A Very Merry Christmas!

Anja in her Christmas dress, I mean "THE dress" from Hanna Andersson. This one was hard to get our hands on!

We've had a week filled with Christmas and holiday get-togethers; it's been great to celebrate with many family members and friends throughout the past few days. We have to say, that with such a packed week, we are looking forward to a bit more relaxation in the coming week, with a trip to Bayfield, WI (sans Anja who is staying with her Nana and G'pa Paul) and other than that, not too many other places to go!

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of days. We'll add more later!

Hmmmm . . . what is this all about?!
(Thanks, Nathan and Krista for the fleece PJs. She LOVES them!)

Hey! This gets more fun by the present!


Anja in her very own kitchen . . . she's a great short order cook!

A Delicious (and easy!) Recipe . . .

We had some browning bananas sitting around the other day, so I Google searched "Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins" and found this delicious recipe, courtesy of the "Curious Foodie" on-line (looks like CF has other delicious recipes I'll be trying as well). Anja and I finally got around to making them this chilly morning and were pleased with our results. My late "Grandma" Litka used to send Banana Chocolate Chip bread, amongst other goodies in a large box each Christmas season, so these bring back good memories of those treats. We hope you like these muffins as much as we did!

Oh Christmas Tree . . .

Anja puts the *star* up!

We had a great time with friends last weekend cutting down our Christmas trees. Unlike last year, it only took us a day to get the tree decorated. (YAY!) Here are a few shots we took last Monday.

Lights up and on! She was obviously super excited!

The final product . . . Anja making sure Snoopy was doing okay on the tree.

Master of Arts

While I had already "officially" completed my Master's, I attended the graduate commencement ceremony at the University of Minnesota yesterday. I have always appreciated such ceremonies and I have to admit, it felt good to take some time to reflect upon and recognize the past two years of work. I guess this means I am officially a Master, whatever that means.
Yesterday also marked the one year anniversary of my grandfather's death. It felt good to think about him watching down on us as we celebrated. It is odd to think how often the closing of one chapter coincides with the beginning of another. Of how often grief and sorrow is followed by joy and hope. This is, I think, one of the beautiful ironies of life.

Raku!

Over the past few weeks I've built a raku kiln at City Academy. I was pretty proud today - for someone with little to no ceramic experience, I was able to build a kiln (with assembly help from my students) and have a successful raku firing at school today. Fellow staff members Oscar and Mem gave some great help and it was a very cool process - we learned a lot. I'm already excited about a few tweaks and our next firing - probably in January, but who knows... could be sooner. I'll try to post some photos of some of the pieces we made. We had some mixed success with our glazes. Some of them turned out excellent, while others did not. Oh well, all part of the process.

It's Another Girl!

For those of you curious folks, we went in for our 20 week ultrasound today and found out we will be having another baby girl in April! We're very excited, and Anja is as well, although she wants to be the "little sister" and not the "big sister." We've got a few months to work on her yet, so we're not too worried. Anyone care to guess or suggest some names? (Please note: they must be Scandinavian.) We've got a few we're deciding between, but we're not telling!

Happy St. Nick's Day!

Anticipating St. Nick's arrival, Anja puts her boots out by her door.

Today Anja woke up to find a gift from St. Nicholas in her boots. She's been jumping around talking about "Nick" all morning. At this point in her young life, "Nick" is all about presents. In a few years, we'll actually be able to tell her about St. Nick and what he did for those in need. For those of you curious blog readers, here's more about the Saint from the St. Nicholas Center:

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.

Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

Anja finds and opens her gift from St. Nick.

This year, St. Nick brought Anja Tomie dePaola's The Friendly Beasts: an old English Christmas Carol.

It's Time for Christmas Lights!

Anja has been eyeing the lights across the street, so we decided to start our holiday decorating early (okay so it's not so early for everyone else, but for us it is!). She was a great helper, checking the lights, "They work!" and helping string them around the railings. Next decorating task: getting our tree at the Erickson Bros. Tree Farm on Sunday with friends.

Anja also had her two year check-up today. She's a healthy 2-year-old! Her measurements put her in the 95th percentile in height (37"), weight (34 lbs.) and head circumference (20"). The only negatives of the morning were the immunizations and the milking of her finger for the lead test. Lots of tears! But, as you can see above, she made it through just fine. (She even took a nap for me this afternoon---those are hard to come by these days!)