Monday, January 11, 2016

Starting the New Year

Jeff's mom arrived on December 30 to surprise the kids with a visit. It was fun watching their very confused expressions when she knocked on the door! Anders opened it first, and looked very curious about how it could be that Grandma was here looking at him, and he got a bit shy before being excited. Torben was in the bathroom, so she got to surprise him when he came out. He was equally confused before he was excited. And Svea was sleeping, so Grandma got to surprise her when she woke up. It was really fun.
 Up until this first week of January, it's been quite mild weather-wise, and the kids have been playing outside. Torben and Anders always ask to go out and ride the bikes. Right now, the second bike has a flat tire, so Torben rides the tricycle. He seems to think it's fun. And he couldn't find the other kids helmet, so he's wearing the riding helmet. Makes for some goofy pictures!

 Anders is really getting good at riding a 2-wheeler. He has such a good time with it, too, and rides at school whenever he can.



 The three of them really play together well, even if they did bring all the kitchen pans out to play restaurant. There were lots of "cooked" apples and carrots over the break.
If anyone who knows how to play chess tried to play it with the boys, they would probably be utterly confused. There is an unwritten-yet-agreed-upon-and-also-constantly-changing set of rules the boys came up with, and they had quite a fun time with it.
My parents sent a few "prizes" for Christmas, so the kids all had something to open. Jeff and I each got one too, though somehow the pants, which should have been Jeff's size, were very massive. The boys each fit in one leg and decided to try to hop out to the livingroom. I think there was still some space left in the pants, too. I got a new pickle t-shirt, which is excellent because I'm pretty sure I had to get rid of my old one before we came, as it was showing its years of love.
Since our Christmas Eve attempt at taking a nice family picture, Svea has really taken to the camera. She will say "picture! picture!" or "quick! quick!" and get the stepstool and put it in the doorway, and sit for a picture. If we don't have the camera out, she will either wait or come take our hand to bring us to where the camera is so we can take her picture.
I like this one of the three of them being sort of goofy. Torben's wearing Jeff's new sweatpants again, pulled up like a jumpsuit.
This picture makes me smile. Aside from the orange face (was it pizza sauce? spaghetti? don't remember, but she'd run away before I could wash it), this photo sort of looks to me like a hair commercial from the 1970s.
"Picture! Picture!" she says. Almost daily.
Love the grins on these two. Svea loves her daddy!
Torben is just a fun-loving kid. I don't remember what he was laughing about here, but he was really having a good time.

The boys decided to go outside and play a few times (maybe not enough times!) over break. This day, they made a firepit out of a metal bowl and some dirt, and then roasted marshmallows (made of styrofoam pieces that came with the pez in their stockings, I later learned). They can be quite creative when left to their own devices!
Svea got a new Elmo book, as well as mini Elmo and Big Bird toys from Grandma Vickie, so she was showing off her book. "Picture!"
It gets tiring waiting for your brothers all the time, and a little girl sometimes just needs to put her head down.
The first week of January, one set of Jeff's hostparents from when he lived here 20 years ago came to visit. Per and Jytte are a delightful couple and we had a lot of fun having dinner with them.



The boys went back to school on January 4, and were very glad to see their friends again. We tried to have some visits over the break, but it didn't work out, so it had been almost three weeks since they'd seen anyone.
On the 5th, Vickie, Jeff, Svea, and I went to Ribe even though it was quite cold out. We didn't realize exactly how cold until we got there, though! Jeff found a coupon online for Burger King, and we were able to get four meals for about $20...a definite bargain here! It's only the second time we have had fast food, and the third (fourth for me, since I went for sushi) time we've eaten out since we've been here. Svea loved being a big girl, sitting in a big girl chair and eating a cheeseburger. I can't believe how much she's growing!

We went to the Dom Kirke -Cathedral- to look around. It's absolutely gorgeous!






Jeff and Vickie also climbed the tower to look out over Ribe. I decided that climbing hundreds-year-old steps while carrying Svea didn't sound like that fun of an idea, so we stayed down at the bottom. There were 248 stairs, differing heights and widths. They said it was probably could I didn't try to navigate them. Despite the ferocious wind, the view was breathtaking.





 Jeff and Vickie took their first selfie up here.




 The sun was already this low in the sky, and it was about noon. They aren't kidding around about short winter days here!

Due to the wind being so strong and cold, we walked over to see the Jacob Riis house that Jeff had been trying to find in Ribe, and then we went home. It was just too cold that day for site seeing.
Wednesday was Vickie's last day here, so she took Jeff and Svea and I to lunch at the Burger Barn outside the ABC before we did our grocery shopping. It gets expensive to eat here when the folkschool is closed! The new kids arrive this weekend, so the kitchen will be open again. Whew!

Torben lost his third front tooth this week. Three in a row across the bottom. It was loose for over a week before it finally came out when Jeff pulled it. Torben decided he didn't want it to fall out in in sleep and he might accidentally swallow it. He still has not put any of his teeth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. Must be holding out for one big present! Anders has not put his under his pillow either, but at present they are misplaced in a closet at home, so it will be a while. He talked about writing a nice note to the tooth fairy explaining that his teeth got misplaced and would she please have pity on him. So we'll see how that goes.

Last Thursday at school, the kids all sang a song to bring snow. It was fun to hear all the stories of kids who said "it worked!" when they woke up Friday morning to a blanket of a few inches of powdery white. It looks so beautiful! At school they got to make snowmen and sled down the hill and had a great time enjoying the winter weather that finally arrived.

We wanted to try to get a family picture outside of the folkschool building. It took a few tries...the name above the door on the big white building in back is quite high, so getting us in focus and still being able to read it was a challenge. I like this one, though. Maybe if we crop it a bit it will turn out perfectly.



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