Favorite Christmas Songs

I just drove back home from Milwaukee after the Thanksgiving weekend.  Leif wanted to listen to "Santa songs," so we listened to the Christmas station for much of the drive.  I got to thinking about the extreme range of quality of the music that the stations play during this season.  Yes, Christmas music is sort of inherently cheesy, but that doesn't mean you can't have quality musicianship with Christmas themed songs.  So, I am compiling my list of favorite Christmas songs.  Sadly, most of these you don't hear on the commercial stations, so I am trying to train my Pandora station to be more high quality. 

In no particular order....

#1
Must Be Santa - Bob Dylan


#2
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies


#3
That Spirit of Christmas - Ray Charles


#4
Little Drummer Boy - David Bowie and Bing Crosby


#5
Silent Night/7 O'Clock News - Simon and Garfunkel


#6
O Holy Night - Josh Groban


#7
River - Joni Mitchell  (Okay, so I think of this as a Christmas song.)


#8
Gift of the Magi - Squirrel Nut Zippers


#9
The Star Carol - Simon and Garfunkel


#10
Linus and Lucy - Vince Guaraldi Trio

Choo Choo Chocolate Cake

When I started planning Leif's second birthday party, I asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  He immediately responded, "Chocolate cake!"  Then I asked him what he wants his cake to look like.  He then said, "Choo choo"  then paused and said "bulldozer." I wasn't sure how to make a bulldozer cake, but I had some ideas about how to make a train cake.  So I went with Leif's first suggestion.  I searched online for a cake recipe that seemed like I could trust it and I ended up on the Hersey's website.

HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake

Prep time: 15 Minutes
Skill level: Beginner

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Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa  (I used Nestle's....shhhhh, don't tell.)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used a stick of melted butter instead.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water (I was  little cautious of this step because I wasn't sure if it would cook the egg and ruin the batter, but it turned out well.)
  
  
  Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.  
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings. VARIATIONS: ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

I originally thought I would make a series of cakes in loaf pans, but then my mom suggested doing one big sheet cake and then cutting pieces.  This worked out much better.  Here is the assembled engine and car, all cut from one 9 x 13 sheet cake.  My mom did most of the constructing, while I fielded little hands that were trying to sneak a taste.  

 

Then my mom made her amazing cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

• one brick of cream cheese
• one stick of butter
• half a bag of powdered sugar
• blue food coloring.

She frosted the cake in two rounds, since the first layer got very crumby from the pieced together cake.  

I then decorated with various snacks and blue decorating frosting in a tube.  

Smoke Stack: ice cream cone and big marshmallows, held together with toothpicks.
Wheels: Oreos and blue icing, pretzel sticks on front wheels.
Tender/Coal: raisins.
Animal Pin: pretzel sticks and animal crackers.
Train Tracks: sugar wafer cookies and pretzel sticks.

The finished product along with party decorations.  I put some Oreo wheels on a red loaf pan as a caboose. 

Here's the birthday boy blowing out his candle.  

 

 

And here he is devouring his cake.  He kept reaching for more of the decorations.

A very satisfied 2-year-old!

Smoothies

Leif's new favorite thing is making smoothies.  He calls them "moodies."  This started when we were trying to get him to take a vitamin and he didn't like the chalky consistency.  Here's our recipe. (All ingredients are eye-balled.)

Leif's Smoothie
Frozen strawberries
Frozen blueberries
Plain yogurt
Whole milk
Flax seed powder
Fresh baby spinach
Orange juice
One chewable vitamin

Blend it up until smooth.  Leif likes to eat his smoothie in a bowl with a spoon.  

The sound of the blender is a little scary, so Leif needs to be held during this step.

My Birthday!

We had a nice little celebration for my birthday!  We had a delicious P.J. Murphy's cake from our corner bakery.  And some chocolate peanut butter ice cream.  Leif got me a book with kid friendly recipes, games, songs and stories for us to do together.  Jeff got me the most amazing thermos for my morning coffee.  I am not exaggerating when I say that it has changed my life.  :)

 Leif enjoying some cake.

 

 

Leif was covered in cake and ice cream. 

Life After Trees

We knew this was coming for about 2 years. But it still seemed like a shock. On Thursday all of our trees were cut down on our North-South street for about 6 blocks. This is part of the city's forestry plan for managing the Emerald Ash Borer infestation. Our East-West street is also all ash trees and it is unclear on how long we will still have those...maybe another 2 years or so. The city has said that cutting stage of their management plan will end in 2015. Being on a corner lot, we are getting hit a little harder than our neighbors. We will lose 4 mature trees total and already lost 3. I understand that this is a part of a long term plan to make the urban forest more healthy and sustainable, but it just sucks that we are affected more heavily than most.

