Real snow!

Katie was practicing for her Saint Lucia day procession.  She had a good audience.  In Norway, on December 13 St. Lucia day is celebrated.  It is meant to coincide with the shortest day of the year.  As part of the celebration, young girls wear white robes and a crown of candles and sing a traditional song as they process.  Katie's first grade class will be leading the school's celebration next week.

Last night we had our first big, dry snow.  We set out for school with the stroller, but it was pretty useless.  So we went back and got the sled.  I tied a rope to the front, and voila, perfect system to get the little guys to school.  I put the strap over my torso and pulled them like a horse. First we dropped off Grace.   Luckily, there are few streets or sidewalks that are clear, so I could even pull Isaac all the way across downtown to his school with no problem.   

A snowman the kiddos made at Isaac's barnehage 

Today was filled with conferences.  First I met with Isaac's teachers at his barnehage.  Then I went to the older kids' school for student led conferences.  I had Katie's first.  Here she is showing me her technology skills on the smartboard.

Showing me today's weather for Trondheim

Katie is working on this weaving project.  She intends to give it to Grace for Christmas.  The weaving is part of the first graders "products of the earth" unit.  They learned the entire process of how wool becomes fabric, from the sheep to the production of the yarn to the weaving.  They learned other processes like how rubber and oil are produced.

Now they are working on a unit about celebrations.  Here is Katie explaining Hanukkah to me.

I had a student led conference with Sam too, but there's not so many nifty things to take pictures of in the third grade room.  But Sam showed me a great video of him do a presentation to other students in the school.  His class is raising money for an orphanage in Thailand.  They are requesting that people sponsor a sky lantern that will be lit to celebrate the festival of Loi Krathong (festival of lights).  The lanterns will be lit on Saturday after the children's winter concert.

Katie at the bottom of one of the sledding runs at school.

The kids got to spend lots of time outside today, because of the conferences going on.  The result - two gigantic snowmen in the field outside the school.

The view of the fort on my walk home from school in the early afternoon. 

One of the big snowmen 

The kids' playground - we'll sure miss this