Our Family Seal: First Time Ice Fishing

More stories from Christmas at the cabin. Clayt and I went to Christmas Eve church. We both just love the new church we are going to (Bethany Lutheran in Nevis). It is such a friendly church and immediately we felt a part of it. Julie and Nate came up on Christmas Eve so the four of us had a quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Nate was able to get out and do some snowmobiling but we have so much snow up here and it's very light so he was gettng stuck off and on. If he was on a trail then it went fine but it was getting to a trail. Nonetheless, he had a good time. Christmas night we played Polish Poker, 6-5-4 and Farkle. It was fun. Then on the 26th I had to work until 1 pm. Kristin and Jeremy got up to the cabin around 1 pm so then Julie and I went into town to get the pork crown roast and miscellaneous groceries. Kristin stayed home and started on the appetizers. Alan, Christa and the girls (Alexandra, Angelique, Kathryn and Carissa) got to the cabin around 3:30 pm. Since we knew we were going to have a late dinner we decided just to have some appetizers to hold everyone over before dinner.

I made a crown roast of pork. It's the first time I've ever made one. It tasted wonderful but I would have had it in the oven about 1 hour more just to make it more tender. I made some really good dressing/stuffing and mashed potatoes. Crista made her corn souffle (kinda like scalloped corn). It's such an easy recipe to make. I'll include the receipe further down in the post.

Then after dinner we opened Christmas gifts which everyone liked what they received. Then we started playing cards again. It was fun night.

The next morning Tom and Jenny (friends that have a lake home up here and happen to be Kristin's first grade teacher and wife) came over for breakfast. We had waffles and pancakes, bacon and fruit. Tom and Jenny brought a delicious egg bake with carmelized onions and mushrooms. I loved it! Later that day we went into town and bought flannel. I told the girls I would make them pajama pants back at Thanksgiving. Well, I didn't get started until around 3:30 pm but I got 6 pair finished before the evening was over. They didn't turn out too bad either.

That night Nate took the girls down to the fish houses to dip their poles in the water (and to watch a DVD also...guess it was slow for awhile). Anyway, Angie caught 4 fish. Here are some pictures of her first catch. I just love the expressions on her face.

The next day we had a brunch of all leftovers. What a mix of food we had but at least no one went home hungry. By 4:30 pm the last of the group had left and Clayt and I watched the 'Sound of Music' by ourselves and with a nice fire.

It was great having all the kids home and to share a meal with our friends! Thank you everyone!