Christmas 2025

 At 8:00 0n December 25th, we are winding down on on another Reeder Gibson Christmas, and once again we celebrated well. 

Christmas Eve was at the Reeder Homestead. Dinner was a cooperative affair. Jill brought the steak and crab and asparagus. Linda supplied salad, scalloped potatoes and cardamom rolls. Jake made the sweet potato fries. 

Irene added to the cookies we all had been baking for more than a week. 

After a leisurely dinner we ate dessert and watched some classic Christmas videos. 

Christmas morning we gathered at Jill's house. We opened stockings and then had brunch. 

The cats got stockings too.

Jake made coffee.

Irene decorated my Cardamom wreath bread.

Jill cooked eggs and sausage. 

We all ate. :-)

Then it was time to share gifts. They were abundant.

We had fun as we opened them one at a time. 

Then we played games. So did the cats. 

Some of us rested. Mr. Whiskers enjoyed the wrappings. 

Later there was more food.

Jake tried out his new tent.

And we played a Lego game. 

As some of us departed for our own homes, we all were left with full tummies and full hearts from another wonderful family Christmas.

And for sure we are feeling fortunate and blessed to have such a family and the comforts in which to celebrate.  

Christmas Time Is Here

 

We are ready! The table is set for Christmas Eve. The food is prepared or planned or figured out. Jill has scored crab for our steak and crab dinner.

There is even a candy buffet.

Christmas Eve will be here at the Reeder Homestead. Christmas Day will be at Jill's, with stockings, breakfast, gifts. and more eating. Jill is in charge. Tom, Linda, Jan, Jill, Jake, Isaac, and Irene, the usual suspects, will be in attendance.  Some day our family is bound to grow again, but for now we are it, and we are good.

While I have the time, I am wishing you all Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, or whatever you celebrate. May joy, peace, and love be with you.

It's the Solstice!

 I've been up since 7:00 on this Winter Solstice  morning, early for me, watching the light slowly creep across the sky as I sit at my computer in our upstairs office. It's not raining or blowing at the moment, quite peaceful in the gray light of this Sunday morning, as Winter begins.

I'm taking it slow for now, as yesterday was a busy day. It was cookie baking day with the kids and the grands.

I made the doughs and had everything set out ahead of time. Then when they arrived in the afternoon, Jill took over. She does the rolling out.

Jake is in charge of the baking. 

We start by baking the ginger bread cookies, and then while those cool, it's time for the sprinkle decorated sugar cookies. The guys really get into it. 

This is precision work.

Then it's time to decorate the gingerbread. I was doing mine and almost forgot to take a photo.

The tray is empty, the cookies are done. I got Tom to finally stop doing  dishes long enough to do a few. He was "creative". 

Irene is an artist even with frosting.

And now it is Christmas week. I will spend this quiet Sunday baking the Swedish Cardamom bread and getting it into the freezer for later festivities.

There's no Seahawks football to watch today since Seattle took care of that Thursday night. What a game! Seattle is still buzzing.

Happy Solstice! 

Nordic Heritage Cooking, Fattigman and Lefse

 

Fattigman, translated from Norwegian as "Poor man's  cakes", are traditional Nordic "cookies" that are in fact deep fried cardamom flavored dough. 

Cut in strips, then slit, with the tail threaded through the slit, then resemble buckles. 

 Then they are deep fried, cooled, and coated with powdered sugar. 

It's a team effort, with Irene rolling out the springy dough, taking over my traditional job, me cutting the strips, Irene slitting and twisting, and Isaac frying. Tom did the sugaring. We all sampled.

This was the first part of our two projects in Nordic Heritage cooking today. Lefse was the next. 

I made the mashed potatoes, rich in butter and whole milk, yesterday, so they could chill over night in the refrigerator. Today I added enough flour to make the potatoes into dough. I don't like to add more flour that necessary, which does tend to make the dough soft and prone to sticking. Lots of flour is involved in the process. 

I was back to rolling out the dough this year. 

Irene is quite attached to her lefse stick and didn't want to change jobs so she manned the griddle/lefse iron. 

Isaac tried his hand at rolling out, but it takes a light touch with my sticky dough. He had some trouble, but persisted through several rounds. 

Then I assigned Isaac to preparing some samples as we finished the job.

The lefse is coated with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, cut in wedges, and rolled up.

It's the last one!

Flour everywhere. Then we called in Grampa for clean up duty. We all sampled lefse.

I didn't know if I would be up to this, but I had a great time with my grands, and they did too. And out fattigmand are crispy and flavorful and our lefse are soft and yummy. 

It was a great afternoon of heritage cooking.