 Our little house surrounded with trees.

A few days before the cutting I was sure to take lots of pictures of Leif with the trees. I also wanted to capture the view of our tree lines street with the beautiful Gothic archways created by the trees' canopies.

 The view looking South down our street.

 Our canopy.

 View of the back of our house.

Pondering the view.

Another South view of our street.

On Thursday I returned home from work to a very empty street that was surprisingly echo-y. It looked like a tornado had ripped through our neighborhood. We are definitely a family of treehuggers and I can't deny that this wasn't an emotional experience. In Leif's perfect impression of a 2-year-old, he said, "No, no, MY trees!" And talked about the "guys" and the trees falling and said "sad" and "crying" when recapping what he watched from the living room window.

 View looking South down our barren street.

View looking North.

 Our corner.

Our backyard, with no trees.

We love this neighborhood and are committed to staying even though we are beginning to look like what Jeff described as a post WWII baby boom suburb. I have faith that our neighborhood will be beautiful again, it just will take some time, patience and a little creativity and imagination on our part. So rather than wallowing in sadness and looking at real estate listings of houses in oak filled neighborhoods, we have talked a lot about what we can do to make things better.

Step 1:
We contacted the forestry department and have requested information about when and what trees will be replanted. They responded saying the trees will be replanted in over a month in mid-April to mid-May. The variety of trees have already been decided but if we have serious requests, they try to honor them. (We want some disease resistant elms or oaks, so that in 60 years or so, our neighborhood will have those nice archways again.)

Step 2:
Plant on our own property. We have planted one tree in the backyard and two in the front yard over the last few years. I think a catalpa would be nice in the corner of the backyard. We also want to plant a short ornamental tree under our power lines and fast growing river birch in the other corner of our backyard.

Step 3:
Plant decorative gardens on our boulevard. Since the new trees will be little saplings, there needs to be something more on the boulevard. There are some really pretty gardens around our neighborhood that we have been looking at for inspiration. Jeff also wants to organize a neighborhood plant swap and planting to beautify the hard hit areas.

Step 4:
Add some green height to the boulevard by adding an arbor to our walkway with some vines growing. Also, plant some vines to grown on our street light and signs. shhhhh, we aren't sure if we are allowed to do this. But now is time that is desperate for some guerrilla gardening.

Step 5:
Build a Little Free Library. This is something I've been wanting to do for awhile, but I think the morale in our neighborhood could be improved with a simple project like this. We also saved a few pieces from our old trees that could be used as the roof of the library...a positive memorial.

And finally....We have noticed a few things that are positive since the loss of the trees. So, as my grandad would say, "There's hope in my soul."
-Leif enjoys playing on the stumps and proudly says, "I did it!" when he gets to the top.

-The tree stumps were also fun spots to do some chalk art.

 

-The stars are much more visible than before. I noticed this cool astronomical sight last night.
-Our lot is much sunnier than before (obviously), which will be good for heating in the winter and for the replacement plants.
-The view is worse from our house looking out. It isn't so bad looking toward our house from across the street. The backdrop of our house is still very tree filled.
-We still have this view on our East-West street!

Update: We are getting new trees this week!!  I'll update photos soon. Happy times!

New Year's Resolutions 2012!!

Happy New Year!!
We got back from California yesterday and I am now getting myself organized to be ready for a fresh new year. In keeping with tradition, I have made some New Year's resolutions. And I am going to keep them this year.....seriously.....I promise.....okay, I might need a reminder in March.

#1
Blog more!!
I have been away from this blog for awhile. Originally, this blog was a way to keep track of all of my crafty creations. Later it became a way to keep my far flung family updated on Leif's childhood. Then I just got overwhelmed and it just sat here for so long that I forgot the password. So, I have a pile of crafts, videos and pictures that are just waiting to be uploaded.

#2
Exercise!!
I know this one is not very imaginative, but it is definitely something I need to do more. With our crazy Minnesota winters, it is very easy to hibernate and wait until spring to do anything active. With the exception of joining a gym, any suggestions on winter exercise would be appreciated.

#3
Do more art with Leif!!
Leif loves to color and he spends a lot of time drawing at the dining room table. But now that he is in the toddler stage, I really want to start doing more crafts with him.

#4
Finish masters degree!!
ugh. This one has been hanging over my head for too long. I think I finally have the catalyst I need to finish. My new school district has a significant financial incentive if I have a masters degree. So, I now just need to make a timeline and get going. Easy, right?

That's all for now. I have many things to write about from our holiday celebrations, so stay tuned for updates.