Happy New Year!

Wow, what a year it has been! Our end-of-the-year letters still have not arrived in the U.S., but when they do, you all will be able to see what a crazy year it has been for us. If you want even more detail, just go back through the blog.




We ended the year this evening with a little bit of fun, as we found yet another use for the one piece snowsuits the kids here all wear. There is a hill close to our apartment I figured would make a good sledding hill, and I was right! There is enough ice and packed snow that you can easily go from top to bottom and also not worry about ending up in the street. We didn't bring Sidney's sled (she had pretty much outgrown it), so we just slid her down in her snowsuit. About a third of the way down, she sort of went sideways, but she enjoyed it anyway. Kimber and I also gave it a try, but without snowsuits we got a lot of snow in our pants.

We enjoyed a traditional German meal of jaeger schnitzel, raw fried potatoes, and brussel sprouts for dinner. Our lunch was a bit more eclectic - smoked salmon, reindeer cold cuts, pastrami, French sausages and cheese, crackers and bread, and a Norwegian caviar that is really quite good. Sidney likes it as well.

We also did a little travel planning for next year. Our current event schedule is as follows -

January - Ski trip with school
February - Dog Mushing in Tromso and the Northern Lights (hopefully)
March - Ski trip with Kimber's work
June - Svalbard cruise

For those that may not know about Svalbard, it is probably one of the furthest northern locations you can go to for a cruise. We will actually sail as far north as the polar ice sheet (above the 80th parallel.) We are really looking forward to getting to actually see polar bears in the wild!




The little island out in front of our apartment took on many personalities today. This is partly because the fjord (saltwater, by the way) is warmer than the air, and it steams. (It is also freezing in the areas where the water sits still, such as our marina.) The other thing that gave the island a different character was the full moon this evening.

We will probably sleep through the actual new year, if we can get to sleep with all the fireworks going off. They are pretty much constant and everywhere around us. Oh, well, at least they are pretty!