Last night I had to chose between going on to WT and reading and writing blogs, OR taking a cold walk on icy roads, AND I CHOSE THE WALK!!!!! GOOD GIRL!!! by the time I got back, the pc was locked...

hard getting dd back on schedule after the holidays. she got up today, too, but it was very difficult. she is not getting to bed until 1-2. and up again at 6! she came home early last night, 8 ish. That was great!

Dark, dreary day so far. No sign of sun. Beautiful sunset last night, so I hoped for nice weather today...

Back to school/work. Dd was up and roaming at 5.50, came home 11.30 last night (tho curfew on school night is 9.30.. will have to work on that!

Seems a bit lighter now in the morning.
Cold today, coldest it has been so far this winter -7 c. /19 degrees F. (doesn't seem right, somehow!?)

Frosty, cold, sunny. Long walk after breakfast. Made it to the top of the hill past Svein in the north. Haven't made it that far since before the cancer! Yippee! On the way home, I rested on Svein's bench, sun in face. Heavenly! Really icy roads!

10 lords a leaping!

Really enjoyed the movie last night. After it, at midnight, we went to Heidi and Dag Terje's for coffee and Christmas cookies. Sat there until 2.30 am. In the meantime, dd and her girlfriend had come home, on time, and they were watching a movie when we got home at 3. We only have the weekend now to get back on a normal sleeping schedule!

Today we are going to Teresa's house for coffee at 5. Richard is returning to Chile on Wednesday, so this is a little going away party for him. And we will get to see Tamara's baby Eric for the first time, too!

Sun"
dh had to go to work today- poor guy!

dd still in bed. I am considering doing some "retail therapy" as vista calls it. I could use some new clothes, lots of sales, got some money from Janne... maybe I will go for it! tho I HATE shopping for clothes for myself! grrrr! that is for the extra inches at the waist.....

Later: the shopping was depressing! Ended up with 2 sweaters (1 on sale) and a pair of jeans, not on sale! And some more yarn for a new project!!

Girls' afternoon on couch watching "Hairspray". It is delightful!

We asked some friends, Heidi and her husband, to go to the movies with us tonight to see "Australia". Anybody seen it??

Happy New Year!!!!!

Afternoon walk in sun with CHico. To ds's for coffee at 4. It was hard, but we managed to get dd to go with us...

PM walk with CHico and a woman who lives at ds's residence.

Girls' night on couch again watching movies.

Our 27th anniversary! amazing....

Took dd to the shopping center so she could use her gift certificate to buy clothes for tonight. Spending hours in front of mirror when she got home...

Janne is coming at 4.
Dd taking bus at 6. Sleeping over.

Dinner tonight at 8. The men wanted poached cod, boiled potatoes, carrots, fried onions, melted butter.

I am making dip and veggies for later tonight.

Coffee and cookies sometime....

9 pm. been watching Mamma Mia all evening with dh and Janne (Swedish, so he knew all the ABBA songs, of course! He enjoyed it alot), including all the special features.
Now I have the dinner on... they wanted chips/pretzels/and dip with the movie, so we had to postpone dinner a bit. It is so hot in the house, I would love a walk before dinner, but it is not going to happen. I hope later, tho.

Seven swans a swimming!

6 geese a laying

cloudy, just above freezing. calm

a few errands in town, then home, is the plan.

Today I GOTTA get dd to clean her room before there is a rat invasion!!


Later: didn't do much on my list today, either, but enjoyed lots of knitting! Started on the "New Year's " letters and started on a jigsaw puzzle, but not much of either. Bought and wrapped presents for DS.

Woke up dd at dinner, and she disappeared shortly after.... :(

No sun today.

On list today: work on "Christmas" letters, do some food shopping, start a jigsaw puzzle, go for a walk.

Chico is still sick. Seems to be intestines. Too much holiday food??

Dh took a long list and drove off to mainland. Means won't be seeing him for hours. He is taking a few vacation days today and tomorrow.

Dd not home. Long story. :(

Four calling birds!

Woke up to sun and cold, around freezing. Hope it turns out to be a lazy day. Hornowl reminded me of jigsaw puzzles, so can go up and find one.

Janne is coming for dinner. Then maybe we are going to ds's tonight. And somewhere along the line, dd will show up...

7 pm and only 711 steps! So went out on long walk with Chico. He was whining alot on the way home and can't figure out what hurts him! Poor guy! We went to Olaug for a visit. She had chemo 2 weeks ago, so we had to compare notes!!!

Strange that I don't go out for walks in the sunshine! Maybe I will try for that tomorrow.

Good morning from the island of Finnøy Where we arrived last night. Dd didn't come along, has 2 girl friends sleeping over. Hope the house is still standing when we get home!!!

Beautiful sun, frost. Just getting ready to take Chico out for a long walk down to the quay where the island's one shop is.

My BIL is from Kurdistan, so I am listening to Kurdish music as I write this. Always fun coming here.

One the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French hens!

Merry Second day of Christmas!

Dh is leaving any minute for Stavanger to visit BIL. Ds, chico and I are catching 6 ferry tonight, going to Finnøy island to visit SIL. Still trying to persuade dd to come along...

