We recently returned to Stavanger from a visit to the United States for Christmas. Maarit and I have been up from midnight to about 3:00am for the past few mornings...hopefully we will get that worked out soon. (School starts tomorrow so hopefully tonight is the night for sleeping!) It has been nice to be back in our own little house, we realized we missed it more than we knew. Maarit has some great additions to her play room (thanks to all the wonderful gifts from family and friends) and mommy and daddy are loving the stroller wheels for the chariot. Stroller wheels will change our lives!! They make navigating the trails, stores and buses much easier.
During break we had a wonderful visits with family and friends and although we did not get to see everyone we would have liked to see, all were in our thoughts as we celebrated the holiday. This year, Christmas was magical for Maarit. She has decided she is very excited about Santa and the magic of the holiday was present in all of our travels.
Our days were quite full as we traveled between the Cities, Two Harbors, the Iron Range and River Falls. It was a lot of driving for two people who haven't driven much in the past 5 months! Once again Maarit proved to be a wonderful world traveler. She had an excellent flight from Norway and handled all the driving and moving between houses very well. We are lucky to have such a flexible and easy-going girl.
I have included many pictures from the holiday break here in this post. We were not able to capture all of the fun on film, I wish we could have! Thank you to everyone who hosted us and shared our Christmas break. If we were not able to see you this time, we are looking forward to seeing you over the summer. Thank you all for the love and care that was given us while we were visiting. We have missed our families and dear friends even as we enjoy our Norway adventure.
Maarit is ready for another world traveling adventure!
Struggling with jet-lag, Justin reads stories to the cousins on Friday morning. Hanna's 5th Birthday!
We visited Chloe's first grade class and shared about life in Norway. We are hoping to organize pen-pals between her class and our own first grade classes at International School Stavanger.
A too short visit with baby Lucy and god-parents Ryan and Sarah. Play time and noodles...who could ask for more?
Maarit buried in all of Winnies' beanie babies and ponies. We were visiting our friend Lindsey in Virginia, MN. Maarit was excited to be back with her "own Winnies" as she is lovingly known to us.
A break for Basketball. We attended the Mesabi East vs. Virginia boys Varsity Basketball (Justin has been missing his boys) and hung out with Jer and Jen's boys Issac and Sean (below) Maarit has a special place in her heart for Sean Fleming....as you can tell by the power-smile. Hmmm.
After basketball there were presents! Maarit and Linsey sharing Christmas cheer.
This Curious George is a new sleeping buddy. Thank you Winnies!
We visited school on Wednesday and were able to see Mommy's previous students and many dear friends. Here is Maarit modeling a hat made by Tammy.
And a night at her god-parents Craig and Merry (and Aiden)'s home. We had a wonderful dinner and Maarit and Aiden shared mango juice!...and climbing the walls and playing crazy with Nibs. They almost had a first sleepover, but in the end they decided they both wanted their mom and dad.
Christmas Eve in the cities.... Chloe, Hanna and Maarit having fun on a warm Christmas Eve day.
Fondue Christmas Eve dinner! Auntie Tarah created a feast and everyone enjoyed the fun of dipping, especially in the chocolate dessert fondue.
The girls looking for Rudolph on Christmas Eve night.
Christmas Eve bath with the cupcake bath bomb Lindsey gave to Maarit. She wanted to save it and share it with her cousins.
The cutest letter to Santa ever written! the M M on the bottom is Maarit's own signature.
Christmas morning! Santa's cookies are gone!
Maarit holds up the huge apple she found in her stocking!
Three cute girls on Christmas day.
Then we traveled to Grandma and Grandpa's for a Christmas day celebration with family. It was a great day to see many aunts and uncles and cousins.
Maarit was reunited with Tommy Cat her favorite cat in the whole world.
Olivia, Emma and Maarit loving Tommy Cat!
Maarit and her "friend" Emma. She calls Emma her friend and then her cousin...so we say Frusin! These two brown-eyed girls had lots of fun together.
Tickle monster with Uncle Bubs!
Visiting with Great Grandma Senn in Fountain City Wi. We took a day and went on a beautiful Mississippi river drive to visit my grandmother.
Maarit and Grandpa feeding the barn cats at my parent's home. This is one of Maarit's favorite things to do with Grandpa. She talks about his kitties all the time.
I am not sure if you can tell, but this is Grandma and Grandpa's six toed cat! I took a picture because she is really a neat cat, she has 6 toes on each front paw and can climb trees like no other cat! Maarit things she is especially interesting and wanted to hold her, but wasn't able to.
Maarit and Tommy.
Maarit and Emma visiting the Children's Museum.
The boats were a highlight of the day.
The museum had a great children's story book display...here Emma and Maarit are walking in the Snowy Day by Ezra J. Keats. The footprints make crunching noises.
Snow Angels! Fun, especially since there was no snow in Minnesota for Christmas.
Maarit especially loved this Alphabet coconut tree from the Chica Chica Boom Boom story. She reads this at school with her teacher and loved the matching letters and sending the letters up to the top of the coconut tree.
Visiting the Sea Life aquarium with Auntie Shanna, Auntie Tarah, Chloe, Hanna and Nana.
We all enjoyed the sting-ray tank. They were fun to watch.
And visiting the American Girl store...Maarit's cousins saved for their own Just Like Me Dolls. The choices were endless.
And waiting in the airport on the way back to Norway.
I have yet to take the pictures from the other camera so hopefully there will be more good pictures from our break.
We came back to Norway on New Year's Eve and found out that New Year's Eve is a fantastic celebration here. We slept for a bit and then woke up to fireworks surrounding our entire house. It was hard to tell where the city fireworks were...there were fireworks in every direction we looked and huge ones too! We enjoyed the show and wished each other a happy New Year and promptly went to bed and slept until noon.
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