holiday season chapter four: Happy New Year!

We've had a jolly good time with the holidays, from Halloween through Thanksgiving, Christmas and then celebrating the beginning of a New Year.

I think to Lilly the tree was the most magical part of it all, and she was so sad when the garbage truck came to pick it up last week, still processing that one.

Lilly helped me bake Hershey Kiss Cookies, unwrapping the chocolate kisses and then putting them on the half baked cookies (before eating some! These cookies were her favorite kind, I bet because she helped make them, and probably the chocolate had something to do with it too).

Christmas eve we had friends over for a traditional Norwegian yule celebration.

Since we're half American around here, we also had a busy Christmas day opening gifts Santa had left in stockings and around the tree (thank you all!).

We had a traditional Norwegian Christmas tree party around Epiphany: Lilly's friends, and ours, came over and we sung and danced around the tree while eating the remaining cookies and snacks, sipping gløgg (Scandinavian mulled wine). Lilly still breaks out singing "Å jul med din glede," "Jingle Bell," and "Twelve Days of Christmas" several times each day.

 

New Year's Eve has always been significant to me, so I wanted us to have a fine night. And indeed we did. We all dressed up and I made a very nice meal for us all with Sockey salmon, saffron risotto and salad.

 

 

Happy New Year to you all!

holiday season chapter two: Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl visiting. Lilly loved all the play and attention and had a little bit of a hard time readjusting to the emptier house once they'd left, but now she's back to her good cheerful self (except when sick with the stomach flu, which happened for the first time this past Saturday. She was such a trooper though.) It was the first time we hosted Thanksgiving and I had so much fun with all the cooking and preparations. We had talked to Lilly in advance how Thanksgiving is all about coming together and being thankful, different people learning from each other. I found it quite appropriate that the native-Norwegian-fairly-recent-immigrant to this country got to share and learn from people who grew up in this country.

 Preparing the turkey, first time for me!

 Everyone busy in the kitchen 

(which I allowed just this one time; I know, I was kind of strict about that...)

 Having fun playing with grandpa Kent.

 A new book.

 Grandma Cheryl reading about Thanksgiving.

 Around the table Leighton fixed up for us, just in time.

(Thanks, sweetie!)