Chuseok 2012- Part 1

Chuseok is Korean holiday that involves celebrating the harvest, paying tribute to your ancestry and participating in folk games. This is really our first celebration of a Korean holiday together as a family. The holiday is celebrated for 3 days and some compare to the American Thanksgiving. The holiday actually falls on the 30th but we've been busy celebrating! In honor of Chuseok (Chu-sock is how you say it), I'm dedicating 3 blog posts to it.
This first one is all about the preparation. This past weekend we celebrated with old and new friends. I'll talk more about that later but today's post is all about the food! At the party we dined on all the Korean favs, Bulgogi, kimchi, rice, and japchae. I love Korean food but have to admit I typically leave it to the experts at the Korean restaurants to make it. No excuses this time though, I made the japchae. It's a noodle dish made with sweet potato noodles, lots of veggies and often meat. I tried to document the steps.  Not quite the photo quality as the Pioneer Woman's pics, but I tried.....

Sweet Potato Noodles.  Good thing my recipe had instructions on
how to boil because they were in Korean on the package.  I smuggled
these back from a Korean market in Seoul.  

These are my ingredients:  Mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, sesame oil, and whaaaa?  Candy corns?
Nope.  Just a cooking treat for this chef.

Replace candy corns with spinach.

The cooked vegtables

Finished!  

Kara + Paul = Happily Ever After

This past weekend, Bret's sister got married!  We were so happy to be able to be part of this intimate family affair.  The event was small and perfect.  The backdrop was the beautiful northern woods of Wisconsin.  The weather gods were smiling down that day, the bride looked beautiful and everything fell into place.  It really was the complete opposite as our wedding, but I just loved the simplicity of it.   The bride and groom got it right, and the wedding fit them perfectly.  We couldn't be happier for them.

I took oodles of pictures but here were a few of my favorite.

Killing us with cuteness

Close-up!

Love.

Add caption

Bear hug from Grandma....no shoes, no tie...getting sleepy

WW: Scooter Gang

Eat.Sleep.Football

It's that time of year again when the family plans revolve around a little team by the name of the Green Bay Packers, maybe you've heard of them.  We bleed green and gold!  It feels like just yesterday (literally, like just yesterday) that we all were planning our Sundays around the big game.  I admit, I've never really gotten the obsession with the game.  But over the years, I've joined in the fun, mostly for the game day snacks and excuse to have a beer on a Sunday.  But this year, the anticipation was all about having Nash join in the fun.  Que the game day jitters, for Bret is was about the kick-off, for this mama, it was about how in the world we were going to entertain Nash for 3.5 hours!    

I've been thinking a lot lately about family traditions (by thinking I mean talking obsessively about it to the hubs).  Football is near the top of this families list.  I want Nash to have memories of all of us gathered around the TV, joined by the bonds of the wins and loses, nachos and touchdown dances (discount double-check).  Fast forward 15 years and I can picture Nash someday having the same Monday morning quarterback conversations with Bret as Bret has with his dad.   Even though the game ended up a bust (they lost), we still have fun introducing Nash to one of our favorite pastimes. 

Introducing the starting lineup!  At wide-receiver, Nash Larson!
(crowd goes wild)

Can you say endorsement deals?  Head and Shoulders and Chunky Soup.

1st and 10.  Coach Larson giving the route.
"Set.Hut."

"Nash Larson runs the route, high stepping over dog poop and weeds."

"Look.At.The.Ball."
(Bad throw by the quarterback).

Time-out for a quick photo-op. 

Going Long!
(like really long, like, come back Nash!)

"Oh and the tackle by the evil purple and gold"

What's a football game without an injury.  Yes, that is Bret icing his foot with a bag of frozen corn.
Don't ask.  

Game day snacks!
Funny story, that popcorn bowl is from one of Bret's ex-girlfriends parents.
True story.  It gets lots of use.

Till next game!