thursday on our way to the airport

roskilde dressed up for the holidays... 

wednesday

whatever pictures i took from my 8:30 (a.m.) twighlity bike trip to the grocery store turned out blurry (which is giving me misgivings about my ability to take photos or my new phone's camera's ability) so what i have is what william made this afternoon out of citi blocks...

and this one that i just took... (albeit, a little blurry)

tomorrow really starts the holidays as greg's parents fly in to celebrate with us.  and friday, we are all off to visit rome!

first comes magic, then comes science

as we were riding home from school in the dark (because i tutored later than normal today and anyway, it's not that hard to do in these darkest days of the year) henry asked me...

"can a person fly up and sit on the moon at nighttime?"

and

"if you put a piece of the moon in a broken flashlight, what would happen?  would it work again?"

i very happily refrained from taking the magic out of his questions.

sankta lucia

just before eight this morning... there is frost this morning, which is unusual so far this year.  the boys and greg took the forest path... here, they're walking up to the bike path after getting out of the forest.  henry and greg will go to henry's school.  william and i head to his school so i can watch a santa lucia performance with him...

and later in the afternoon, we all head to henry's school to watch him perform in the traditional sankta lucia procession... you can look for him acting silly (and then pausing to hug his dad) at around 35 seconds. later, he's the one who runs into the tree and loses the crown from his head.  the boy who loves being the actor, but hates to follow his lines.  ah, but we love him so!

and just a couple more pictures from the outdoor fest after the performance... 

the traditional buns made on this day

lights of course, today

and if you don't know about this santa lucia day, you can read about it here (though this focuses on the ways it is celebrated in sweden, where it was adopted from by denmark).  (oh, and i should probably mention that the actual day was yesterday, but because it is commonly celebrated in schools and preschools here, it's happening today.)

saturday

at the art exhibition... 

fuzzy photo of a rendition of the artist's little brother...

"fra william til far" (from william to dad)...

"do you like that apple, dad?"  

"yeah, that's really good."  

"it's got spikes coming out of it!"  

 and on the way home from the art exhibition... "red houses, white barn, 2 p.m., get your shoes muddy."

december 12, 2015

yesterday's picture: superhero, by henry... for a friend's birthday party... 

today's picture: christmas at the mall... to get a gift to supplement the above gift for today's birthday party...

now, go watch the nearly 200 countries affirm their commitment to dealing with climate change.

thursday

tonight... 

i didn't even notice what henry was doing in this photo until i uploaded it.

 risengrød (rice pudding) for the nisser, per william's request....

greg: 'how big are they?  about my size?'

henry: 'no, they're smaller!'