Christmas Baby

We had a very Merry Christmas full of travels, family, friends, food, and, of course, presents.  

I guess we began celebrating the season on the 21st at our house with some "solstice" presents.

We started traveling on the 22nd in Forest City, IA with   Grandma and Grandpa Hemberger.  On the 23rd we partook in the annual festivity of Lille Jul Aften in FC.  A large crowd gathered for glogg, sing-alongs, the children's nativity (FGH was too mobile to play Jesus, though he was the smallest babe), and a smorgasbord.  I took video that night, so I hope someone reading this will forward some photos to me!  On the 24th we had mock-Christmas morning with the Reids, Mittmans, and Hembergers, and then we headed north for Christmas with the Larsons, G.Grandma June, and the Jacobsons, and Lindblooms of course.  FGH and Madi played together really well and loved all the toys they received.  More presents, a delicious breakfast, and play time followed in the morning and then we lounged around the Larson house for most of the day before heading home.  We're feeling a little stir crazy after all the busy days.  It's dull inside and cold outside.  Without further ado...the photos...

This is my all time favorite, striped pants, vintage jacket, crazy-colors awesome toy.

Solstice gifts under the Christmas tree...how unitarian.
blocks are good things
Jonah and Fredrik in matching stripes
Lachen, Aksel, Fredrik, and Jonah in sweaters made my Gma Hemberger
Madi and Fredrik in their Christmas outfits
Telephone toy...a blast
Gma Larson, FGH, Madi surprised by...something...Santa?
Another good read
some assembly required, nice drill, Freddy

Gimme that Tree

For the love of garlic

The infatuation with garlic continues.  It's everywhere.  Not only bulbs, but the papers. Everywhere.  He has taken a bite a few times, and he'll cry a bit, but he still goes back for more.  

Such a dignified pose.

Entering Retirement

Fredrik has outgrown the best darn shoes ever. They stayed on, they looked darling, they were soft, they were warm. We will miss you, sweet shoes. Now the quest for another pair begins. The Hanna Andersson Swedish Moccasins seem to be pretty nice so far. But still, we will miss you, little football shoes.

A Visit to Macy's

Fredrik met Santa today!  We were at Macy's to check out the 8th floor animatronic Christmas display and at the end was a line to meet and greet Santa Clause himself.  It was a fun family outing, we all had a good time.  Fredrik did OK with Santa, they snapped two pictures and then he burst into tears.  It was short-lived- as soon as he was back into my arms he was fine.  He had a lot of fun in line for Santa, there were many shiny big ornaments for gazing and playing not to mention a lot of kids.   We even had a delicious lunch in the Sky Room.  Quite a day.  I think we just might have found our official Christmas card family picture, too.

Fun at Gma and Gpa's

Fun was had at the Larson Residence this weekend. Tiny plaid chairs, Christmas decorations galore, a cousin, and plenty of play time. What more could a boy want?

Scooter

Fredrik LOVES this little scooter. He crawls over to it and hits it until we put him on top and cart him around. It's quite adorable. He's hamming it up a bit in the pictures, but usually he's very very serious while he's ridin'. It's a good workout for us, too. Down the hall, through the kitchen, around the dining room table..down the hall...
Notice the one blue mitten. What a circus.

Thanksgiving

These pictures are in reverse order! Oh well.

Eric snoozing after dinner:


Cute little Jonah:


Fredrik at the table:


Madi smiley and messy:


The pie course, nice touch with the pastry cookies, Bev:


The bird turned out well. Go Organic, Free Range and lots of butter basting!:


We had so much food. Our kitchen was overflowing, and so was the table, notice the doubling up of bowls:


Jonah and Fredrik play a duet with assistance:


Tis Peter and I in the kitchen:


G June and FGH:


Playing in the apt. full of tables:


The table before it all happened:

Auntie Anna

Anna swooped in for a little SAHM pick-me-up this weekend. She arrived from Boston on Thursday and stayed until Sun. morning. We had a blast, chatting, going out-and-about, and eating along the way. Peter and I even went on a date on Friday night. We traveled all the way to Brasa in Mpls. Thanks for everything Anna!!!

Mirror, Mirror

Mirrors are one of the new fun toys with FGH.

From today:


A cute shot by Gpa Jim on Halloween:

Sun Doodles

I've finally finished doodling the sun. I don't know why I did it in the first place, but here they are again all together. Two of my marker pens are totally dried up. It was fun. I'm thinking of printing them out as little note cards. My goal is to get an etsy shop up and running by January 1, just in time for the holiday shopping to be over and a perfect time for recession-phobic consumers to not buy things. Ha.

Another Sun

My boy is a little strange-looking in this picture to say the least. He's foaming at the mouth, well, not really, that's a teething tablet that he spit it out before it dissolved. They dissolve in about 3 seconds, so that's pretty impressive. This is his looking-at-the-camera face:


Another good one:


Another sun doodle:

Up and Running Studio

It's amazing what sleep can do. In my case, now that I have some free time at the end of the day while Fredrik sleeps, I have been going full steam with art projects. I finished unpacking and gave my little art studio room a quick organize, and now it's so easy to start creating things.

First on the list was a 15 book series of handbound journals that I had started a few months ago. I thought a big project would quickly hone my bookmaking skills. Repetition is best. Here are my book parts as they lay now:


I just ordered some book cloth from Paper Source, I've never used there book cloth, but the colors were just fabulous.

I made these name tags for Thanksgiving next week. I had collected some fall leaves a couple of weeks ago and I pressed them in a huge anatomy book. I had the bright blue cardstock on hand and simply sewed the leaves on. Easy yet classy, I think. (I didn't write the names on yet). We may have a crowd of 19 in our cozy little house here.


I'm not sure what I think of this sunny drawing. I was missing the sun and I had just bought some wonderful illustration markers.

Natural Toys

Sleeping Baby

Fredrik slept 8 1/2 hours last night without waking!!!

Day with Dad

FGH spent most of the day with Peter. I needed a break from the house, and Peter needed a break from studying so there you have it. This is what Busca looked like when I got home! Really, I was only gone a few hours, but even once home Peter played the part of Dad most of the day and I took care of things like hanging curtains and cooking supper. I visited Costco for the first time with my sister, bro-in-law, and niece. It was very big. I came home with a lot of food and cooked up a pasta dish with mushrooms, fresh spinach and a very nice fresh pesto -all costco purchases, also organic salad greens. We followed up with dried mangoes. It was good stuff, I'm not sure if we'll join, but it was fun to get out.

I also stopped at a bookstore and browsed the baby section for books on sleep training. I made a plan and I have to say, Busca is asleep in his crib. He groaned and lightly cried for about 45 minutes. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I know that it will be good for him to be able to self soothe. He has been waking up so many times lately in the night and I know he wishes he could stay asleep. It is progressively getting worse, too, he stays awake for sometimes 1/2 hour at a time and wants to crawl around the play. He wakes up early and just looks exhausted. This is supposed to work in a few nights. Tomorrow he will probably take an hour or more to fall asleep (according to my sources) and ....oops...he woke...and is not happy...