Holiday Shopping at Ikea

Two weekends ago our family had a very fun Christmas shopping outing to Ikea.  Ikea opened a store in Portland five years ago, and I have been eager to visit for quite some time.  I always plan one fun shopping outing for our family during the holidays, this year I decided we would drive into town and spend the day at Ikea.  I had heard about their yummy Swedish meatballs and huge showrooms and I was excited to check it out.

Ikea is such a fun, huge store, I was glad they had a map!  After getting our bearings, and taking in the huge store ahead of us, we made our way to the cafeteria.  We tried the BBQ ribs, Swedish meatballs with potatoes, cream sauce, and lingonberry jam, and some chicken and very yummy fries.  We also tried their lingonberry drink, which was interesting and similar to a very light cranberry flavor. Since it was a holiday outing, we let the kids splurge on dessert, Sarah tried the most delicious looking chocolate overload cake, and Joe tried the Swedish apple cake, they both looked so delicious I will have to try to find a similar recipe.

After our lunch, we made our way to the showrooms.  It was so much fun seeing all the decorated rooms, staged with all sorts of interesting items, including books that were written, in what we imagined, was Swedish or some other Scandinavian language.  It was so inspiring to see all the different room configurations, they all showed wonderful ideas for making the most of small spaces.  Sarah and Joe got some great ideas for their rooms, and future college apartments, it was fun looking in all the different storage compartments.  Gary and I got great ideas for our living room and office, we are always trying to dial in our media storage and paper clutter.  The showrooms had lots of good solutions.

I was really impressed with the complete mini house set ups, showing how you could set up house in under 600 square feet quite nicely.  Gary and my favorite room was a kitchen set up, being someone who loves to cook and bake, our kitchen is lacking in storage space for all the pots and pans I use, as well as pantry storage, we saw some beautiful ideas.  Certainly some inspiring goals!

Here is a picture of the kitchen we thought was pretty wonderful, love all the cupboards, and the double ovens!

I do not like to put my focus on material items, but it is fun to dream, and get ideas for one's home, and we had fun checking out all the different furniture, and colors, pictures, gadgets and what not.

It took a couple of hours or more to look through the showrooms, and then we were ready to find a few treasures to bring home.

Such a fun selection of items to shop through!

As we finished up shopping and made our way to the checkout, we noticed this huge fan in the ceiling, I thought it was pretty interesting, the whole building is just huge.

We got a kick out of this giant add for their hot dogs, notice the "*not actual size" in the lower corner, we had to get a picture. :)

Here are the goodies we ended up with.

I knew I wanted to buy a lambskin, I had heard they sold them at a reasonable price, and I have wanted one in our home since the children were little, I was happy to find a cozy one.  I also found this fun serving tray with wood slices pictured, I love rustic wood designs, I thought it would be pretty to set out my gingerbread cookies.  I found a very inexpensive potato ricer that will be fun. We also brought home a jar of lingonberry jam, and this great candle lantern along with a big supply of tea lights!

I just used my new tray at the youth Christmas party we hosted over the weekend, I served bacon wrapped bread sticks, they were set out very nicely at first, and looked like branches on the wooden tray, they were such a hit I hurried to get a picture before they were all gobbled up.  :)

We found some cute paper ornaments, and two very cute woodland and Christmas sets of cookie cutters, we can't wait to try these out with our gingerbread and sugar cookies this week!  We also found a cuddly blanket and a very interesting round whisk we thought would be fun to try out.

Sarah brought home a very cute Carrot doll and Joe picked out a classic black alarm clock for his room.

We got a cute hedgehog book, and a Swedish baking cookbook I am excited to use.

They also had a Scandinavian grocery section, so we thought we would try out some spicy holiday soda, some of their coffee, some rye crisp bread (I love rye!), some of the lingonberry juice, and of course a pack of Swedish fish to share.  It was fun looking through all the different groceries, we also brought home a bag of the Swedish meatballs and cream sauce to have later.  We were happily surprised at the checkout when they discounted the price of our lunch from the total, they had a weekend special going on, so that was really wonderful!

All around it was a very fun day, we all enjoyed it, and look forward to visiting again.

