Update and Reindeer In Our Garage! My Little Swedish Corner

Time for some TLC, rescued reindeer

Update and Reindeer In Our Garage! 
It's been a really crazy last week with lots of holiday and birthday stuff going on. Weather has been really mild, 40's today, snow pretty much melted. Christmas baking will be next weekend. I have to pace myself! All my girls do their own baking, so I just do a couple small batches for us and ones the girls don't make. We stopped doing our family gift exchanges when our girls asked us to stop. It was just too much expense with two new babies. We still do stockings but keep it minimal. For us it's more about the time spent together and less about "stuff". The chickens are laying like crazy, 3-4 eggs every day. What a change from no eggs! I'm giving excess to the kids. Friday I had holiday lunch party/Santa gift exchange at work which was really fun. We all bought gifts for each other and we had a really nice lunch that one of the doctors paid for. Friday night my husband's company paid for a really nice dinner out at a local Brazilian Grill called Tucano's-

The salad bar extends to the right another 50 feet, on both sides!

It's a theme kind of restaurant, not my thing, but it was fun and it certainly had lots of different foods for everybody. They have a massive salad bar that's monstrous with things that you don't usually see in salad bars, like quail eggs. They bring around huge skewers of all different kinds of meat and slice it on your plate. A fun time was had by all and Dave and I got to spend time visiting with some of his co-workers and just relaxing. I did have a bit of an upset tummy yesterday, but some ginger ale and tums took care of that. Maybe a little bit too much rich food? We were gifted with snowman mug with a candle holder from our table-

Last night was my daughter Michelle's birthday and we had a get-together at her house. She asked me to make a specific cake Epicurious Double Chocolate Layer Cake  It has buttermilk and was really delicious! I also made a homemade butter cream frosting that is cooked with egg yolks and has cardamom (sorry no photos). I couldn't find the frosting recipe online since I printed it several years ago. Makes for an unusual flavor since cardamom doesn't taste like anything else. We had a great time there last night but we're really tired at the end of the day. Today is also grandson Oliver's 2nd birthday, another party late today. We found a really fun book for him, a classic. Shhh, can't share here. We did get our Christmas tree up yesterday and are decorating it today. And speaking of Christmas...  I found this cute little guy at Lowe's!

Spice tin

It's funny that I have found some really unique items at Lowe's, of all places. I found Nordic inspired knit balls and Tomtens (trolls). A big box store and really inexpensive!

My car

It's funny having so many reindeer in our garage! Last year at the grocery outlet I found a little reindeer kit really cheap. The antlers go on the back windows and the nose goes on the front and I drive around with a smile on my face. I've seen these around town which is where I got the idea. Just a little fun something that cost me a couple of bucks. 

Antler

Dave's boss was throwing the two reindeer top photo in the trash and he snagged them, I'll repair the ears and clean them up. Pretty cute! They just need some love, then we'll put them outside.

My Little Swedish Corner-
After I painted my Ikea step stool with the blanket stripes I found the perfect corner for it. Out of the way when we don't need it. I had bought a small fake tree at Michael's and it fit perfect into my little rustic enameled Ikea steel pot. I put it on top of the step stool, but it needed a little something. When I unpacked my Yule items I found two little Tomtens/gnomes that fit perfect there! I think of it as my little Swedish corner. I need to have my DNA tested someday, I think I'm probably at least part Scandinavian!