Snow!

The kids must all have sung the snow song again, because Monday night we got a few inches and woke up to the fabulous swirling of still-falling snow in the wind. The just-before-sunrise time seems to be perfect light for photos of the snow, plus it hasn't yet been walked on much or started to melt so it's very serene and beautiful. Jeff went over to the folk school while I walked the boys to school so we could get a couple of pictures. They don't get much snow here, so you have to really take advantage of it when it's here.

 I love this image walking up to the kids' school. Each morning, it's just a little bit lighter (plus, we are a bit later...but that's a whole other issue) but I love the look of the lights glowing out the windows while the sky is still semi-dark. It just feels comforting. Torben was playing in the snow on the picnic table, and Anders was running into the school. So, it was a pretty typical morning arrival.

We didn't realize that the preschool kids often brought sleds to school when it's snowy like this, so the boys were quite sad when we got there and there were many sleds lined up against the wall outside. Anders didn't even want to stay at school he was so upset. But, Jeff saved the day! He went home and brought back two sleds before it was time to play outside, and they had a blast playing with their friends and sledding down the hills. It's hard to believe how much speed you can build up from that small hill you see below the windows in that picture above. Torben went half-way across the field!

Coming up in February is Fastelavn. I haven't quite figured out what the holiday is, but it is quite a bit deal around here. There are special "boller" (buns) they make; we saw some at the bakery yesterday and there were different varieties, some with nuts, some filled with cream, some just plain, others with chocolate. Another excuse to eat a delicious pastry, I guess! The children all dress up in costumes for this, just like at Halloween. I was a bit concerned that if we waited too long to find something for the kids, they'd miss getting costumes and I didn't want that. I could already feel the mommy guilt about them missing out on something, when they (a) are more than two weeks out from the festival, (b) had no idea what Fastelavn even was or even that there was a festival coming up, and (c) hadn't looked for costumes yet to know whether they'd have them. Sigh. So while the boys were at school yesterday, Jeff and Svea and I went to the recycle shop where there were several racks of costumes, all for 10Kr each! We found a superhero (one of the Avengers, I think...it's yellow and blue), and a ninja, plus a Winnie the Pooh for Svea, complete with suit and hat. All for about $4 or $5. And now the kids are set. We are going to go to the festival at the rec center, where the kids also get a bag of candy and there are games and such. We haven't yet figured out if there is door-to-door candy-asking for this, but I guess we have a little while to find out.

My writing has to be short today. I spent the morning looking up other things, like the application for teaching at WIU again this fall in addition to my regular job, and finding out my interest payments for the 2015 year for my student loans, in preparation for doing our taxes. Then worked a bit on getting some presents ready for the boys' birthday next week. Hard to believe they will be 6!