lindsey. We visited Big Sky and both of our former employers. We were there for 4 whole days and it was great to be back and see all the changes and eat at my favorite restaurant Dave's Sushi.

February was a blur. We had visits from both of our families. The Vaters, Maurers, Seilers and Milana came for a long weekend of sledding, wintry walks and plenty of game playing.

Everyone had a chance to try the climbing wall. Dad was impressed at himself for making it all the way up twice even though he is 63 years-old and then claimed, "I've been up tree stands harder than this!".

I didn't have any doubts that he would make it. We are so lucky to live at a place that can accommodate such a large group. I think everyone had a great time. Mika sure loved having all the little kids (puppies) around to play with her and Owen now considers her his new best friend.

Quinn even stuck her finger up Mika's nose and Mika didn't really care. Such a good puppy.

Ben made multiple trips up to the Northwoods in February. It was great to have him around; no one sings Tom Jones with me anymore. The Creagh family reunited for a long weekend and everyone was excited to get out on the ski trails at camp.

John and Gloria brought up their ski equipment (some old, some new) for a trip down memory lane as it had been almost 20 years since they had last skied. They actually seemed nervous the first time they headed out for a short loop. Jay sent them over to a flat area so they could get comfortable without worrying about hills. When they returned an hour later, both had big smiles. We all went out again in the afternoon, Ben and I to achieve greatness by doing the perimeter loop (about 4-5 miles) in under 60 minutes, John and Gloria to do an even longer ski than earlier and Jay to practice for the Birkie. That is when Ben got this great picture.

Highlights of the weekend include: dinner at Bent's Camp, the bar crawl around Boulder Junction and John losing Gloria on the ski trail. We thought we were going to have to find her but she found her own way back to the car and was crafty enough to leave a message in the snow for John.

The following weekend Jay skied the Birkie. Mika and I went along to cheer him on. It was great!

Here are his results:

Finish Line Results
Finish Time:	3:35:34.6
Division Place:	1533 out of 3230 in Birkebeiner Freestyle.
Gender Division Place:	1349 out of 2701 in Birkebeiner Freestyle Men
Age Group Place:	117 out of 179 in Men 25 to 29
Overall Pace:	4:14 per K

Last weekend we went down to Madison to visit Rick and Andrea. Madison is always fun because there is always something to do and plenty of friends around to keep us busy. And that brings us up to this weekend. Jay is taking the Wilderness First Responder course at camp for the next 8 days. I will be working and hanging out with Mika.

Mika got her first haircut. Neither of us were prepared for how she looks. I thought the groomer and I had an understanding that we wanted to keep her hair long and fluffy...guess not. Hair grows...and in this case we hope it grows fast!

Before:
After:

Ready for the New Year!

We had a great time in Manitowoc for Christmas but are glad to be home to ring in the New Year! We have lots of snow in Boulder Junction and our little Mika is sure enjoying it as much as we are. Jay is out skate-skiing at Razorback trails in Sayner this afternoon. We went together on Thursday night and 30 minutes was enough of a workout for me. Jay, however, could have done "10 times that". So he will, but just not with me :).

Mika and I are at home hanging out. We went and visited our neighbors, Brandt and the Iltis' and got to play with their chocolate lab, Caramel. I am about to make a fire and settle down with a good book. This is the first weekend we have been home in a long time and I aim to make the best of it and actually relax a bit.

Please enjoy the pictures of our Mika from the last couple of days...