We spent a pretty relaxing New Year’s Eve. Kevin and Peter braved the cold and lit off some industrial sized sparklers. The grandkids didn’t feel like playing games, so we adults played and laughed ourselves silly… till 10 or so… then we headed home. Exciting, huh?

Last week I showed the start of a project – a “Vintage Car” kit made from laser-cut pieces that I had fun assembling. The finished car is pretty cute, with several moving parts and amazing detail.

Saturday we had Jim, Huda, Laurel, Kevin, Becky, Dayna and Peter over for lunch. Becky brought a Creme Brûlée Crepe Cake for our dessert! Made with a couple dozen crepes, layered with something like whipped cream, and topped with the melted sugar like on an ordinary Creme Brûlée. It was fun to watch her melt the sugar to a gorgeous crispy layer!

As we’ve come to expect from Becky’s desserts, it was scrumptious!

The gals enjoyed a bit of puzzle time in the afternoon. It was great having our friends over, and of course always fun to have our family over too!

Since we won’t be moving our home around as often as we have the last several years, I’ve decided to learn a bit more about Lincoln. So I’m going to have a feature called:

Lincoln Lore

Salt Creek isn’t much to look at now, maybe especially since it’s frozen over. But the creek and the basin it filled was a good place to find salt. Native Americans used it first, and then the white pioneers saw the value in the area. Salt was important, not only for more flavor, but to preserve food.

Salt creek leached salt from the Dakota limestone it flows through. The proximity to salt made this a prized location to settle – soon a small town named Lancaster grew up in the area. That town grew tremendously over the years, and later had its name changed to “Lincoln.” But that’s another day’s story. Salt creek has been contained in concrete walls through much of its course, to avoid flooding Lincoln. That has stopped the take up of salt, and now if there is anything much in the water it is from the pollution of the big city.

The basin is still pretty, even when covered with ice. (Especially?)

A little plaque marks the Salt Basin in Oak Lake Park, not terribly far from the Lincoln Airport. We’ll have to visit again in the spring!