Tryfan watches Rhiannon plomp down on the ground to read Stickeen, and so he has started finding places to also sit and read. His current favorite book is "James" (one of Thomas the Tank Engine's fellow trains) and also "Skippy-jon Jones: up and down".
This is a photo from our visit to Ramsey's house (and his parents who just recently moved here from Jordan). Ramsey is 10 months old and has a lot of exciting toys that Tryfan and Rhiannon wanted to play with. I think Ramsey just had his first taste of fighting over toys thanks to our little tag team. Poor guy can't even walk yet and the Lewis kids were all over his stuff! He is a pretty jolly little fellow though -- I think he enjoyed the company more than he minded sharing his toys.
One funny scene that I experienced with Rhiannon was on Saturday when she and I went grocery shopping. We were both thirsty so I picked out some juice for her to drink as we shopped. After I opened the top for her, I snuck a sip for myself and Rhiannon caught me. She said in this horrified voice, "Mama! You did not ask properly for a sip of my juice!" And so I apologized and said "I am really sorry Rhiannon. I forgot to ask you first." Then a few minutes later I asked "Rhiannon, please may I have a sip of your juice?" And she said, "Yes, Mama" Then while I was sipping, she said "I really like the way that you asked me properly for a drink"... and I nearly spit out the juice because it made me laugh so much the way she said it! What a Minx...
The Minx just holds a bite of food in her mouth for a very long time, not chewing and definitely not swallowing. What to do? We try to minimize snacks right before mealtime and we try not to bribe with tempts of favorite food or treats, but what to do? She will just sit there scowling and not eating for the whole meal. Yes, at least she is quiet since her mouth is full, but still it is not ideal. I don't want to go down the slippery slope of preparing separate meals for the kids than I do for us grown-ups. Any advice out there from our readers?
This morning the holiday ended and we all went back to our normal routine. It's nice to be back at work after a couple of weeks off. Rhiannon and Tryfan have been acting more brother-sisterly lately...fighting over toys, taunting each other, and occasionally sharing something in blissful harmony.
Tears were shed and I was really sad to kiss them goodbye. And then to top it off, this particular morning was absolutely stunningly gorgeous…clear sky, cold, and a tiny crystalline sprinkling of snow on the ground (that had fallen from 11:30pm until about 10 minutes past midnight just to provide a magical foreground to the barrage of fireworks that filled the sky). Not the kind of day that one can legitimately lounge lazily on the couch or go back to bed after breakfast, although I did try.
Since arriving home to Asker, we have laid very low for a few good reasons. First of all, several of us were not feeling 100%. I wouldn’t say that any of us were officially sick, but we were just not quite 100%. Secondly, it was very cold these past few days, hovering around -10 deg C for several days in a row. Although this isn’t supercrazycold, it is still cold enough that small children really shouldn’t be out in it for too long. And thirdly, our car is not big enough for all of us to fit into so other arrangements are necessary to really get anywhere beyond Asker. So even though the sun was shining for a few short hours each day (for the most part), we mainly hung around inside reading, coloring, watching videos, cooking and snoozing.
However, on this last day of the whole year we ventured out of the house. Everyone got bundled up and it took 2 shuttle runs to get us all (including Bentley) down to the beach at Vollen. Once there, Rhiannon tried to pet the ducks that hang out in the main cove. We walked out to our canoe launching spot and let Bentley chase (and swim) after a couple of very aggressive swans that were looking regal on the glassy and partially frozen fjord. He didn’t get hurt, thankfully, but that was just because he couldn’t swim all the way out to them because the water was too deep. Anyway, after Bentley had shook himself off, his fur and whiskers turned to icicles. Here is Bentley with the swans in the background.
It wasn’t too long before we headed back to the car and started the shuttle runs back to our cozy house for some late afternoon tea and cheesecake that our neighbor Beate had baked for us (see first photo on this post). We gave the kids dinner and put them to bed, then enjoyed a delicious feast that my Dad had prepared, followed by a quiet evening watching movies and sharing a special bottle of wine that we had saved (Chateau St. Jean, 2003 “Cinq Cepage”). It snowed just before midnight and we 4 adults stood in the window and watched all the fireworks with arms around each other, grateful for the holiday that was just coming to a close.
