Happy new year!!!!

Welcome the 2012!!

The last day this year

Greta had a surprise for us yesterday: she had fever since yesterday. So, very clingy today, bu very very cozy. So we did very quiet activities today, mostly reading and painting. She also got the present from our friends from "snowless South of France". Thanks, Max and Kate. Greta alreay made the picture of te birs and started working on the frog :-)) Thank you.

Very tired and warm child just wanted to snuggle on the sofa. :-(

Great presents!

My first doily

I am learning to crochet. This is my first doily (here is the description, the small one) I finished five minutes ago. Does somebody know what I am supposed to do with it now? Wash? Treat somehow?

A quiet day at home

Quiet time between Christmas and New Year. Incredible, really. Tomorrow is the last day this year. Santiago is studyind for the driving exam, Greta jumps on the sofa, and we decided to make the bedding for the ikea doll bed (because the default that comes with it is not good enough for our dolls :-)))

This is how it looks like now.

The summary of the year

Today it is the blog's birthday. I started blogging on the 30th of December last year. It has been many interesting things this year, and thank you all who read about our everyday life.

I will just write the highlights of our year. Month by month.

January has been a nice start of the year. We went all together to Tromsø, where I ran my first half marathon. I was pretty happy with the result, and we had a wonderful time watching the Northern lights for the first time in our lives. We also went skiing many times and I tried downhill skiing for the first time. I learnt pretty fast. Santiago is skiing very good now, too. Nex year, I go to Tromsø again, but this time I will be alone, for the first time Greta will be home with daddy without me. I think it will work just fine. We did some cross country skiing too, and we were surprised that Greta liked to join us in the "pulk". Greta also tried both types of ski, but she still preferred watching us do it, but this year she participates more actively.

February was the month of Santiago's birthday and Greta's carnival. I started sewing and was happy to find out that I like it. Lots of skiing and walking in the snow. Lots of guests. The Kongsberg fair with different attractions for kids, even when it was cold weather.

March was the end of the season for skiing, and we enjoyed cross country skiing in the mountains. The spring came in March this year. I learnt how to crochet, a bit.

April. We had a wonderful vacation in Eilat, Israel, for two weeks. Greta had her second birthday there, enjoyed the sun, the sea and lots of time with her parents. Nice! When we came back, the spring (or summer) has already begun in Norway and the grass was green. Greta received many presents from many of our friends, which is always so heartwarming. At the end of the month, Greta tried herself in some new sport activities and she liked it.

In May we went for our first trip to the top of the mountain Gaustatoppen, and had a family weekend in the mountains. I ran the spring run in Oslo, 10 km. Greta celebrated her birthday with her friends. The summer is inevitable at this point.

In June Santiago's brother Javier visited us here in Norway and we had a short road trip to the south of Norway. The weather was great, too. This month we started participating in the local orienteering tasks, and quite liked it. We also started looking for a new car and thinking about selling our previous car.

July is the month of Kongsberg jazzfestival. Greta is painting on the kids wall for the festival. I started cross-stitching as my new hobby. Greta tried playing tennis and thinks it is fun, but does not have enough patience yet. At the end of the month, we celebrate our 6th anniversary by going to pick berries to a farm with our friends from India.

In August we bought our new car and went for a trip to the western part of Norway with our friends.

September was a great month because Greta could spend lots of time with her grandparents, my mom and dad. We went to the summer house in Tønsberg, and had our family run, Greta with her 500 m, me and mom halfmarathon and dad the whole marathon with great time.

October, I love it. My birthday and yellow leaves. A 10 km run in Furumo for me and a kids run for Greta. We also went again to Gaustatoppen, just because it was just great weather we could not miss it.

We were waiting for snow the whole month of November, but it did not come just yet. So it was pretty strange to attend to the Christmas fair without snow... But Greta had fun. We also spent some days with our new friend from Ukraine, and she is so good with Greta. We also went for our last trip this year to the summer house in Tønsberg. And it was nice to start to prepare for Christmas.

December is just Advent and Christmas time. And I love that it is so much about the family. More decorating, children crafts, advent calender, Christmas parties, ingerbread cookies and gingerbread house, first snow!!!! Presents! And Christmas. And opening of the skiing season.

We had a great year. Did you?

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Homemade decorations

Today we made some more homemade decorations, even though it is after Christmas now... And since we were quite tired of making everithing with hearts, now we maki things with stars. We made this star garlang from cardstock paper and I just used the sewing machine to join them together.

More stars landed on our table. Nice since we have visitors tomorrow.

Greta gets some tech toys from daddy. This time it is the colourful lights that one can put on the fingers. Funny.

And the bonus I just had to take picture of. The cauliflower soup. Impressive, because she likes it!

Felt coasters

Yesterday we spent a cozy evening making coasterf of felt. Christmasy. The recipe is pretty easy. You probably remember how we did Christmas napkins when we were kids and hung them on the windows. The same here.

She wanted to ski!!!

So she did! We are happy. Of course, she holds us all the time, but she really enjoyed! And she wants more now, but the weather outside is horrible, I actually am a bit scared to go running. Is is just ice, water and dirt. Our "garden" looks like it usually does in the end of March, green grass sprouting out everywhere. Strange.... But for now, just enjoy the pictures!