Not exactly how we planned it...

Well, it wasn't exactly how we planned Christmas 2009. We arrived at the airport in Stavanger at 5:30am Monday morning (21st) to learn that our flight to Amsterdam had been cancelled. To make a long story VERY short, we weren't able to get flights out (long haul between Europe and USA) until Christmas Eve! As I write this, we are soon headed to bed because the taxi comes to collect us at 8:45am in the morning (24th) for Round 2. Pray that we make it safely as Tulsa is now expecting winter weather!

Despite our disappointments (HUGE), we decided to make the best of it. We still had this beautiful winter wonderland of snow; so, Tim and Lexi played in the snow Monday afternoon while I went to finish the last minute Christmas shopping that I had planned to do in Tulsa. We then packed an overnight bag and headed to Feda on Tuesday morning. We met up with one of Tim's closest buddies (Arne) and his son (Sverre) for some sledding and cookies.

Lucky Lexi also got to decorate her third Christmas tree of the season (one at home, one at barnehage and. one at Lajla's). She and Luna had loads of fun hanging all of the ornaments on the tree Tuesday night and sledding today. Enjoy the pics!

Go figure....

Well, it never fails. The weather never travels with us. It is going to be a white Christmas in Norway. The crispy cool temps started earlier this week with some snowfall on Wednesday, but nothing compared to the snow that came down on Saturday. We are sad to leave this gorgeous white stuff behind. Everything is always prettier when it is draped in white!

Lajla, Tom, Linn and Luna visited us Saturday night for a "Christmas Dinner" celebration. (We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc.....) Here is Linn, Luna and Lexi as they wait for breakfast this morning.

Breakfast... Lajla, Linn and Luna

Luna and Lexi headed to the hill to go sledding

Coming down the hill....

Tim shoveling the snow :)

Lajla and Tom gave us some money to buy Lexi's early birthday present.... her first pair of cross country skis. So, we headed to the shops this afternoon (all the shops are open on the Sundays in December...). Of course, Lexi insisted on trying them on and then trying them out once we got home! Despite the fact that it was bathtime, we bundled her up and took a quick trip outside.

TUSEN TAKK MORMOR OG TOM!

A Christmas evening at Kongeparken

Every year, Halliburton sponsors an evening for employees and their families at Kongeparken. It is the local "amusement park". It isn't huge, but is an awesome experience at Christmas. They really go all out and the evening always puts us in the mood for Christmas. This year, it was held on Wednesday night ... we woke up Wednesday morning to snow falling from the sky. So, by evening, it really was a white winterwonderland.

Here are Tim and Lexi decorating a huge gingerbread cookie at the Gingerbread Workshop.

Here are Lexi and Tim building a birdhouse at the Carpentry Workshop.

We are SOOOOO proud of Luna!

Luna took up figure skating as an extra-curricular activity about three years ago. She loves it tremendously and is improving and improving and improving. I had the pleasure of watching Luna skate her recital piece in their Christmas show last night. (Tim was home with Lexi who supposedly has pink eye and was "quarantined".) Here is Luna in her gorgeous skating dress and below is a video clip of her dance piece. WAY TO GO LUNA!

Time passes quickly...

Well, I have been feeling guilty that I have not updated the blog in (what seems like) ages, but my "saving grace" was that Kristy was even more belated than me. Well, she updated hers yesterday; so, I felt obliged...

Even though we are traveling home to Tulsa for Christmas, I felt that we needed to drag out some of the Christmas decor to make the house a bit festive. I certainly didn't want to go overboard as there is nothing worse than coming home on January 4th to a house decorated for Christmas!

So, I set-up the tree and strung the lights on Sunday, Nov 29th and left the Christmas ornament hanging to Tim and Lexi. I went out of town Nov 30-Dec 4th to a training class outside of London and Tim and Lexi tackled the ornaments one night. I am so proud of myself, I have not moved a single ornament after they "decorated". Firstly, Tim got out way less than half of the ornaments (he thinks we have way, way too many). Secondly, Lexi hung EVERY SINGLE ornament herself... which explains why 90% are on the lower two branches. Tim lifted her up to hang the upper ornaments. So, as you will see from the following pics, the tree is definitely "unique", but hey... I didn't have the heart to re-do Lexi's decorating :)

We actually spent one recent weekend in Stavanger and enjoyed a stroll around the center on Saturday to help get us in the festive mood. Lexi insisted on the stroller and felt the need for sunglasses...despite the fact that the sun was no longer shining.


Just to give a quick "boathouse update", we spent our last weekend of 2009 in Feda December 4-6. Here are a few pics of our year-end progress. Nearly there!

Yippee! Finally, door handles!
Just waiting on furniture...

