Kindergarten Christmas Party

I love that my job affords me the opportunity to participate in some of Izzy's school activities. I wish I could do more (of course :) but I'm thankful for what I can do.  I was really involved in the Halloween party, so I didn't feel as guilty about taking a back seat on the Christmas party.  Since I'm the "official" class photographer for Izzy's class, I decided that's how I would volunteer for this one.  But first, I had to post at the photo booth with Izzy (I think that I had a santa hat on a stick, but the glare from the light kinda made that impossible to see :)

This is one of Izzy's best friends, Seyenna.  These two are lie little peas in a pod :)

The little boy that's standing to the right of Izzy is Brooks, who is actually our neighbor!  He's such a sweet boy, and I think he may have a teeny little crush on Izzy :)  He's not in Izzy's class, but rather in the other kindergarten classroom, but the party is for the whole grade.

SELFIE!!!

Look at this adorable little elf that they all made!  I LOVE this, and we took it home and hung it on our kitchen on the pantry door.  So creative!

Swedish Christmas on Christmas Eve

Our dear friends, Daniel and Caroline, invited us over to their house to celebrate Christmas, Swedish style.  Caroline's family was visiting from Sweden, and we were going over to watch the traditional Swedish cartoons and partake of the lovely julbord :)

but first we had to pretty up our nails and have some girl time

I'm pretty sure that we were watching the typical Swedish cartoons in this photo (Kalle Anka,or Donald Duck as we American's know it).  We didn't do it at 3:00pm (which is tradition), but we DID watch them :)

Caroline and her mother made a huge amount of wonderful food....LOTS of yummy meat :)

And here is Joacim in his sexy ugly sweater :)  He wore this to our neighbor's party the week before.  It's so funny because it totally shrunk after I washed it, and went almost half-way up his back!

Sill (or herring...whatever you want to call it, it's still gross ;)

mmmmmmmmm...meatballs

Izzy essentially redecorated their Christmas tree.  We don't do tinsel on ours due to Lemmy eating it, so she was intrigued, and kept replacing it

Cute little Christmas troll

beautiful angel-wing ornament...not sure if there's any personal value to this for Daniel or Caroline, but it's lovely

Here's the julstjärna (or Christmas Star).  It seems like their in nearly every window in Malmö during the holiday season

We had a lovely time, and want to thank Daniel and Caroline and her family for inviting us to spend Christmas with them.

A little snow and a party

We had a little snow this morning....

Izzy wanted to help Pappa shovel

she actually caught on pretty quickly....cute photo of the 2 of them

and then a little sofa-snuggle with Rosie

That night was a Christmas party at Daniel and Caroline's house

we had a gift exchange with a crazy and fun game involved...a little Swedish tradition from Caroline

photobomb by Daniel

Daniel again :)

and Carro

and Izzy in her shiny gold dress....wish I would've taken a better photo of her and the entire dress

I didn't take my nice camera to the party.  I wanted a night off from picture taking and just wanted to enjoy it, and I thoroughly did :)  Thanks Daniel and Caroline for hosting!

Emily and Will's visit

Yayyyyyy!  Visitors!!! We were lucky enough to have Emily and Will make the long pilgrimage up to Minnesota for a visit last weekend.  I have missed them dearly and I was so excited to see them pull into my driveway ;)

look at these big, beautiful brown eyes!!!

Will wasn't even walking the last time I saw him, and look at him now!!!!

Izzy was SUCH a big helper.  She plays so well with other kids...I know I hit the lottery on that one.  She was so calm and patient with Will....adorbs!

Aug 17 2012 - Izzy washing Will's hair from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

Aug 17 2012 - Izzy washing her hair from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

Izzy was reading will a story about pandas while he brushed his teeth.  Can't I just bottle this cuteness???

Aug 19 2012 - someone cares and someone doesn't from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

Will didn't like coloring nearly as much as he liked dumping all of the crayons and scattering them through the living room :)

I swear I didn't pose her like this.  She's such a girly girl

our first attempt at beer-can chicken....thanks to Emily for the awesome seasoning!!!!

Will LOVES corn on the cob...cooked or not.  This happened to be 'not' but he's actually dancing from happiness in this photo.

On Saturday night, we had a dinner and some friends over.  On the menu:  beer can chicken (see above), pork chops (both chicken and pork chops were from our meat CSA....soooo yummy), sausage, potato salad, spinach salad with goat cheese, and roasted tomatoes.

The guys almost look like vultures circling their prey...poor poor chicken

And our happy little gathering of friends

I MISS this girl...I keep trying to convince here to move here....gonna have to work harder on this :)

We had a pretty lazy day on Sunday.  I wasn't feeling well (again) so we took it easy.  The most excitement we had was a pillow fight ;)

Aug 19 2012 - easy entertainment for Izzy from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

As always, the visit was way too short.  Things just feel more "normal" when Emily and Will are around.  Can't wait to see them again in November!