Influx of Pictures

Hey there,

I thought I'd just do a gigantic picture download here. I'm not even going to put them in proper order, though I'll label some for you. Bummer though . . . I started downloading these and the computer froze somehow. When I went back a whole folder was missing. Super sad!! Some of them were Mace's 6th birthday. He had a great birthday with a friend of his with the same name as himself. We decorated gingerbread houses together. The pictures was so cute and memorable for Mace with his little buddy. I do hope I can find them! I know he'll want to see them someday.   Hope I can dig those up for ya. 

A number of these are from Sage's camera. He sure helps me record moment in our family life. Thanks buddy!

Marking the beginning of Advent with our mailbox Advent wreath.

 Mace has been into drawing pictures lately. He's been busy! Wonderful imagination, this one.

On the day of my birthday we went to the Overature Center in downtown Madison to see A Christmas Carol with forty
of our homeschool friends. It was a great show and experience. It made for a good birthday. 

This kid wore his Christmas jammies for two day straight, I think. 

Got the boys out skating for the first time. Met some new friends! 

A Merry Norske Saturday

Last year I had pinned a fun outing idea on my "Local" board on Pinterest. It was an idea for a Norwegian Christmas outing with my sister. It never transpired because Mace had to get his tonsils taken out. This year we made it happen!

What a great find! The place we visited was The Norskedalen Heritage and Nature Center for their annual Old Fashioned Christmas. 
It was a two hour drive for us but very worth the time. The last thirty minutes was such a pretty drive. I see on the website they have a number of events during the year as well as quite a few hiking trails.
I would really like to get back in October for the
Civil War immersion weekend.

Anyhow, my sister made the drive over for a bit of holiday cheer together. We had a lovely day together. Here are some pictures of our day together. She's a bit shy on the pics but I promise she was there!!  Next time I'll have to insist on more pictures together!!


Carriage ride! Nutmeg rode up front!

Some of the wild dudes on the ride. 

The visitors center was interesting with a nice gift shop and a number of rooms with Norwegian artifacts from centuries past. There was a Norwegian dinner going on throughout the afternoon, entertainment, Norwegian baked goods, and some crafts for the kids.

Old sleigh with rosemaling.

In this old house on the homestead they had a table for ornament-making and a lefse demonstration in the kitchen. It was neat to watch them use the old stove in there. There were plenty of lefse samples for all!

All powdery after eating a bunch of lefse.

Next we headed to the blacksmith cabin where we watched them make a Christmas ornament for us.

We wandered around the farmstead a bit before going back to the shelter to eat our lunch by the fire with a cup of warm hot chocolate. Good times!

Poking around the sheds. 

Tobacco shed. I'm guessing this guy is to chase away evil spirits.

On the way home we found a Christmas tree farm. We love this new tradition for our family!!  I am hoping every year we can keep traveling around finding new places to choose our tree for the year. This one was another good find. Hot chocolate for all!

This Santa was hilarious. We were taking pics with the younger, not even trying to get the older boys in the pic. I mentioned that we wouldn't worry about the teenagers. Santa saw Basil come out of the shop and he calls out to him "Hey teenager, come on over!" I whisper his name and Santa calls him out by name and insists on a picture. Basil was won over!