Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!

After waiting through a very long month of December, the boys were thrilled when Christmas Eve arrived.
They didn't particularly like any of the Swedish Christmas food we served up (risgrynsgröt - nope, juskinka - don't think so, vörtlimpa - too spicy, and so on). They did eat a symbolic amount of prinskorv before it was time to open presents.
Mathias read most of the gift labels. Johan received a pair of downhill skis from Farmor, Farfar, Anna, and Per. He was very enthusiastic about it. Mathias received several things related to Angry Birds (you cannot estimate the popularity of AB with the Kindergarten set).
Johan kept saying 'this is the best Christmas ever!' Of course, he doesn't remember much from last Christmas so that makes sense.
Before going to bed they set out cookies for Santa Claus and carrots for his reindeer.








Monday, December 24, 2012

Gingerbread houses - real and imagined

The boys decorated their own gingerbread house in time for Christmas.  It seems more candy ended up in their mouths than on the gingerbread. But they were pleased with the end result. 
They also took a cardboard box and decided to pretend that it was a gingerbread house. And last night they slept in it. At least they did until about midnight when they decided the novelty had worn off and their beds were more comfortable. 


Sunday, December 23, 2012

Halfway through Kindergarten

Friday was Mathias' last day of the fall semester in Kindergarten.  That went amazingly fast! He is making terrific progress and is well on his way towards learning to read. The other day he read Go Dog Go to us without any major difficulties.  In school they are also working on basic math skills, social skills, and handwriting. He is notching new achievements just about every day. Looking back he has matured so much just since September.  I'm sure the spring semester will drag on forever! 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Back on the slopes

This weekend, Mathias completed the last in a series of three skiing lessons, continuing where he left off in the spring. In the 3-week stint we had quite the series of skiing conditions. Week I they didn't have much snow and the weather was warm and sunny. Week II they had plenty snow and normal winter weather. Week III they had lots of snow but it was raining, making the hills quite icy. That was the only day he volunteered to leave the  hill when we were done. 
He is making progress and we're trying to decide if he should keep taking lessons or just ski for 'fun' for a while. 

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

O Christmas Tree....




During our brief stint of winter we took the boys on our annual pilgrimage to chop down a Christmas tree. With some snow on the ground you could actually envision a white Christmas.
Once we managed to coax it into the house, the boys had a lot of fun decorting it.  They were event gentler on the ornament than the cats who insist on chewing on everything within 2 feet of the ground.
We - well, the boys - have now started the countdown to Christmas!







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