Merry Christmas Walker Tracker!!

The turkey is in the oven, the stuffing and the pecan pie are waiting to go in.

DD woke us all up at 7 am (really didn't think she would) after having sent sms to her friend since 4 am, waiting until she was allowed to get up.

After we saw what Santa brought, the 2 men went back to bed!!! We got them up again at 9 for breakfast.

Janne is coming at 1. I sent a filled stocking along with him last night, so Santa came to him, too!

Sun! I bet I can get someone to go for a walk with me today, too!

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!

Set my alarm today so I wouldn't oversleep, too much to do and I do't know when the shops close. Thought I was done yesterday, but I guess not!

DH is off with the shopping list and wants to wash the car. I am working on food. The rice porridge is on the stove, double portion today!

I am picking ds up at 2.30 and we will go to church at 3, then pick up Janne, then home and dinner at 5 ish. Then carols, then presents, then coffee and 13 types of cookies/cakes/candies!

Oh my! I overslept today, and have lots yet to do!

A few presents to deliver, a few more to buy! (a gift certificate and some stocking stuffers). A package to pick up at the post office! The dining room is a mess (it has been the packing workshop all month and needs to disappear TODAY!

Dd slept at a friend's and has big plans for tonight, which I am uncomfortable about, and Kine is not going along to watch out for her!!

Update: Had a houseful tonight. Dd has been home all evening (some change of plans!?!! HOORAY) Then Monica came with her kids to give DD a present, they stayed for several hours (haven't seen them since September, so it was nice to see them again), then dh came home with Janne, because he came home after being away at work for 3 weeks only to find that the electricity to his house was cut. So he is here waiting for the electric co. to come and fix it for him!

Car problems. The driver's seat belt lock is broken, so you have to put it in the lock on the passanger side, meaning you can't have a passanger along. And it peeps for a long time. So just called garage, and hour away, and have to drive up and deliver it this morning. A if I had nothing else to do 2 days before xmas...

Already made the 6 million!

Got home at 3.30 from garage. They fixed it in 5 minutes, after an hour's driving... which is better than hanging around for hours without a car waiting for it... - then a bit more shopping on way home. Everytime I think I am done, I think of something more I need... Got yarn for 2 new knitting projects..!

"After dinner on Christmas eve: 
Before the presents can be opened, the family walks around the Christmas tree holding hands and singing carols. Afterwards, they gather around the table where cookies and coffee have been put, and may as soon as they want to start opening their presents"

Dh spent 2 hrs outside in wind and rain, digging up tree for the porch. I put it in a cute wooden 1/2 a barrel and put little colored lights on it. Then I went up to the hut to bring down some bedding. DS will be spending the night here Christmas Eve (DD's idea) so spent an hour cleaning out the guest room and trying to find the bed!

and spent an hour going thru dd's piles in the corners of the living room, threw away tons, and tried to organize the rest and took up lots... living room looks much better now. Took up all my knitting from MY messy corner of the living room Friday night when we put up the tree.

Been decorating the tree all morning/afternoon, puttering, taking things up, getting things away for the holidays, finding presents I have hidden, wrapping presents. Still have a few to make, and cookies to bake, and letters to write.

Just got Janne, the Swedish friend, to promise to come to us for Christmas. A bad time of year for him. He has kids and grandkids here in Norway and else
where, and no contact with any of his family! Feel bad for him, he is so lonely, probably waiting for them to contact him and they are probably waiting for him to contact them. Has had several ex-wives different places, talks about them all the time. I don't know but can guess they threw him out because of his drinking problems.

The pict. shows a woven Christmas heart. Originally Danish, the first ones made by Han Christian Andersen in 1861, the handle came 10 yrs later. You hang them on the tree and fill them with goodies, candy, nuts. Were quite popular when I came but not so much anymore. Maybe more popular in Denmark? Fun to make. Of paper. Some make them very intricate and artistic. I can make this simple one. Hearts are symbols for Christmas in Norway and Denmark, prob. sweden, too.

Found a link that shows you how to make them, here they are called Swedish hearts, but that is wrong!http://www.craftideas.info/html/swedish_paper_hearts.html

Went to church this morning with all the foreign language students at the adult ed. center. It was very nice. There was an elementary school there, too, which has only about 30 students in the whole school. There was singing and dancing in many languages, and  different intruments. Had to find my kleenex after about 10 seconds. .. then back to adult ed. school for more singing and rice porridge! This is eaten at every Christmas party in Norway. The person who finds the almond in their dish wins a marzipan pig.

Good morning!
Weird week at work! Lots of my classes are canceled because the kids are doing fun christmasy things instead of having boring speech lessons with me! So I have spent most of the time, looking for things to do and trying to look busy. My classes for tomorrow are also canceled, but the adult ed center has a church service with all their foreign language students and 9, then a party at 10, so I will probably just do that with them.

I really need a few shepherds and 3 wise men, (my kids struggle to learn the meaning of the songs, so I have lots of little figures we use to visualize the songs.) So maybe tomorrow I will sit at work and knit a few? Had it with me today, too, but didn't dare take it out!