Second floor bathroom...

First floor bathroom...

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

We are sad that we aren't with you today to gorge ourselves on the turkey feast, but we are thinking of you and we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have some friends coming into town to visit this weekend and we are planning on fixing a "Thanksgiving" turkey meal on Saturday. So, tonight, I was making my cornbread for the dressing and pre-chopping celery and onions, etc.. Yum, yum...can't wait.

Anyway, Lexi received a package in the mail which we let her open early. I was going to save it until Sunday (when we will start dragging out the Christmas decor), but she came home from barnehage (daycare) yesterday singing Christmas songs as they are already starting to get in the "Christmas spirit" at barnehage.

Grammy and Grandpa were very generous and sent the annual Hallmark musical figure. And this year it was Snoopy! The clip isn't the most exciting, but I figured it would be appreciated none-the-less.

PS to Aunt Brenda - Lexi received your Thanksgiving card and the Sesame Street stickers this week. She has already stuck the stickers onto various papers/cards, etc. Thanks!

This next video clip is definitely not exciting, but I just had to post it. Lexi and her buddies at daycare are very into pretend play with dolls and kitchen things. She comes home and has conversations with her dolls - all in Norwegian. Anyway, it is super fun to listen to (1) for her creativity and imagination and (2) because she treats her dolls the way she is treated. By this, I mean that she is telling her dolls to be careful or that it is time to sleep or that they shouldn't hit each other, etc. You can hear echos of Tim and I or her daycare leaders in what she says to the dolls. So, tonight, she had all 6 of her dolls lined-up on the floor and went upstairs to get bibs for each of them as she was making them food. I was vaccuuming the house, but stopped to listen a while. By the time I thought about getting the camera out, she had moved on to the discipline phase. It is evident that she had spent some time "i garderoben" at barnehage. This literally means "coat closet", but it really isn't a closet. It is the big entry room where Lexi has a little cubbyhole and hook for her jacket and boots, etc. Apparently (I will need to confirm this tomorrow with the daycare leaders), the "garderoben" is also used as the time-out area. So, tonight, Lexi's dolls were apparently hitting each other and they had to go to the "garderoben".

You probably won't appreciate this clip as much as we enjoyed listening to it because the entire conversation with the dolls is in Norwegian, but I am loosly translating it into English when I ask her what is going on.

It's a long one; so, just stop when you get bored....

Progress at last!

For those of you faithful followers of "the boathouse project", it may seem as if this project is never going to end. Trust me, I have had my doubts, but we are on track to have the 2nd floor "liveable" area complete by year-end so that we can start moving in furniture (that we don't necessarily have...)

Anyway, we spent a long weekend (Fri-Sun) in Feda since Friday was a planning day at daycare and the daycare was closed. Lajla and Tom were away for the weekend; so, it was just the three of us. We have now nearly finsished the loft area for Lexi and have "moved her in" so that she had a play area and a bed for naptime, etc. I worked away at some of the trimwork painting in the loft while she played. All in all, it was a productive weekend!


The "funky pillows" are from the sailboat. Tim didn't want to leave them in the sailboat for the winter; so, we piled them in the loft and Lexi had a ball hopping and jumping, re-organizing, etc.

What a fun family weekend!

We had a great time this weekend. We actually spent the weekend at home... a nice, relatively quiet family weekend. No boathouse, no trip to Feda, no major committments, etc.

The weekend started (as all weekends do) on Friday night. I had my once-per-month Bunco outing so Tim and Lexi had some quality playtime together. Here is a picture of Lexi in her babydoll bed and PJs right before bedtime.

On Saturday afternoon, we invited Grace and Ingrid (and their moms and brothers & sisters) over for a playdate. There was a bit of a warm-up period in the beginning, but by the end (Grace was in her coat to leave), the girls were well-fed and on a sugar high from dessert. It was a balloon war with plenty of laughter and squealing to go with it.

Today is Norwegian Father's Day and we went for a walk in a nearby forest. (Not quite the 75 degree weather the rest of the family has in Tulsa...)

PS - the pink pants are the pink ski bibs (size 12 month) that Kris sent to Lexi ages ago...

Then, Lexi and Tim made this year's first batch of pepperkake (ginger snap cookies). Ikea sells pre-made pepperkake dough which is great. So, you get all of the fun of rolling it out and cookie cutting and none of the hassle with ingredients!

Lexi LOVED to dip her hand in the flour cannister and was very generous with the flour. In case you can't tell, the dough is brown....

Here are Tim's pepperkake men and Lexi's heart. Color difference??? :)

And here is the chef herself telling us about baking pepperkake. Sorry folks, mostly in Norwegian, but I repeated it in English.