This weekend, we wanted to focus on the holiday season while camping at Leo Carrillo (our favorite standby local spot- especially in the winter). We decorated camp in festive lights and centerpieces, and played Christmas music that we’d downloaded onto our phone before the trip. We’ve been doing mostly homemade gifts for each other this year, and wanted to start a tradition of homemade ornaments as well.

I wasn’t sure about this salt dough ornament recipe, but it worked out great on the campfire!

Salt dough is a quick and easy dough that you can easily make at camp with kids. It becomes the consistency of Play Dough, and you can shape it into whatever you want. We made one in Ravi’s favorite shape- an ‘O’- and another in Asha’s favorite shape- a rocketship.

A few notes:

• When forming your ornaments, don’t forget to poke a hole for a string to feed through later. We used a glow stick bracelet as our hole poker, but a stick would work just fine.
• The children tried to eat the ornaments as soon as I handed them over. They do resemble cookies, but they do not taste like them. Don’t worry- there’s nothing toxic or dangerous in the dough if this happens to you.
• Cookie cutters work great for this project, but I just cut out freehand shapes with a knife.
• The original recipe for these suggested to bake them in a low oven for 2 hours. I tried baking one in a pie iron directly in the fire, and the rest were done in a cast iron skillet on the grate. All dried out well. The one baked in the pie iron turned a lovely golden brown.

Decorate your ornaments with markers or paint after they dry. Then hang them all over camp, or on your Christmas tree back at home. Happy Holidays!

(1) Grandpa’s Fire Fork
This little tool is ingenious – instantly turns a branch or stick into a fire skewer for roasting marshmallows or sausages.

(2) Best Made Axe
Beautifully crafted US made axes made to last a lifetime. For an extra fancy touch, get a custom handle design made for yourself or as a present.

(3) Kermit Chair
Just say no to sitting on the ground or plastic chairs that break after a couple uses. Sit pretty in the Kermit chair made of oak, heavy duty canvas and aluminum. It is completely foldable, and is ideal for car camping and canoe trips.

(4) Hudson’s Bay Company Point Blanket
I grew up with this blanket not realizing how iconic it has become. These wool blankets been around since the 18th century and were one of the main items traded by Europeans to Native Americans in the fur trade. They have become heirlooms renown for their quality, warmth and resistance to water.

(5) Redbird Strike Anywhere Matches
Apparently reliable strike anywhere matches are hard to come by these days. These Canadian-made matches are the real deal – strike them on any surface to get your campfire going.

(6) Berger 13” German Bucksaw
This saw is for serious wood cutting! Saw those logs down to smaller pieces before getting to work with your axe.

(7) Stikkan Wood Splitter
Once you’ve sawed and felled your wood, it’s time to make some kindling. This wood splitter makes the task a breeze so you can spend more time in front of the campfire.

(8) The Maine Flame Firestarter
An all-natural fire starter made only of wax and kiln-fired sawdust. These lightweight pine tree shaped fire starters light up like a candle and come unscented or in apple, cinnamon, citronella, and balsam scents.

(9) Utility Canvas Blanket
An all-purpose almost indestructible blanket now available in fun prints. Throw it on the ground for an instant picnic or use it to protect your backseat when loading in all that firewood.

I was totally surprised. I thought for sure that if Wes was going to propose, I’d start seeing signs long before the actual happening. I had done my fair share of probing him with questions, but got nowhere. I definitely didn’t expect it to happen just two days after my birthday, on a trip that hadn’t been planned until a few days before. We decided to hike Cucamonga Peak, a lesser traveled hike in our local mountains that we’d never done before. I’m training for a crazy event called the 8,000 Meter Challenge (coming up in a few weeks), so it was just a little training hike.

We got to the top without seeing more than 5 people all day, and it was a beautiful summit. We could see down into the valley where we live, which means we can now see “our peak” every day from home.

Wes found us a nice space under the trees to have a Dirty Gourmet lunch of fancy PBJ’s. He’s normally the type of man to have a speech prepared and be very suave. Which is why I started slopping on sunscreen and focusing on my sandwich as he sat next to me nervously repeating “I love you.” It took me until there was a ring in my face to understand what was really going on. It was a mumbly proposal and acceptance, and that made it even sweeter to me.

I’ve had a lot of good relationships in my life, but some people are just made for each other. I hope everyone can feel this sure, this lucky, and this ready to be together forever! Yay!