Christmas, 1957-ish

I am working on putting together a bunch of old family photos, and I have this one of my mom as a little girl, coloring under the tree with her dad. Cute. What's with using the right hand, mom??

Merry Christmas!

So, I'm a little late with this one. We were very fortunate to have the Springers visiting us for Christmas this year- sorry Justin, I think it's pretty obvious who they love the most- but almost everyone got sick at some point over the holiday. We are fully recuperated, and are now catching up on things like this.
Here are some pictures of the kids, no explanations necessary:
OK, maybe one comment: Mom, of course Aidan loved the light saber, but you HAD to know that this was coming:And I just want to say those are Christmas presents that we just opened all over the floor...mostly...

I did mention I'm going to be a teacher, right?

I think my teaching ambitions are spilling over into my personal life. Here is a craft/art project I have been forcing Aidan to do for the past two seasons.

Here is our Winter tree, with snowy fingerprints:And here, under our alphabet and other seasonal projects, you can see our fall tree, with leaves we picked up on walks, pressed, painted, and taped on, all STRONGLY against Aidan's wishes. It's good for you, kid!
I am already planning my-uh, OUR- spring tree- I see a bird's nest, definitely, possibly involving some weaving, maybe some pom-pom chicks peeking out... this is totally my element.

I made a quilt!

Well, I made it a while ago, but here is the final product. The front is made from Ava's receiving blankets from when she was a baby, and the back is some crib sheets I pieced together. It is really no great example of terrific sewing, or quilting, for that matter, but I was happy to make it for my sweetie pie. Of course, the first thing Aidan said was, "Where's MY quilt?!" so I am already planning a superhero one next.
You can see the back better here:

My "little helper" pulling it off of the crib... thanks a lot!

I'm thankful this year for... cheap air fare!

We went to Stockholm last week, continuing our tradition of being international over Thanksgiving. 2006: Italy; 2007: England; 2008: Sweden. We have almost forgotten the American traditions at this point... what is it you all do, eat a chicken or something?

So, here is a picture of the little apartment we rented. I am standing on the stairs taking the photo, there is a tiny bathroom and kitchen counter to the right... and that is the entire downstairs. Good thing we like each other!
We went to the Junibacken, which is a museum dedicated to Swedish children's authors. It has a Pippi Longstocking house, two adorable playgrounds that look like some other stories, and a ride through a pretty dark story called, "The Brothers Lionheart." It is about some brothers who die and are reunited in the afterlife, where they must fight an evil dragon, who paralyzes one, and then they commit suicide. Talk about goth. On a lighter note, here is a cute mobile of some characters from the playground room:
Ava hiding in a giant mushroom:
Aidan, Nordic skiing:
On to the Vasa Museum. They brought this 300-year old ship up out of the bay about 10 years ago. Apparently, it sank on its maiden voyage, before it even left the bay. So much for being the prize of the Swedish navy at the time...

OK, next day. Cute architecture in Gamla Stan ("Old Town"), followed by the little Christmas market there. Aidan ate three waffles, and Joel bought reindeer meat sausage. Yum!
Changing of the guards at the Royal Palace:

And, finally, trying to ice skate with Aidan. I only fell once, which is a miracle, because I think he was only on his skates for about 8 seconds at a time. It was pretty fun, though. I liked being the one to go do something with him while Joel waited with Ava. By the way, this picture was taken at THREE P.M.!! Sweden is freaking DARK.