At the beginning of December, we went back to that little Norwegian town of Clifton to see what their famous Christmas Festival was all about. Sadly, there was as little to do for the Christmas festival as there had been when we were back there in July or August. We did get to see some people in traditional Norwegian costumes doing some dances, and we heard some hymns and carols at the old Norwegian church, but that was kind of it. At least now we know we can officially cross Clifton off of our list!
The official Christmas mural, lol
St. Olaf's Church
The inside was very spartan and Scandinavian. Very pretty.
Back in the town square, watching the elder-folk dance their Norwegian...jigs? Polkas? I got nothing...
On December 9th, I did a Zumba flash mob in the Southlake Town Center. It was dark and cold and so I'm not sure many people saw us, or were "marketed to" as was the intention, but we still had fun. Alex got some dark pictures of that, and there is a video somewhere; I will see if I can get it uploaded. Zumba continues to be my go-to workout, and I am getting my certification to become a Zumba instructor myself in late February! Can anyone who knows me actually see me as a fitness instructor?! I cannot, but I am sure going to push myself to become one! Everyone send me perky, high-energy vibes!!!
I make funny faces when I dance, whatdyawant?!
I cooked, a LOT. The first thing I made was a dark chocolate peppermint pie, which I had made a few years ago but lost the recipe. Well, the magazine with the recipe was actually sitting at the bottom of a Christmas box of all things, so I was able to make it again. DELICIOUS. My dad loves dark chocolate, so I had really been wanting him to try it.
How I roll...
An artsy chopping picture, a la Alexander
Dresden helping with his own block of chocolate at his little kitchen
Chocolate paws
Peppermints, yum!
For Christmas Eve, I cooked a traditional German meal for the three of us, to incorporate Alex's half-German heritage, and celebrate both of our German ancestry. (Shout out to all my Hoppenjans out there! ;-) ) I cooked chicken apple bratwursts and sauerkraut. Yum. For breakfast on Christmas morning I carried on the German cooking and made a batch of (if I do say so myself) to-die-for German potatoes, using butter, brisket and Yukon Gold potatoes. Alex is a potato fiend, so this was definitely the way to his heart. I also made us baked cinnamon and honey French toast with Chai Spice butter and maple syrup. Dresden loved the French toast, so that was a win!
Chopping brisket
The spread...
Zee German potatoes
We didn't take a lot of pictures of Christmas, because we set the video camera on the tripod and recorded all of our gift opening so Alex could actually be present in the moment instead of just behind the camera the whole time. Dresden had asked Santa for trains, so he was more than thrilled when he ran out and saw his train track set up in the living room. He wanted to play with nothing else for the first half of the gift opening. He also marveled, "Santa ate the cookies!!! And drank the milk!!!" It was so much fun to be a part of his childlike wonder and willing belief in the jolly old man in the red suit. It was just the three of us for Christmas this year; we wanted to have a LaFasto Family Christmas, because we have traveled ever since Dresden was born. It was quiet and nice, though I did miss my big Arkansas family. Alex was probably the "winner" of Christmas 2011, as he opened his one gift from my parents to him to find a brand new 17" MacBook Pro in the box!!! He was seriously flabbergasted and beside himself, it was the sweetest thing. And I was so happy for him to finally upgrade from a computer that was literally being held together by duct tape (I'm not kidding!) Thanks Mom and Dad, SOOOO much!!!
We continued the family tradition of opening one gift each on Christmas Eve. Dresden chose a box we knew would be clothing of some sort and we felt sad that he would be disappointed. But, no! He opened the box to find a shark towel of all things, and he was seriously SUPER excited about it, and played "shark towel" for like the next 45 minutes! Who knew?!
I got some new Zumba gear; always exciting!!!
Here he was, right after finding his train set on Christmas morning
That DJ station may have been a bad life choice (i.e. the decibel level and noise it produces) but he is cute playing with it
New Year's Eve is also my dad's birthday, so we just had a little family celebration at home complete with Asti Spumanti (Mom's favorite), meatballs and black-eyed pea dip. I think we are just past the point of going out and partying all night. Sometimes that makes me wistful, but I was actually pretty relieved to just be at home to ring in 2012 this year. We are hoping and praying that 2012 will be the year we finally get on our feet and start living a "real" life as responsible adults. There is nothing I want more!!!
Dresden with Grammy and Papa
Trying his "asti" (aka, apple juice). So sophisticated!
Entertaining himself by bringing ALL his toys into the kitchen with us
Taking a pic for, of course, Facebook!!!
I hope everyone is having a great start to 2012, and I promise I will never let myself get that far behind on posting again!!! (I hope!)
Love,
Cassie
Yay! If you wrote that all up in one day, I'm impressed. I have been working on getting that last post up for over a month. Ridiculous!
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