xmas evening

Jack & Rebecca and their girls came over for dinner on christmas night. the girls are becoming quite close, though hennie and sophia have a very turbulent love. Mette has started talking about Sabine all the time, calling her by her nickname, "Bean". here is their dinner table.

we started the evening by exchanging presents.

Sophia and Hennie

Bean had a cold.

Rebecca got the girls a really beautiful nutcracker - they are all realy into the ballet for the last couple of years and have a sort of tradition started in going to see one of the productions every year.

Single malt scotch. nothing but the best for my little princess.

After dinner we let the girls go so we could sit and attempt to have some drinks and talk and listen to music. we actually started to have a great time and when someone finally thought to check on the strangely content children, we found this.

these dresses were from Tante Tone and are beautiful. (they started the night with both wearing them, but we went thru about 5 costume changes, which is typical - especially when hennie and sophia start trying to out-princess each other)

right before we put hennie into the washing machine.

xmas morning

christmas morning we got up to see what Santa brought and open whatever was left unopened from the night before. The girls had left santa gingerbread cookies, milk, and some carrots for Rudolf - all of which were eaten.

we opened the stockings as well. here the girls got a 3D drawing kit with glasses, which were more fun than the fussy little red/blue pencil device.





new sleepware

new dolls

hennie got magnetic earrings, which she was crazy about

xmas eve

we had a fish dinner and opened most of the presents on xmas eve

this was one from fathermother


mette showing off her new skates

and hennies. (they looooved the skates)


a rare moment of calm

david got hennie a recorder (mette a tamborine. fathermother got both of them harmonicas, which were a huge hit)


showing off new jewelry, i think this is from tante tone.


mother sent david and i the last two of our beloved childhood blocks. they were sturdy wax-covered cardboard and we had so many (of various sizes) that we were able to build clubhouses out of them. it was a very nice surprise to see them again.

i built david a cigarbox guitar with a primative pickup and jack. it was a lot of fun to make and we're still waiting to find out how it sounds plugged in. david has to get an amp.

hege showing off a gift

which was a small, felt butterfly ring

which she loved.

salon

the girls wanted mother to put their hair up in curlers, and she was more than happy to work them in.

BBQ on the deck

these are from a cookout on the deck













these are the misters for the deck plants which work better as water guns

(old) mette's birthday

we found about 300 photos from david's camera that have never been uploaded. so the order of the next series of posts will be very random.




mette is behind the camera on most of these.


(credit Hennie)

parents of 5-year-old vs. 5-year-old parents

Hennie turned 5 and the world did not end. we actually had a great day, with her opening her first present, a watch, at a breakfast of waffles. Hege then took cupcakes to the last 1/2 hour of her schoolday and read the kids a book about Louisiana that Hennie had picked out. I got home early for dinner, which she had also requested. Here they are, still in pajamas, getting ready to eat.

hennie asked, totally out of the blue and without any prompting from hege, for a special birthday meal of Pasta, Broccolli, Avocado, and Sushi. we'd never gotten her to try sushi before, but were proud that she actually asked for a fairly typical, somewhat healthy meal. Naturally we got the simplest sushi roll of avacado & crabmeat, but it still had a seaweed wrap. hege and i had our own and thought we'd be eating all of hennies, but she wound up really liking it and dipped it in soy sauce, tried some pickled ginger, and had a lot of fun with it. she ate about 4 peices before remembering the cake.

hennie's got some 'starter' chopsticks - here showing that she's got a lot of practice yet before she masters it.


and poor mette has to improvise


she also asked for the typical norwegian cake with strawberries, rasberries, and bannanas

we got her some clothes, including some really great camoflagued cargo pants that she's deeply skeptical about. she said they were boys pants, and i felt like she caught me, because i had indeed bought them in the boys' dept.

to keep the peace, we had to get mette a little something to open as well. luckily she loved her cammo hat and has been wearing it every day