Baking and more baking

Yesterday was a baking, relaxing day. Only Dennis left the house to go to work, the rest of us stayed home ALL DAY! But we were productive!

I did two batches of my Swedish Christmas bread. Instead of making them in wreathes this year, I braided them and just put in cardamom, cinnamon and brown sugar. The second batch I drizzled icing and added red cherries to the top after baking.

Then we had a hot chocolate break while Linnea began her recipe of Ginger cake with crystallized ginger.

Ooooo, it was yummy!

Happy Christmas! During all that baking, Andrew called. It was so nice to talk to him. We really miss him, and he said he misses just sitting on the couch in sweats with freezing temps outside and a cozy house inside!

Anniversary Dinner

Well, this is what the old couple looks like now! We had a lovely prime rib dinner with our delightful children, Will and Linnea. Don't they look like twins?

Dinner together again

Last night was the first night Linnea was home, so we had a little Italian food for dinner. Cin cin!
PS Maybe someone can tell me how I can outsmart blogger and not make all my photos landscape?

The mailman is Santa!

This morning the mailman stopped by out house with a mail box FULL of SEVERAL packages! With every adult in the house ordering online and having them sent here, we all got parcels this morning. What fun!

(This is Dennis bringing in the mail, not the mailman himself!)

Lunar Eclipse

I took a bunch of pictures with and without a tripod. They didn't seem to be turning out with my little camera and its limited telephoto lens. But this one turned out pretty well! Too bad I gave up, the total one might have been OK!

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Today is our 31st anniversary, so I couldn't resist making that the photo for the day.

We got married during my Christmas Break from teaching that second year of teaching in East Moline, Illinois. What a lifetime ago!

We're thankful for GOD'S faithfulness in keeping us all these years. Every year is made up of many moments! We're thankful for the way God's grows us together and grows us spiritually through this gift of marriage. It's a commitment that's grows  every year.

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We bought this sweet angel in a shop in Itri. In Italy.