Life Hoeferburg...

This past weekend we took a trip up to the Hoefer B&B. The accommodations are wonderful. The view from our window of snow-topped mountains and horses is so picturesque. And the food is amazing. From the fluffy pancakes and eggs to the classic panini sandwiches. All is first rate. If you're lucky you can even catch a "Cooking in the Country" class put on by Abby. She is bound for the Food Network I'm sure. We took an exciting adventure to Leavenworth which is a cute little Bavarian village tucked in the mountains.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Hoefer B&B - although I hear that reservations can be tough to come by...

A White Christmas at the Craigs

We actually did have a white christmas. It was very exciting and this picture isn't that great. The snow didn't last for long but it was so pretty.

I love traditions around the holidays. We always start Christmas morning with homemade scones, fruit salad, and coffee or juice for breakfast. Then we ease into present opening by starting with our stockings...eveyone takes a turn pulling out one item and we rotate thru until the stockings are empty. We do the same thing with gifts. Here are a few pictures. Matt managed to wear 4 of his gifts at once. Delores got an electronic crossword puzzle game...
Olive loved her new little play house....
Oh, and the pumpkin gingerbread trifle turned out well dispite all the mishaps on christmas eve:-) After lunch we played a few games. In addition to Delores' new Soduku game (I am so not good at that game) we played some classics: Scrabble, yahtzee, clue and Monopoly
It was a wonderfully, relaxing, laid-back chistmas. I never even got out of my pajamas.

Merry Christmas!!

May you have the peace that only comes from the One that we celebrate this season.

Not what I expected to be doing on Christmas Eve...

After the movie, we tried to go to this Moroccan place...it no longer exists...and several other restaurants on Hawthorne (all closed). So we decided to head home and pick up a Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home. After we baked the pizza and some gingerbread for my Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, Delores and I made some Mocha Meringue Cookies. I've never made Meringue cookies before. We had them all ready, but when we went to put them in the oven, the oven door wouldn't open...that's right, it was locked. Have you ever been locked out of your oven before? Another first for me. We ended up having to pull the oven out (by we I mean Matt) and he messed around with it until it finally unlocked. It had some how gone into the self-cleaning, lock mode. The weird thing about all this was that I had just been wondering how I was going to get everything cooked and ready at the same time for tomorrow's dinner. I mentioned to Matt that maybe we should get a new double oven...could it be fate? Well, will see how it goes tomorrow. We put the cookies in the oven after they had been sitting for awhile and held our breath. meringue is a very delicate thing. Since we had the oven out from the wall I decided to clean back there. There were a few treasures. (I can't believe I took a picture of this)While the meringues were baking for an hour, I was going to assemble the trifle. I pulled the pudding I had made earlier out of the fridge, assuming it had set. It hadn't. so it was basically a bowl of thick milk and I spilled it all over the floor and under the refrigerator so we (Matt again) had to pull the fridge out from the wall to clean that up and Delores ran to the store to get some more pudding. I cleaned out behind a the fridge...again, disgusting but I didn't take any pictures. Delores found some pudding and we assembled the trifle. The cookies were flatter than normal but still very tasty and now I'm ahead of schedule for my spring cleaning. Merry Christmas to me. I'll let you know how the trifle turns out tomorrow.

Last night we went to church. There were carols, a kids program, worship, communion and a dessert potluck. The kids in the program were hilarious! I decided to attempt to make a poundcake for the potluck. I have never made pound cake before. I didn't quite follow the directions exactly but 1 cup of sugar, 3 cups of flour, 6 eggs and 3 cups of sugar later I now know why they call it pound cake..

Delores arrived bright and early this morning. We hung out for awhile here. Then, we went and visited Moose. We are checking in on him while TraJ is in Kansas. He was a little freaked out by us at first but eventually warmed up to us. I think he appreciated the company. Then we headed over to OMSI to see Antarctica on the omnimax. It was a good show but I wanted to see Polar Bears. Apparently there are no Polar Bears in Antartica. Here is us waiting expectantly for the show...

Christmas shopping...done!

We had a pretty laid back Saturday. Besides finishing up our shopping, we did some gardening...well, kind of...

Delores got us this little herb kit as part of the 12 days of Christmas this year. Matt did the planting today. Keep your fingers crossed because plants, shrubs, trees of any variety really don't have much of a chance with us. If we manage not to kill them, it will be fun to have fresh herbs to cook with.

Matt's Murmurs - 'tis the season

Merry Christmas! A time to remember the incredible gift of salvation by Jesus Christ, who gave His life for each and every one of us. Associated with Christmas, people often are swept away with grandiose thoughts of giving to charities or those in need, surprising a loved one with a new Corvette, giving elderly folks a hand in walking across the street or sweeping up the leaves from your neighbors yard.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is by Johnny Cash and is a story where Johnny tells of a Christmas in his youth when his family was extremely poor: his daddy shot a squirrel for dinner, his sister's new dress was made from a flour sack and he whittled a whistle for a gift for his brother. Even under those circumstances, they still managed to give some 'cool oil' (I don't know what that is) and some hickory nuts they picked to an elderly neighbor who was even worse off.

These are wonderful expressions of love for us to give. However, if you can't seem to manage any of these kind of things, I have one idea for you that anyone can give. It's the gift of letting a driver merge ahead of you into the lane that you are in. It's got all of the qualities you look for in a gift: it makes you feel good, it makes the receiver feel good, it requires sacrifice on your part and it's a gift that keeps on giving and may inspire others to give the same gift to someone else.

This year, I'm planning to give this gift a lot. Selfishly, I hope that I'm given this gift too. Why just last night, as I was completing my 1.5 hour, 20-mile commute home from our bridge project (see previous Matt's Murmus) on Friday during rush hour, I gazed with eager anticipation because the opportunity to be given this gift over and over arose but in ever growing disappointment, it just wasn't being given. Finally, I did receive it and felt some joy. So, this year, give the gift of a little lane space ahead of you. Merry Christmas!