Christmas Morning on December 26th

Christmas morning came on the 26th. Harper found a teepee.

And a bed.

And plenty of other things including two boxes of Band-aids. Marc found a package of mustaches. Grandpa got a can of oysters (that he forgot to cook into his famous oyster stew). And Grandma and I exchanged tubes of tomato paste.

We sat down to a scallop Christmas dinner this year.

After church with Grandma and the tickle blanket.

Christmas Eve on December 25th

My mom and dad arrived on Christmas night. We pretended it was Christmas Eve when they arrived and sat down to a shepherd's supper when we all came home.

What we think shepherds eat for dinner

After a filling dinner we turned to the presents under the tree.

Modeling her new jewelry

When Harper unwrapped this treasure box from Aunt Sara and Uncle Darin, she could barely wait to get those pink shoes out and on her feet.

Modeling her new shoes

Insisting on doing up all the buttons "by self"

Christmas really is for kids. And our kid was the perfect age this year. She jumped from her new baby to her new dog to her new crayons to her new truck to her new baby. It was all very exciting. Way more exciting than last year when the only things under the tree for Harper were tights and pajamas.

Modeling her new sweatshirt with a fellow fan.

Christmas Morning on December 25th

We enjoyed a Christmas morning breakfast with Soh and Traore and Bachir and Hamidou and Frank. We sang lots of songs. Or we sang Silent Night and Joy to the World multiple times.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went caroling at Washington Square Park. How nice.

When we came home we opened the last package on the advent calendar. Baby Jesus took His rightful place at the center of everyone's attention. How nice.

Happy Christmas

Advent

The Wilsons celebrated Christmas with an Advent calendar when they were growing up. Now the old calendar gets passed around from Wilson to nee-Wilson. It's our turn this year to sing songs and open packages every day until Christmas. No one is more excited than Harper.

After we all sing a rousing rendition of Away in a Manger (the only Christmas carol Harper knows), Marc helps Harper untie a little package.

Marc reads the verse while Harper listens intently in her "girl unnerwear." Girl stands for princess but Harper doesn't know that yet.

Every other day or so Harper unwraps a little figure in the nativity set. Baby Jesus is the only one we are still waiting for.

Warren Leslie Tveit: August 6, 1928 - December 14, 2009

Grandpa Tveit died on Monday night. Halle said it all so nicely on her blog. I traveled by myself to Minnesota for the funeral this weekend.

Warren Tveit loved his family and the outdoors. He was unified with the land that was his life. A man of few words, Warren expressed his love of nature through photography. He lived a life of honesty and integrity. He was married to the same woman for 60 years. He was centered and grounded, a role model for his family. A gift he gave his children was allowing them to be themselves. "Do what you gotta do" was his motto. Warren lived a full life with no regrets. He struggled with Parkinson's disease in his last years yet embraced the path laid out for him, fully realizing the meaning of "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." His life's journey reflected a truth he lived by: In the end, all you have is what you have given away. Warren Tveit was a rich man. -- eulogy written by Dawn, Deanna, Bree

Ely, MN 2008
Tveit family reunion for Grandpa's 80th birthday

July 2009
Mountain Iron, MN

Grandpa's trusted backpack and his bible. The night before the funeral we looked through his bible at all of his underlinings and inserts. Some of my favorites of his favorites are:

• Psalm 84
• John 10:14
• 2 Corinthians 2:14
• In the end all you have is what you have given away
• Treat others' faults as graciously as you do your own
• He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose

This gigantic painting hangs in the cultural hall of my grandparents' church. My grandmother painted it.

After the funeral we ate lunch. There was plenty of lasagne and salad, cookies and cake, rhubarb slush, polish jerky, pickled herring and little buns. Apparently there wasn't enough pickled herring. It was the first thing to go. Grandpa loved pickled herring. And so do all of his Norwegian relatives and friends. There was always a dish of it on the table at meal time when we visited my grandparents.

Staying in for a fancy dinner

Marc entered us into a fancy dinner competition (prize: two nights of free babysitting) with our friends the Smylies and the Baradaran-Bybees. We each took a turn spending a lot of money on food and stressing out in the kitchen for an entire day while we cooked a gourmet meal to enjoy with the other two couples. Kids were not invited to dinner. Marc created a rubric for easy grading of each couple's dinner:

5 points each for presentation, decor/ambiance, food/taste, cultural component/entertainment

The Smylies dared to go first and served up a fancy harvest feast that included an entire roasted pumpkin filled with fancy cheese and bread. To die for. We shared poems on the harvest theme and Levi favored all of us with a really lovely song. Of course.

At the Bybarans' house all the women wore hijabs, and the men wore scarves as we gorged ourselves at the Cushion for our Heads feast of middle eastern foods. Stuffed quince. Homemade naan. And the most delicious chocolate baklava ever. After dinner our hosts pulled out a book of Hafiz's poetry. We each took turns asking a really important life question that would be answered in the lines of the random poem we turned to in the book.

We were last. We took plenty of pictures of the food but not a single picture of our guests. How sad. Happy things included a chance to eat more cheese stollen for dessert, especially with such nice friends. It was a wonderful way to feel the spirit of Christmas.

In the end we decided not to give grades to anyone or compete for the two free nights of babysitting. We just enjoyed the chance to share some really good food that other people cooked while we talked about this and that all night. I'm glad we all followed through with this plan because as I write this (on April 10th, 2010) the Smylies have now moved to D.C. to start their stint with the foreign service in Senegal, and the Bybarans will be moving to Provo, UT to start working at BYU's law school. These three nights of fine dining will go down as great NY moments with great NY friends.

salmon mousse

beet and goat cheese puree

green apple and butternut squash soup with crumbled bacon

quinoa pilaf with crimini mushrooms, walnuts, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries, and goat cheese

duck breast with persimmon chutney on a bed of mashed potatoes and asparagus

cauliflower gremolata and seared scallops

chocolate pot de creme

cheese plate--tomme de savoie, holland goat gouda, vermont sage cheddar, french double cream brie

Taeus Goes to Tempe

We said goodbye to Taeus on December 15th. And wished him well as he set off on a mission for our church in Tempe, AZ.

A Visit to Santa

With a little encouragement from Rebecca we made it to Macy's this year to visit Santa.

There was always something to look at as we wound our way down the path to meet Santa. And good thing, too, since we were on that path for at least 30 minutes.

When we finally made it to one of the Santa rooms Harper wouldn't let go of me. Which I fully expected and understood. While Harper is good at spotting Santa around town I don't think she actually knows what he does. Or what he purports to do. And I'm not in a hurry to tell her.

For lunch we treated these girls to french fries and ice cream.