This week we are  finishing up our Christmas gift shopping, and decorating, and doing our Christmas baking, I love the smell of gingerbread!

Singing Christmas Tree and Cherishing Family

This past week, just a day after posting about the mall shooting in my own part of the world, news broke of the horrifying and deeply heartbreaking elementary school shooting in Newtown.   Children are such precious gifts, the news of this shooting was both frightening and beyond tragic.  Posting about fun Christmas happenings just didn't feel right, and after two shootings in just one week, it is hard to not be anxious, but with the reminder of the brevity of life, I want to cherish every moment I have with my family.

The high school's Singing Christmas Tree Performance took place this past weekend, and I will say, hearing all the beautiful choirs in our community warmed my heart.  Hearing my own children sing with their choirs is such a gift, everyone sang so beautifully.  

When the youngest choirs from our elementary schools sang, I could not help but tear up, such sweet souls!  They made us all chuckle with their curiosity of the cat walks and stage lighting, one little girl was waving to Santa, who was sitting in part of the set, she was so excited to see him.  They were all so cute. :)

The performance ended with the Hallelujah Chorus, which is always so beautiful to hear.  

I saw the whole performance three times, as my daughter is a Senior this year, it will be her last year as a student performing in the tree.   All the seniors were sentimental about their last performance, not a dry eye in the girls dressing room I hear, afterward all the seniors got together at a diner, and reminisced, sang and laughed together all evening.  Such a wonderful time, the whole weekend filled me with joy.

Events, like the recent tragedies, remind me how important it is to enjoy life and cherish the time we have with our loved ones.  I will continue to keep all those affected in my prayers, I can only begin to imagine the depth of their grief.  

One of the  passages in the Bible that I enjoy is Romans 12:9-21 on Love.  The verses that stood out to me were-

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 (NIV)

and

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Romans 12:15 (NIV)

and the passage ends with this verse-

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans 12:21 (NIV)

Prayers for Clackamas Mall Shooting

This week we had a very tragic and frightening event in our county, the shooting at the Clackamas Mall here in Clackamas County, Oregon.  I was so sad and frightened when I heard the news, this is the mall I have been happily visiting since I was a teenager, where I bring my family on the weekends for lunch, where we, just last week, spent the afternoon picking out outfits for the kid's Winter Formal dance.  My husband was at his office, not more than five minutes away from the mall when the shooting occurred,  my sister was planning on bringing my little niece and nephew to see Santa after work, I am so glad they were not there!  I cannot imagine how horrified everyone must have been. You hear about things like this happening, but you never quite expect it to happen in your own part of this world.  My heart and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this tragedy, for quick healing to those injured and for those who lost their family member or friend.  

Star of Bethlehem Wood Craft

This last Sunday was the second week of Nativity, and so for my little Sunday school class, I brought another fun craft to go along with our nativity lesson.

This week I wanted to do a Star of Bethlehem craft, I wanted something that would be easy for the children, and not have too many complicated instructions.  So I decided to make use of the wood tree trunk slices that we made from last years Christmas tree, and with a paper star, some mod podge and fine glitter came up with this craft.

I got out my ruler, and came up with a star pattern that would fit on the trunk circle, traced it out onto yellow cardstock and cut them out with an exacto knife.

Using a sponge style paint brush, spread a layer of mod podge (glossy variety) over the surface of the wood, set the yellow star in the center, cover it with another layer of mod podge, sprinkle on some fine gold glitter (I prefer Martha Stewart glitter, it is much finer than the classic sort of glitter, and works well with this type of craft, as long as the glitter is a tiny fine size it should work), after the glitter is sprinkled on, add another layer of mod podge to help distribute the glitter over the surface.  Let it dry for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then give it one more coat of mod podge.  Then let it dry overnight.  

The surface is nice and shiny, with specks of glitter.  The kids really enjoyed spreading on the mod podge, and swirling on the glitter.  They enjoyed the novelty of working with wood instead of our standard paper.  The big chunky wood pieces are fun to hold, and when they see the star they will remember our story.  This wooden round craft makes a nice paper weight or decoration to tuck into some greenery.  If you had thinner pieces you could also drill a hole through the top and hang them on the tree.

