Grandma's Cookies

When I think of Christmas I think of my Grandma's cookies. Christmas at my Grandma's was always so special. She always had her house decorated perfectly and beautifully and she made some amazing Christmas treats. 

Now that I'm older and in my own home, I have the stocking up, I have lots of her decorations up and her nativity set. It's been almost 10 years since being able to spend Christmas with my Grandma and I never want to forget how special she made it. 

This year I attempted to make lots of the treats she would make. With her recipes in tow I spent all day baking. It only made me appreciate all her hard work even more. 

These are for you Grandma! It may take me my whole life to make them as good as you made them but I will never give up! 

Christmas with the Tomblesons

Last December we had a lot of jolly Christmas adventures. This weekend we went back to relive some of them and ended up discovering even more in the process.  Luckily this year it is a little bit warmer for us so we can enjoy them even more.

On Friday thanks to twitter we discovered the Fremont Street festival of lights for the first time. It was really fun. We got to hear the a Capella group the Portland Timbre sing. They are really amazing singers and really funny.

We also saw some amazing art work done on playing cards by a local artist named Aaron Trotter. He draws places in different cities and puts them on playing cards.

On Saturday we took Adelina's family to see the Alpenrose Dairy Christmas village. (okay Jorge drove but we showed them the village) This is a really amazing Christmas adventure. They have an old town set up with Story book lane with lots of animals to see and some to pet. There is also an old style opera house that has dancing and movies. This is a must see Christmas adventure and it is free!!! Oh and there is an amazing model train display.

Some people might have called it a weekend at that and stayed in bed all day Sunday after so many adventures already but not the Tomblesons. We keep on adventuring until the work bell rings on Monday morning. Sunday we went to see the Pittock Mansion exhibit on Christmas Carols. This is a beautiful old mansion up on Burnside by Forest park that gets even more amazing at Christmas time. Each room was made up to be a Christmas Carol. The first room took our breath away.

After going through the Mansion we had Siri help us get to a Norwegian Christmas music event over at the Lutheran Church on NE 21st. We go there a bit late but we made it in time to hear some beautiful singing in Norwegian and hear some cool instruments. Afterward there was a reception with the most wonderful and tasty punch and cookies. Adelina's grandma used to make some cookies like these. There wasn't any signs saying only one trip so we went back and back to the cookies.

Christmas is Here!

December is here which for the Tomblesons means going out to all the holiday festivities around town. This weekend we started out going to the Scan Fair on Saturday and took my picture with the viking I had my picture taken with last year.

 

 I had to get some Krumkake which my Grandma used to make. Isn't really christmas without some.

 After going to the gym we were pretty hungry so we had some danish sausages with potatoes and gravy and a norwegian pancake. Sooo yummy.

 We saw a lot of neat crafts and candies and also saw a really neat group play some fun music.

 After the Scan Fair we ran a couple more errands then had a delicious dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. It's one of our new favorite places. We can't get enough of that really good bread.

 On sunday we went to have dinner at my moms then took her and Gio to go see the Festival of lights at the Grotto. There were so many beautiful lights and I got to spend time with some goats which is one of my favorite things.