As always, the most special and enduring moments were not captured on camera. One of them was an ongoing lesson in the number “3”: Rhiannon likes to show the number “3” on her hand as being her thumb and first 2 fingers, and Grandpa Carl just couldn’t get it right! He kept showing 3 as being other combinations of fingers and thumbs, and Rhiannon had to keep helping him get it right. Then she would say “You GOT it! I helped you! Good job, Grandpa”, and it was so funny.
Grandma Debi was endlessly patient with both kids. She read books to Rhiannon over and over again, pointing out new details each time. She weaved in lessons about many other topics and Rhiannon just soaked it all up, listening closely to what Grandma was saying and then often repeating it later on. She loved holding Grandma’s hand and cuddling in her lap.
Tryfan associates Grandpa Carl with elephant noises, so whenever he saw Grandpa, Tryfan would make the elephant noise and raise his arm like a trunk. It is their own little gangsta sign! Tryfs loves being up high so he can watch people cook. Here he is with Grandpa.
Christmas morning brought a bit of excitement because Santa made a delivery in the night and there were a few presents under our modest tree for Rhiannon and Tryfan.
Tryfan was most excited to find a couple of Clementines just for him inside his stocking. He is crazy about them and doesn't like sharing them if at all possible.
Rhiannon had never encountered candy canes before (specially imported from California) but she soon discovered that she loved them as well as the chocolate that was in her stocking.
There was a little hill right in front of the chalet that was perfect for sledding down. Here is Rhiannon with her Uncle Eric.
A view from the mountain looking down on the village of Maria Alm. The church steeple is just visible in the photo below, and it is the highest in all of Austria. It is such a gorgeous village - the clouds socked us in for the first few days, but then once the skies cleared it was such an amazing sight.
Aside from skiing/ snowboarding on our final days here, we didn't do much except simply enjoy each other's company and the fine meals that Ashley prepared for us. We were very sad to see our week come to an end and say goodbye to Eric and Kristin, who were staying in Maria Alm for a few more days since they arrived late. The grandparents accompanied us back to Asker, and they are here now until New Years Day.
It was colder than we expected at the market, so we had to bust out the extra layer of wool that was in our satchels. Rhiannon and Tryfan ran around like little monkeys.
After we were done with the market, we took a cable car up to the fortress called Festung Hohensalzburg which had amazing views of the city and surrounding mountains from the top. Here it is as we were driving away. Our driver pointed out that the red turret visible to the bottom right of the fortress was the location of the convent that Maria was from in the Sound of Music!
Anyway, we had lunch inside the fortress and Tryfan got to sit in a high chair throne that was really cool.
Our driver also took us past the house that was used in the Sound of Music as the back garden by the lake and to the separate location of the infamous gazebo where Liesl sang and danced with her suiter during a rainstorm. Of course we had to have a photo of me with my parents in front of it!
After our driving tour, we went to one of the two salt mines in the area (Salzburg means 'salt castle', referring to the fortress we visited and also to the area's abundance of white gold in the mountains nearby). The one we went to was near Hitler's Eagle Nest in Berchtesgaden. This mine tour turned out to be such a great activity! We all had to wear coveralls with reflective tape and ride on a train deep into the mountain at quite a fast speed. Here is a self-take of all 6 of us on the train (before we started moving).
Once we were inside the mine, we all had to go down a big slide in groups of 2-5 people in order to get lower down into the mine. So fun! We went fast! Then we did the standard tour thing - following our guide around to see different highlights of the mine - and then we got to go on another big slide, then on a boatride across a mirror lake and finally ride an elevator back up to the top level so we could get the train back outside. We all got little bottles of salt as souveniers to take home. I am not so fond of tours and stuff like this, but just when my feet were starting to feel heavy it was time to get on the train to zoom back out into the fresh air!
We landed in Salzburg, got our luggage, and eagerly went out to the arrivals area to find our driver. We found him right away, but he was surprised to see that we had 2 small children and had not installed car seats. I was quite upset about this because I had been assured several times that there would be car seats for them. So anyway, eventually the driver was able to locate some seats and we were off to Maria Alm. Here is Grandma with the munchkins in the airport baggage claim.
