Yes. It's beautiful out there. And it's magical when it's falling from the sky. BUT ... shoveling another 7" off the driveway and sidewalk ... it's killing my back. And that after standing in the kitchen for several hours with Matt making more snowflake cutouts, lefse, and spritz (very enjoyable). The bake-off started with the cutouts.

I am declaring George Huston the winner of the 2010 How Many Cookies Will Renee Bake This Year? contest. George guessed 6010, and since I'm not done baking for the year, and the current count is 5602 plus what I baked today, and the next closest guess was 4744 (Ellen Hamernik), George wins! He chose cutouts for his winnings. And you know what? He's giving half of them away to a mutual friend of ours who also happens to be my neighbor. :-) What a guy! Thank you Matt for putting all those little pearly things on the cookies ... it literally cut my decorating time in half.

Next up was lefse. From Wikipedia: "Lefse is a traditional soft Norwegian flatbread. Tjukklefse or tykklefse (thick lefse) is thicker and often served with coffee as a cake. Lefse is made out of potato, milk or cream (or sometimes lard) and flour, and cooked on a griddle. Special tools are available for lefse baking, including long wooden turning sticks and special rolling pins with deep grooves." I grew up having lefse at Christmas time so it has fond memories associated with it. Lutefisk? Not so much. :-) You start with boiled potatoes (I leave the skins on until after they're cooked for more potato flavor) which are then riced.

And then mixed with butter, powdered sugar, salt and flour. Then it's rolled out in a (rough) round, thin as possible ...

This was my mom's lefse rolling pin

and then lifted onto a lefse griddle with a lefse turning stick.

Matt is in charge of the cooking,

I'm in charge of the rolling. When eating it, it's customary to eat it with butter and sugar (brown or white ... I grew up using white, but prefer brown). It's delish!!

After finishing the lefse, we decided there was still enough time before "the game" to make a batch of spritz. I still have quite an extensive list of people to which I'd like to give cookies. So spritz it was, using the cookie press that was my mom's. Matt was again my helper. He's a good kid. VERY good kid.

Last week, Mike Schmitt, Tom O' and I had an idea for a Team R.E.D. caroling (??) activity which is going to come to fruition this week. Matt likes to sing, so he's going along. And I'm putting him in charge of a song list ( with Tom O's blessing ). Look for more details on the Team R.E.D. blog.

Lots of running options are shaping up for the week ... Track workout at RCTC Tuesday at 5 PM. (I don't like how busy the track gets about 5:30 so when I'm able to do speedwork, might try the early AM or earlier than PM). Noah Retka is in town so a few of us are running at 7:30 AM on Wednesday, meeting at the Silver Lake parking lot near the fire station. Feel free to join us. I have to be at work at 9, but I'll run a few. Thursday, a few of us are running from the Y at 9:15. Team R.E.D. Friday morning, 10 miles at 7 AM beginning at Brothers. I have the annual beer exchange/5K run Friday morning but might run a couple at 7. We'll see. :-) Feel free to join in on any or all of these activities.

It's been a really full day. I'll close with a Christmas song that I really enjoy. Christmas shoes. Enjoy. Good night ...