December Highlights

We’ve already shared a bunch of the photos from December in the Christmas in Norway post, but here are some highlights that didn’t make that post.

One Saturday afternoon, we went to see the Oslo Philharmonic Christmas special, where they created a sountrack for the animated film “the Snowman.” It was a wonderful performance, in a gorgeous hall.

We got our first major snowfall one school day in December, and Maddie and Ada had a wonderful time walking to school that day.

Unlike previous places I’ve lived, the snow is now a permanent fixture, and so nearly every walk to school involves Maddie and Ada climbing the large snow mountain in the grocery store parking lot along our walk.

Maddie and Ada’s school created a similar huge snow mountain, which is a favorite place to play for kids in the morning.

On weekends, we love to head to some of the nearby school playgrounds, and now that there is lots of snow, Staabek school has a wonderful sledding hill.

Here are Ada and one of her best friends, Kiana riding on a two-person sled that even has brakes.

And the two of them eating big blocks on snow on the walk home.

Maddie and her friend, Nika.

In mid-December, we went back to the folk museum to see their Christmas market, and got to see lots of traditional Norwegian crafts and traditions. Maddie and Ada loved this organ grinder.

The horse drawn carriage rides were also neat to see.

And Ada liked the big ornaments on the tree.

John took a two-day workshop on using web programming in Javascript to create art. The workshop brought together 10 people from around Oslo with a wide range of programming background and professions, and we created these posters that were printed on A2 paper using a Riso printing process similar to screen printing. Two days after the workshop, we got to see all of our work on display at an art gallery appropriately named Low Standards. My poster is the apostrophe on the bottom row, 2nd from the left.

In a second poster, prints from different artists were merged to create new works of art.

Here is a video of Ada’s preschool class singing “I’m a little snowflake.”

We went back to Bærums Verk, and it looks very different in December than from how it looked back in September.

Here’s Maddie in front of a statue of Ingegjerd Løvenskiold Stuart, the Mistress of the Robes, the highest-ranking member of the royal court, who was committed to restoring the industrial village of Bærums Verk.

At Bærums Verk, we got to see a short performance by the 3 sisters, singing a traditional Norwegian Christmas Carol, På låven sitter nissen, a song about naughty elves on the porch eating porridge that has become quite an earworm in our house.

Finally, we wrapped up the trip to Bærums Verk with a horse and buggy ride.

Maddie has also become a rather voracious reader in the past months. She’s finished both of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books, and is now reading Harry Potter with John. Every now and then, she even reads to her little sister.

Here’s one more sledding video, this time, from Frogner Park in Oslo. Maddie and Ada love these “Bumboard” sleds, which are super popular in Norway.

Our walks home from school often involve just as much snow play as our walks to school. Here’s Maddie climbing snow mountain just after school lets out with her friends Eleanor and Barrett.

Here’s Maddie and Ada making a snowman after piano practice one Thursday. 

Here’s a photo of our Christmas tree and decorations. Thanks to our friend Paulina for loaning us a tree and many of the ornaments.

Here are our Letters to Santa (one on left is Ada’s written by Maddie and one on right is Maddie’s second draft in which she added a few more things.) Both were sent to Santa in Drobak, Norway via the postal service.

A few last random tidbits, We found Thai restaurant in Oslo with the same name as the one we frequent in Delaware. Alas, since eating out is a super special treat in Oslo, we didn’t check this place out.

Here’s a candid photo of Ada waiting for her sister’s piano lesson.

Finally, here we are with our Nisse-billett, the free Flytoget train tickets we got to the airport for wearing Santa hats on our journey to Copenhagen. Just one more way to get in the Christmas spirit.