It was snowing as we were driven the hour+ to Maria Alm, so we couldn't see the mountains around us. We got settled into our new home, Chalet Sonne, and then went for an exploratory ramble into town. Chalet Sonne is only ~200 meters from the center of Maria Alm village, so it was very easy for us to meander into town and explore. Here are the troops being pulled into town on a borrowed sled.
In front of Chalet Sonne. The three bedrooms are on the top floor, each with french doors leading to a common balcony. Below is the dining room and living room.
The next day we built a snow man even though it had started to rain :-(
On Dec 21st and 22nd we had a routine where we would all hang out together in the morning, then put Tryfan down for a nap and leave to go skiing for a few hours. Actually, Rhodri and I went snowboarding and my Dad went skiing while my Mom stayed at the chalet with the kids. We had planned on x-c skiing the whole time, but as it turned out, there was not enough snow down on the valley floor to be able to do this so we 'had' to take to the mountains. These were also the days that it was raining, so it wasn't the best conditions for going up and down mountains, but we did it anyway and at least it was snowing up there.
I will update more about our trip later, but for now we just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and say that we are thinking about our family and friends scattered around the world :-)
The snow has mostly been washed away by icky rain here and we have had some very dark days and nights. Quite sad. But not too sad, because almost every house has candles and/or lights and stars in the windows, and it is so lovely to walk around the neighborhood and admire these lights. This photo is of the type of star that I like the most -- it is made of metal and typically has 6 or 8 points. I have been looking around for one to invest in, but I have the feeling that they are quite old-fashioned and are not made anymore.
Here is a scene from the action. Tryfan has developed a technique of screeching loudly when he doesn't get his way. This morning saw him screeching because he wanted to play with all of the shape cutters and not let Rhiannon have any, then Rhiannon wanted to share the rolling pin and Tryfs wanted it all to himself, then she was taking up too much room on the stool...and so on. I have the feeling it's only just begun...
Here he is trying to push Rhiannon off the stool they were sharing.
Anyway, we did actually get some gingerbread into the oven - not all the dough was eaten beforehand fortunately.
The following is the description from Wikipedia about St. Lucia Day:
So our girl is officially 3 today. Here she is at dinner eating Jello with vanilla custard on top from a glass while wearing her birthday crown that was made for her at barnehage. Special treat!
We were 5 adults and 6 children, so we split into 2 sleighs: all the boys in one and all the girls in the other one. As we approached the end of the ride, 'our' sleigh caught up with 'their' sleigh and Tryfan was so happy to see us!
The back row of the girl sleigh:Elianne, Sofie, Elin and Johanne.
After the sleigh ride was finished, we had to hike for ~200 m to get to the campfire sight..not too far, but far enough when you are carrying a toddler.
We brought along flasks of tea and cocoa, as well as pølser (hot dogs) to cook on the fire. Here are Henry and Rhodri doing their manly duties while the rest of us tried not to let the wee ones too close to the fire but close enough to keep a little bit warm. The temperature was -8 C/ ~16 F!
The view from our campfire up to the 3pm sunset colors on Vardasen.
Rhiannon LOVES pølser and she was so stoked to get one of the first ones. Simple pleasures, eh?
Once the kids started crying/ whining we went inside to warm up and eat birthday cake and gingerbread. Yum. And then when everyone had their energy back up, we went outside to the hay room and everyone jumped in. None of my photos turned out from this because there were so many particles in the air! Anyway, Tryfan was happy to just lay in the hay and put it in his mouth. Johanne was happy to just sit and watch Tryfan eat hay. The rest of the kids had a great time jumping off the bales and laughing. Such a simple recipe for fun. Unfortunately Rhodri's phone fell out during one of the jumps and we had to call it in order to find it buried deep in the pile!
Our outing didn't last terribly long, but that was the plan. Both kids were tired and glassy-eyed today, so we just took it easy and practiced a little bit in a meadow ~5 minutes drive away. After about 30 minutes, we set up a base camp and Rhodri and I took turns doing laps around the meadow for exercise. Success!
This week Rhiannon and Tryfan had their fancy dress Christmas Dinner (called "Julebord") at barnehage. Celebrating Christmas starts early and finishes late here in Norway, but we don't mind.
The outing wouldn't have been complete without at least one ride in the wheelbarrow!
