Happy New Year!

On New Year's Eve, we had our traditional fondue with many dippers.  This time we also made a yummy chocolate-drizzled almond pastry for dessert.

Happy New Year!

How Swede It Is!

Joe is of Swedish descent, and we always visit the American Swedish Institute each winter when it is decorated for Christmas. We brought a friend along this time, and spent our day laughing at Pippi Longstocking, making thing-finders, hunting for Tomte, admiring tile work and wood work, and playing in the Swedish bakery!

 Thing-finders!

 Drawing Tomte.

Pippi makes us laugh. Notice the shadow of the girl with the Pippi braids?  
 

 The Turnblad Mansion is so beautiful.

  
Preparing Swedish treats and...

 
Selling baked goods for Krona!

 Santa Lucia.

We always have such a good time there!

Christmas Day

Christmas was fun, but somewhat stressful at first. New roller skates, temperamental electronics, and an unassembled Barbie dream house proved for a tense morning. But the kids were happy regardless and it all eventually came together!

 

Jia received the present she'd been wanting for a very long time: an iPod Touch.

 

  

Willa really wanted roller skates...and spent most of the day in them!

 

Matching girl and doll tutus.

A much needed new robe.

Willa was very excited about her earmuffs.

Joe received an ebelskiver pan! The first batch I made included batches that were plain, cranberry, raspberry and Nutella! We ate them with whipped cream and/or powdered sugar. They were so yummy! The girls preferred the raspberry ones and Joe and I preferred the Nutella.

Willa's big surprise present.

Assembly took a while and it was hard to wait, but she was very excited when it all came together!

After spending the morning at home, we headed to my parents' place for more fun.

 Gryffindor students!

 Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve day, we spent the morning at my parents' place with our family friends, the Thompsons. The girls are all dressed up and ready to go!

 

  

Willa loves her pal, Max.

Playing with kinetic sand.

We then attended a Christmas Eve service at Mount Olivet with my friend, Krista, and returned home for a family dinner. We had Tuscan chicken soup with a baguette, pomegranate and mango spinach salad, baked brie with cranberries, and a yummy berry vanilla cream pastry for dessert.

 

Excited that it is almost Christmas!

Their notes and treats for Santa, and off to bed!

Hope for the City

I posted earlier about how the girls spent a night volunteering at a non-profit called Hope for the City. They packaged cereal into bags to be delivered to food shelters. They loved it so much that they wanted to do it again. I contacted Hope for the City to see if our family could volunteer during winter break. We set the date for December 23. Then I asked my friends on Facebook if anyone wanted to join us, and over 40 people did!

The girls and many of their friends spent all morning packing cereal and creating clever food donation bags. Everyone also had a chance to view the organization's interactive exhibit about different types of poverty here at home and in other countries. It was a terrific experience, and many people expressed the desire to do it again. We certainly will!