We had fun reading through some of the various Nativity books I have collected over the years, this week I brought in two little pop up books that all the children enjoyed looking through, as well as a newer book I found a few years ago, that has a built in music button as well as stars that light up and twinkle which was a fun surprise when I was done reading the story.   

For a special treat I brought a big bag of Satsuma Mandarin oranges for snack time and some cookies, the mandarin oranges were sweet and the kids enjoyed them quite a bit. It was an all around fun week in Sunday school, and I look forward to more Christmas crafting over the next two weeks.

Easy Paper Angel Tutorial

Last Sunday was the first week of Advent, and every year I like to have special crafts and activities to share with the children in my Sunday school class.  I like to keep my ideas easy and budget friendly, and simple paper crafts usually fit that bill.  I share the various parts of the Christmas story over the four Sundays in December, this week our class heard the part of the Christmas story where an angel tells Joseph (Matthew 1:18-25) and Mary (Luke 1:26-38) that Mary is pregnant with baby Jesus.  So for the first Sunday in advent I often like to do an angel craft.

This year I wanted to try something a little different than the angels I have done in the past, so I scoured Pinterest for ideas, and kept seeing a very cute folded paper angel similar to the one above.  None of the links had tutorials, so I spent an evening cutting and folding paper until I got the desired pattern that I thought would be easy for the kids to follow.  The older kids had no trouble with this craft, the little ones had helpers to fold the paper.  They all enjoyed having a nice ornament to take home.  So I thought I would post a step by step tutorial of our fun craft.

The materials are very simple- regular white copy paper, glue sticks, tacky glue, white string, scissors, stapler, and glitter if you like.

Cut a sheet of paper in half from top to bottom like this.  I like to use my paper cutter and do a few at a time, you could also fold it in half and cut along the line.

Take one of the halves and accordion fold along the short end, like this, until you have folded the entire length.  Folds are roughly half and inch.

Here is what it looks like all folded up.

Press the paper together, and lay a white string or white embroidery floss along the nicest looking side, fold the paper accordion in half to find its center, then staple the center , along with the string like shown below.

Turn it on its side, and fan out the accordion like this, and tie a knot in the top of the string to use as the ornament hanger, then set aside.

Take the other half sheet of paper, and this time accordion fold it along the long end, horizontally.  Continue folding until you have folded the entire length.

Then fold it in half, and cut it into two equal halves, like this.

Then fold each of the halves in half again.

Next the two halves need to be glued together, lay one down flat, and glue along the bottom.

Then glue the two halves together like this.  Again, glue on the bottom of this piece  and bring the two halves together, so it forms the bottom half of the angel.

Here are the top and bottom ready to be glued together, using your glue stick, apply glue to the bottom of the top piece, and slide the bottom half into the top half.  Press them both together until the glue is holding.

This is what the body of the angel will look like.

If you have a circle punch, that is the best way to make the round paper for the face, I punched out 1 1/4 inch circles from white paper for the faces, if you don't have a punch, find a similar sized circle, like a tiny biscuit cutter, to trace and cut out your circles.  Draw on a simple face (it is fun to see the different faces the kids come up with), put a dab of tacky glue in the center top of the angel body, like shown below, and gently press on the face, the tacky glue will seep down in and give the angel more stability when it dries.

You can leave it simple, with a drawn on face, or you can add a touch of glitter, I used silver tinsel glitter for the halo, and crystal glitter for the cheeks and edges of the wings on the one below.  I really love how simple the white paper looks, plain white paper is very easy to fold, it could be fun though, to experiment with patterned paper, some of the angels on Pinterest were made with colorful scrapbook paper, it gave them a completely different look, and would be easy to match to your decor.

Here is the angel on my little tree.

I love how the tree lights shine through the white paper.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.  This was a fun advent craft to make, and one I look forward to making again.   Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Hazelnut Fest, Kristkindle Markt, and Tree Lighting

December has arrived, and we spent the day taking part in all sorts of small town Christmas fun.

