Out and about

Pulling Grace and Isaac to school on Thursday morning.  These days, it's not really light until 9am. 

Isaac and his friend Amelie.  His class was headed to the tram stop, so I gave the two of them a ride.  The class went up to the city forest to see if they could spot Santa Claus.  They did see some tracks, and a possible Santa sighting behind a tree.

The harbor at Ila, looking across the fjord

The saints are all snow covered at Nidaros. 

There was great light for taking pictures on Thursday, along with interesting, dark clouds.

Crossing the Gamle Bybru

Some hardy bicyclists heading up the hill

Our street 

Our house

Our church

Our fort.  You can see the four giant Advent candles in front. 

Katie walking home from school.  It's dark by 3pm.

Reflecto-girl 

Isaac and I took the bus home from Barnehage.  We were both tickled to see a lady get on with a her Christmas tree. 

Reflecto-boy.  His eyebrow is healing up nicely.  

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

Sunday dinner

Isaac's trip to the emergency room didn't foil our Sunday plans.  While Isaac and I took a detour to the hospital, Dave and the other kids headed to the house of some friends for a great dinner.  Isaac and I joined them shortly after.

Eating with the crew.  Hedda and Hans have three kids who match up in age with our three youngest.  Hans was out of town, but Hedda was the queen of cool, and prepared a super meal with all the kids underfoot, and was unfazed by Isaac's and my late arrival. 

Isaac chose to play Legos instead of eating.   

Meatballs, potatoes, carrots, peas, tyttebaer sauce (like cranberry sauce, only smaller berries) - wow, it was all so good.

The kids requested ice cream for dessert.  With not enough for one for each of the kids, Hedda ingeniously thought to cut the icecream cones in half with a sharp knife.  Brilliant! 

Our wonderful hostess, in front of a giant bowl of rhubarb sauce.   Served with cream!  Dave and I were in heaven.  It made me think of the good ol' days in Ortonville, Minnesota, eating my Grandma Strei's rhubarb sauce. 

Excitement with Isaac

Isaac's had a fun couple of weeks at the barnehage.  In the picture, you can see him with his favorite teacher, Chantal, examining the globe at the Natural History Museum to see how far apart Norway and Texas are.  According to Isaac, "It's not that far."  Last week, Hedvig Ingeborg's dad came in and played his bassoon for the class.  He is a professional musician with the Norwegian Air Force band.  And they have been singing lots of songs for Advent and doing some Christmas baking.

Isaac had a tough day today.  Right at the end of church at the Nidaros Cathedral, as we were all getting on our outdoor gear to head back out into the snow, Isaac took a tumble and cut his head on the edge of his chair.  It was quite a gusher and appeared to be a pretty deep cut.  It couldn't have been better timing though.  At the moment, we were talking with our neighbor, Inger Anne, who happens to be a doctor at the local hospital, St. Olav's.  She and her daughter gave Isaac and me a ride to the emergency room.  And then, it was pretty busy in the emergency room, so Inger Anne just brought us up to her office and fixed Isaac up herself.  We are blessed to be surrounded by people who are so generous with their time and talents.

Waiting in the emergency room and looking pretty tough

Waiting with Jenny while her mom brings the equipment for the facial repair. 

Almost all patched up.  Isaac was a great cooperator. 

Looking good...

and ready to get back to the business of playing.  If he ends up with a scar, he'll have a good lifelong reminder of his time in Norway.

Saturday at home

Helping Dad take down the trampoline 

Advent calendar I 

Advent calendar II 

Advent calendar III

I love this Christmas wreath - it smells delightful.  When we went to the Natural History Museum, there was an entire room filled with the different varieties of moss that grow in Norway.  Gotta respect a culture that cherishes its moss. 

This fellow is the kids' favorite Christmas decoration.  He gets flung all over the place, and never looks a bit perturbed. 

Candles in our front window 

Clearly Sam and Katie didn't get enough outside running around time.

Hanging out in the living room after dinner and dancing to the radio. 

The kids spontaneously set up this scene.  We've been reading lots of books with the Christmas story.  Isaac is most interested in King Herod. 

I'm really proud of these hearts I made by weaving paper - another Scandinavian art I am trying to learn.  They look two-dimensional, but actually they can be pulled apart into a small basket, with the woven design on both outside and inside.

Mary/Katie

Sam was feeling inspired by the "rock music" to strike this pose.

"C'mon Dad, tickle me!"

Julebord - concertinas, gløgg, and lutefisk

Friday night, Dave and I went to the NTNU Math Department's Julebord (Christmas buffet) at the Ringve Museum of Music and Musical Instruments.  It was a wonderfully Norwegian celebration.

While people gathered, we were entertained by this band - five concertinas, a tuba, and a fiddle.  Behind them, you can see the harnesses and names (Stella, Jak, Sverre, Thor, Kvik) of the horses that used to be housed in the old stable where we were having the dinner. 

Enjoying a glass of gløgg - spiced, warmed red wine with nuts and raisins 

Chatting with the well-dressed master of ceremonies

Some of the folks at our table.  We had a starter course of smoked salmon, eggs, sliced meat, and three kinds of herring.  I could have stopped there and been quite happy.  But there was more great stuff to come.

The dining room

Dave's plate - the red color from the cabbage is making the lutefisk turn green.  But both tasted great. 

My plate - boy were my eyes bigger than my stomach.  Those last bites were tough, but I soldiered on. It was my first lutefisk ever, and it was good.  It must have been prepared well - it didn't resemble the notorious lutefisk of Garrison Keillor's monologues. 

Dessert was rice pudding with berry sauce, caramel pudding, and cloud berries in cream.  Ahhh.

We rode back to the city center in a taxi shuttle.  I flaked out and left my gloves and hat in the taxi.  Unfortunately, we have a rule at the house that if the kids lose their hats or mittens, then they lose their computer and tv privileges until hat or mittens are found.  Shhh, don't tell the kids that I'm blogging now.  I'll call the taxi company tomorrow to try to track down the missing gear.