It's Christmas time

Marit and I have been knocked out by a stomach flu for a few days, so our activity level has been kept to a minimum around here. Luckily (and amazingly!), Niklas and Emma have steered clear from catching it (so far..). It's been no fun, I tell you, but thankfully we're more or less back to normal now!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and that you had a lovely Christmas! We had a great time getting together with Marit's family in Oslo where we (14 in total, this year) celebrated Christmas Eve. Niklas was a little trooper staying up until midnight (when the last gifts were opened). We loved the gifts and holiday greetings we have received from you all (especially "Made with Love by Grandma"!). Both Niklas and Emma will get great use out of everything. Here are a few pics from our holiday:

Niklas discovers his Santa sock in bed

View from our backyard
(A crisp, white day - just a thin layer of snow/frost and a few degrees below freezing)

"It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...."

With Momo and aunt Line

Niklas' first skis (from Momo)

Santa payed us a visit

On Santa's (or uncle Stig's?) lap

Knitted by Grandma with love

One Year Today

I can't believe it's been a year since Emma was born! Yet at the same time it feels like we've known her forever. It's impossible to even begin to explain how much wonder and joy our little princess brings into our lives.

One year ago today, Roland and I got to hold our baby girl in our arms and kiss her for the first time. We'd been double-blessed. First Niklas, now Emma. It was the most special Christmas gift of all. We brought her home on the day of Christmas Eve, and I'll never forget how amazing that was.

Thank you so much for all your wonderful birthday wishes and presents!

We love you so much, our sweet, precious, Emma-Bemma!
Happy 1st Birthday!!

Of course, we had to put the flag up today

Pepperkaker

Ok, since we're catching up, here's what we did the second Sunday in December:

The end result:

24 days till Christmas...

OK, so we're backtracking a bit. But you see, Niklas got his first advent calender this year. (Well, he's actually got two, since Momo (Grandma) gave him one, too. It's a paper one, with pictures to open and showing scenes of life in a castle from old times.) Every kid in Norway has an advent calendar, and if you've got the time (or not?) you can do a home made one. So, that's what Niklas got. 24 presents (phew!) later, and he was introduced to the tradition.
It's hilarious to watch him all droopy eyed in bed and reluctant to get up in the morning. With a slight mention of the calender - voila!! - he's up and sporting a huge smile, too!
As an added benefit, he's really learning a lot from having a calender. (No, really, he is!) Though he's been counting to 15 for a long time, he's learning about the higher numbers. Many mornings, the first words uttered out of his mouth are: 19 today!!! (Obviously, a different number each day.) Also, the calendar is helping him learn more about Christmas (in a strictly numbers and significant dates kind of way). Finally, there's the lesson of patience, for obvious reasons.
Just one thing, please remind me next year to start shopping for the 24 calendar presents in October, OK? Especially since next year it'll be 48 - with Emma's, too!

Checking the calender out on the first day of December

This picture I just had to add because I thought it was a great shot of my two handsome boys :-)

Scary?

Michael Moore's most recent movie "Sicko" has caused quite the stir, huh? No matter what you think of him as a filmmaker, you may find this clip of his trip to Norway interesting. It was originally shot for "Sicko" but left out of the movie. (Keep in mind that he lays it on thick and that the clip doesn't necessarily give an exact rendition of Norway!) If you have a couple of minutes to spare, take a look!

Where do people get the time...HoHoHo!!!

The Christmas season (from what I remember) was all about relaxing, eating good food and visiting family and friends. WHAT HAPPENED?? I mean, don't get me wrong - it still is all about those wonderful things (even more so now with kids of our own) - but it sure is hectic!! Our parents made it seem so effortless when we were kids. Who knew they were so busy in the midst of all the holiday cheers?? Many heartfelt thanks to all the parents out there who put in so much time and effort when we were kids, to make Christmas such a special time!

All we need in Norway now is some snow...."Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

Better late than never

Blogging, that is. Seems everyone is doing it and we've finally decided to join in on the fun! One Google search (for a blog site) later and here we are! It makes a lot of sense to blog, really, especially with family and friends spread out all over the world. (Whatever took us so long?) Humbled by all the great blogs and writers out there, keep in mind that the thought behind our blog is to help us stay connected with family and friends. As far as all the other stuff - we'll do our best!

For those of you that may have forgotten what we look like (it really has been forever with some of you), we've added our most recent family picture from Niklas' second birthday in April. Our two rascals (no, really - they're gems most of the time) have grown a lot since then, so the last two photos are recent.