We started out on Saturday with a trip to Mt. Angel, a small town about 15 minutes from where we live. This is the same town where we go to celebrate Oktoberfest.  I was excited to attend their first annual Hazelnut Festival at the Festhalle. Regular readers of my blog may remember that I am actually allergic to tree nuts, hazelnuts included, so I was quite cautious about eating anything there, but I was so looking forward to the Kristkindle Markt (basically a craft bazaar), as well as some German music and sausages, that I didn't let my aversion to tree nuts keep me away.

Mt. Angel is such a fun town, all sorts of German looking buildings, I always enjoy our visits.  Here is the Festhalle where the Hazelnut Fest was located.

This is a really neat building, we enjoyed the look of it.

This is the stage you see when you walk in, I love the windows.

The inside of the hall looks like you are standing in front of a little row of houses, very fun looking!

There was a friendly accordionist, roaming about, and playing Christmas carols.  He did a great job, everyone enjoyed the music.

Here are Sarah and Joseph, they had just finished the most beautiful and delicious cupcakes from a cupcake vendor, I should have snapped a picture, but they were so yummy they were gobbled right up!  Since it was a Hazelnut Festival, Nutella and Fererro Rocher were giving away samples as well, which was pretty fun.

I was really impressed by this German baker's stand of beautiful rustic bread, very inspiring, now I want to get to baking and try making some homemade bread that looks like these.

My favorite little shop was the Monastery Mustard shop, they had a multitude of delicious mustard flavors, we settled on their Divinely Original flavor and Heavenly Honey.  The proceeds of this mustard, which is made at the local monastery, goes to support the retired Sisters and maintain the monastery.  I would encourage any mustard fans out there to check out there website www.monasterymustard.com , you can order some of the flavors on their website, very yummy!

We had a fun time at the Hazelnut Fest, and look forward to attending next year.  You can check out the website here www.hazelnutfest.com.

We decided to eat lunch at The Glockenspiel Restaurant up the road, this is a very fun building, it has a large clock tower with  a moving glockenspiel that represents the story of the town's history.   

We were fortunate to arrive just before 1:00 pm, one of the four times each day that the glockenspiel plays.  What a fun sight, the figures twirl around and each figure has its own bit of music.

The show finishes with these children swinging and singing Edelweiss, one of my personal favorites.  What a treat it was!

There are fun sites to see all through town, like this metal pole with folk art right across from the tower.

This interesting pub was also across from the restaurant, called Frank-N- Steins all decked out to look like  a spooky old castle, we thought that was pretty funny.

By the time we got in the Glockenspiel Restaurant, we were ready for a good lunch, the windows were decorated with Nutcrackers, and had a really nice atmosphere.

Fondue was a must, we all love it so much, the apples and bread dipped into the cheese were delicious!  We all agree that we need to buy our own fondue pot this December and learn to make our own, I will have to start looking for recipes! :)

I had the weinerschnitzel with spatzle, we all tried it and loved it.

The boys had delicious sausages with sauerkraut and potatoes that was also very tasty and filling.

Sarah had a very nicely made burger on a pretzel bun.   Pretzel buns are delicious!

After our very yummy and special lunch, we made our way back to town, the country drive was so pretty, lingering fall color, plenty of old interesting barns, and rolling hills.

After a little rest, Joseph got dressed in his winter wear to go sing with his choir group, for our town's tree lighting ceremony, which was tonight.  The rest of us bundled up as well, to go watch the tree lighting and hear the various singing groups.  Santa arrived on his sleigh, all lit up, and ready for our annual canned food drive parade that goes through town for three nights collecting food.

After a word from the mayor and a prayer from a local pastor the tree was lit up.

We all had fun singing along to carols.  There was a live nativity, with two very nervous but sweet goats, the goats were good sports about letting all the kids pet them, even though the crowd and loud noises were a bit much for them. :)

Here is Joe all ready to sing, I am really looking forward to hearing both him and Sarah sing this year in the Singing Christmas Tree too.  The whole evening was wonderful.

After saying goodbye to friends, we headed home for a late small dinner and enjoyed a Christmas show.  Our day was so enjoyable, the perfect way to kick off advent.  I am really looking forward to this Christmas season!