Like Mother Like Daughter

Many moons ago, my parents kept a journal for me. I love reading this!! I, of course, in a narcissistic way, find my childhood pretty hilarious. One story submitted was how I loved to stand at the garbage can and dig food out of it to munch on. (Of course, I'm sure my parents never let me do it on purpose. Just to clarify.)

As it turns out, this is one of Elise's favorite activities as well. The other day I walked into the kitchen and she was carrying an empty can of cream of mushroom soup away from the garbage can. She was digging out what remains she could and licking her fingers.

Could it be we don't feed her well enough? Or is it just a propensity for fun that drives her to dig through the bin looking for treasures?

Your Swedish is Showing

For those who may not know, I'm a quarter Swedish. My mom is half Swedish, her mom is all Swedish. So today we celebrated Santa Lucia's Day. Since Greta is the eldest daughter, she brings bread and cocoa to the family. Okay, so, our dress isn't quite right (it's supposed to be long) and she doesn't actually have candles on her wreath (I need to fix this in years to come with some sort of battery operated candles) and Lisie didn't dress up.....But hey, we're starting this tradition. Instead of the traditional coffee, Greta served hot cocoa and instead of bread, graham crackers. Since she's only three, I wanted to go easy on her with the grahams instead of bread. And we didn't serve it in the bedroom. I'm not brave enough for that yet. Maybe when she's older and won't spill anything. (The grahams got dropped at least five times.)

The Swedish Tradition of St. Lucia December 13 Background: St. Lucia is an Italian saint who has been "adopted" by the Swedes. (She gave her dowry to the poor. Her fiancee denounced her for this. She was blinded and burned. The flames didn't touch her so she was stabbed in the heart. The red sash represents the wound. It is said that she appeared during a famine in Sweden in the middle ages carrying food to the farmers across Lake Vännern.) She is associated with the idea of light. In the middle ages, December 13 fell on the longest day of the year. (In Sweden, the sun is not up very long in winter. In some places it doesn't come up at all.) This holiday celebrates the fact that the days will now get longer. Today: On the morning of December 13, the oldest daughter dresses in a special long white dress with a red ribbon around the waist and white socks and no shoes. She puts a wreath made out of leaves on her head. The wreath has 6 - 8 candles on it. Nowadays the candles are usually battery powered light bulbs instead of real candles. Her sisters also wear special long white dresses but they have shiny ribbons around their waists and they have another shiny ribbon around their heads. They carry a candle in their hands. Her brothers wear a special long white gown with a shiny sash and a pointed hat with three stars on it. They carry a baton with a star on it. They are called Star Boys. The children serve coffee and special saffron bread to the rest of the family. They walk into the bedroom with the oldest daughter in the front, followed by the next tallest girl, down to the smallest. Then the boys follow with the tallest in the front. As they bring in the Lucia bread and coffee the girls sing "Santa Lucia" (in Swedish, of course), and then the boys sing "Stefan was a Stable-boy." The children then go to their neighbors and teachers and serve them the coffee and bread. Significance of Symbols: candles - light yellow (saffron) bread - light bare feet - charity https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/dgs/www/santa_lucia.htm

Fifth Annual Gingerbread House Maing Night

This the fifth time since we've been married that we've made our graham cracker "gingerbread" houses. I enjoy it every time. Each year I'm less worried about my house and more about helping the kids. I love being a mom!

Let's get started!
Mmmmm, candy.










Yes, Stephen?
All done!
Lisie helping Daddy.
I was really impressed with Greta's decorating skills.
The Bop's finished product................After she smote it off her high chair tray.
Elise knocked Nathan's grahams on the ground and broke them so i gave him my pack of good ones and had to construct my triangular structure from broken pieces and shards. (Okay, maybe not SHARDS.)
Tyler's house represents a line from Fiddler on the Roof - one staircase leading no where at all.
Nathan, Greta, Elise, Jessica
Stephen wanted his to look like a giant misshapen spider.
Pretty cool.

Snow Comes to Town

It snowed a ton on Monday and Tuesday and it was still here yesterday, so we went sledding. Lucky for us, Stephen and Tyler came, too. It was a lot of fun.

Nathan and Tyler coming back up the hill.
How Boppy spent most of her time.
Stephen bringing Greta up the hill.
Stephen devotedly took Greta up and down the hill nearly the entire time. Thanks Stephen!
Yay for sledding!!
Buddies
Tyler all geared up and ready.
Going down face first. I'm definitely not that brave.
Watching all the action.
The three boys at the bottom of the hill.
Tyler, Nathan and Stephen getting ready to go down.
It's getting chilly!
Lisie braved the hills and went down a couple of times.

More Matchy-Matchy

I really love it when the girls match. Greta requests to be "matchy-matchy" sometimes and we try to make it happen.

Lisie does this funny thing these days...When she feels she's been wronged in some way she covers her mouth with one or both of her hands. Looks like we're going to have two drama queen daughters!

Greta is lifting weights here.




I've been saving the wrapping paper tubes for Greta to battle Nathan in sword fighting. Looks like Lisie got a piece of a broken one.

Billiards, Anyone?

So last night I had a horrible flash back to the most awkward part of my first date with Nathan: the part involving any sort of physical skill, including (but not limited to) hand eye coordination, running, jumping, and looking any sort of decent while doing it.

What brought this on, you might inquire? I'll tell you.

Bishopric Dinner.

Yes, that's right. Our Bishopric Dinner is what struck my soul with horror and embarrassment. The eating part I do well. In fact, you might say I excel. Unfortunately, after the eating came the games....Each couple was teamed up to face other couples in four games: pool, bumper pool, air hockey and foosball. I knew as soon as it was suggested that I would drag our team down and we would never win. Why? Try as I might, I know I am not particularly talented at any of these things, plus I feel awkward participating in them in front of people which makes me even LESS talented. Poor Nathan - he's actually talented in things like this and he's got a poor partner. He tried his best, and everything we did well was his doing.

Games 1: Bumper pool. Nathan got the first (and only) ball in. The other team got all five balls in.

Game 2: Pool. Nathan made some really good shots and got some balls in. I, on the other hand, accomplished nothing. Despite the fact that I contributed nothing, the score was tied.

Game 3: Air Hockey. I was actually thinking this one would be good, and it was one of the better ones in fact. I can hit the puck from time to time and half of the fun is just hitting it hard, so that's good. Score on this? Five-Five.

Game 4: Foosball. I actually scored a couple of times in this, but sadly, we just weren't up to par with this one either.

Afterwards, and I'm admitting this freely, I was so embarrassed I could hardly speak. We left shortly after dessert, while I murmured goodbye to the hosts. I wish I wasn't so lame at this kind of stuff! I feel bad for Nathan - with a good partner, he could win things.

Oh well. I guess there's another year before the next Bishopric dinner. I have time to improve, right?

Greta-isms

The other day, Nathan called my name: "Jessica!"

Greta turned to me and said, "Dad just called you Jessica. That's not your name."

I replied, "What IS my name?" (I thought she'd say Mommy.)

She answered, "Honey."

********************************************************

Today we were at the mall and I told Greta we were going to go to the bottom floor. She answered, kind of grossed out, "Don't say bottom. That's our bums."

After a bit of discussion, she decided that I could say "lower floor" instead of "bottom floor."