Hockey and lefse and meatballs, oh my!

Well, we've been a bit behind on the blog since the beginning of the holidays... So let me see what I can do to catch up :)

Alright, first off, Kristin and I used my mother-in-law's gift of hockey tickets to see the Stars pay the Redwings at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. One of the nice things about living in Waco is that we are a pretty easy drive to either Austin or Dallas. That said, it was nice that the game was in the afternoon so that we didn't have to drive back in the dark.

The AA Arena was a pretty awesome experience. There was a full-ish crowd there to see the Wings, and it was fun wearing jersey's for neither team. We wore our Bulldogs jerseys to the game, and I was at least trying to stay neutral. Kristin kept up her support for the Wings. Detroit looked like the better team for a time, but the home team was able to edge them in the end, winning 4-3.

We took a few pics before the game started: As you can see, we were pretty high up, but I thought the seats were excellent. We had a whole command of the ice, and the jumbo-tron filled any gaps that we might have missed. Honestly, the decisive action of a hockey game happens so fast anyway, you almost need to watch the slo-mo to figure out what actually happened.

Last point of interest: The blimps. The American Airlines Center has these advert blimps that float about dropping coupons before the game and over period breaks. They were flying at pretty-much eye level for us, so I got a good shot of the Chipotle one.

State of Texas Lefse!

Ok, well maybe that wasn't the goal at the outset of our cooking adventure, but on the day that Kristin was a cookin' up the Swedish Fare, we ended up with a Texas inspired result :)

As you can see, the rest of the Lefse ended up turning out alright. We ended up with a very delicious Christmas eve meal. With Lefse, Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, we had a bountiful spread for three. We were lucky to have a guest for our holiday meal from Kristin's Lab. Pretty much everybody at Baylor was leaving for the holidays, but the person in charge of animal husbandry for Dr. Brooks' lab was going to be around over Christmas.

Lastly, we have a really sweet picture of the kitty: Belated Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

Season's Greetings from balmy Central Texas! Our 60-70 degree weather hardly makes it feel like Christmas-time, but Dan and I have been doing our best to keep in the holiday spirit. This week marked the end of my first semester as a Ph.D. student. After all the final exams were taken and I finished all of my grading, Dan and I celebrated by decorating our little apartment.

With all the lights, garlands and ornaments -- we were really

worried that our Christmas tree was going to be one, big Loki toy. As we started setting up the tree, Loki was definitely intrigued. Little white paws kept creeping over the stairs and stealing ornaments and pulling on strands of lights. But once the tree was finally finished, Loki started to lose interest in attempting tree-destruction (THANK GOODNESS!!). It's hard to believe we have had our little kitty monster for almost two months. He has doubled in size and gained 4 pounds since we brought him home!

After the tree was set up, we turned to my favorite holiday tradition -- cookie baking! I may have gone a little overboard in our cookie plans for the year. In all, we made 6 different types of holiday treats (fresh caramels, cake truffles, cranberry/pistachio biscotti, Swedish gingersnaps, snickerdoodles and orange spritz cookies). Roughly 18 dozen cookies in all. Okay, so I may have over did it a bit.. but we had fun! (Anyone want some cookies?? We have plenty to spare!).

The thought of not being able to come home for the holidays has left us both a little homesick. Unfortunately, the nature of Dan's job means that he has to work most major holidays. Please try to Skype us over the week so we can say 'Hi'!

Love and miss you all,

Dan and Kristin