Christmas 2008 and New Year 2008/09
Greetings to all our friends and family across the world. Hope to see you all soon!
Thank you Kristin and Alvaro for the spontaneous holiday visit!! This holiday could have been very different had it not been for some good luck and hard work: Rob made it home just in time for Christmas with the help of dozens of crossed fingers (we have been told there were prayers, chanting, and humming as well - thank you!), numerous documents (incl. the all-important expedited Labour Market Opinion), two cooperative border agents, the ever-helpful Norah, a keen immigration lawyer, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Here are some photos we'd like to share with you.
| It's all in the Preparation! | ||
The turkey wrapped and ready. |
Full turkey-collapse. Oh well.... |
I'm sure it is edible in spite of collapse - let's carve and eat! |
Hild peeling potatoes in her own special way (101 uses for a cheese slicer). |
Alvaro and Kristin preparing the brushetta topping. |
Hild testing out the new bread knife. |
Hild gets 'E' for effort. |
101 uses for foot-rests: get necessary leverage while baking (these foot-rests are popularly know as 'krakks' in Norwegian - a source for enless numbers of jokes!) |
End result was a cornucopia-shaped kransekake filled with Quality Street. Yum Yum. [PS: very handy way of assembling the kransekake as Hild dropped and broke several rings.... :-) ] |
| We have no pictures of the preparation of the Christmas cake as Rob did this back in October/November. As always it was an involved process leading to a yummy marzipan- and icing-covered result. |
Rob shows off his Christmas cake. Everybody else is drooling off-camera! |
End result included a Peruvian miniature Nativity scene. |
| ... Dinner Dinner Dinner ... | ||
Everybody smile!!!!..... one.... |
..... two.... |
..... three! |
Another meal - ready to eat? Go! |
Alvaro carefully pointing the champagne bottle away from the windows and toward the concrete ceilings to minimise damage. POP! |
Farewell dinner at the Blue Cactus - back to normal life again tomorrow.... |
| Fun and Games!!!! | ||
Everyone lined up for one of multiple movie events on our 6-foot screen (projected on the wall as we are not that rich!). We watched three movies: 'No Country for Old Men', 'Burn After Reading', and 'Live Free or Die Hard'. [The general opinion was that only the last one had an ending... |
Hild piles up her dessert plate during the movie intermission (christmas cake, kokos-bolle, kransekake, Quality Street, and a bucket of tea)... [The remote-control is included in the photo to illustrate the grandiose size of the piece of cake and the bucket-of-tea.] |
Alvaro and Rob are sampling the various liquids - before, during and after the movie... |
Try playing 'Oh Christmas Tree' on cow-bells on Wii - it is good fun! |
Alvaro practicing soccer-ball-heading on Wii. |
Hild and Kristin relaxing in the livingroom. |
| Exercise - by walking from Ottawa to Hull (Quebec) and back... | ||
Parliament Hill as seen from Alexandra Bridge. |
Hild and Kristin looking in disbelief at the people ice-fishing on the Ottawa River + Parliament Hill |
Rob, Hild and Alvaro on their way across the Ottawa River ... into Quebec ! :-O |
Hild and Kristin battling un-cleared paths in Major's Hill Park. |
Hild, Alvaro and Kristin battling un-cleared paths in Major's Hill Park - behind Hotel Chateau Laurier. |
Hild and Kristin trying to smile in the extreme wind-chill. |
Sights to see: Museum of Civilization in Hull (on the other side of the Ottawa River - in Quebec...) |
Sights to see: One of the many courtyards in the Bytown Market area - Tin House Court |
Sights to see: Yet another war memorial - this one spanning the top end of Kent Street. |
Huddle up in the freezing cold winds on Parliament Hill - one nicely lit Christmas tree for each Province/Territory. |
Try to stay warm at the fire-fountain on Parliament Hill. |
It's getting dark and the Christmas lights on the National Arts Center and the Rideau Canal are beautiful to look at. |
Rob & Hild
January 2009