lille julaften

today is the norwegian holiday of little christmas eve. i believe that in norway this is the day they decorate their tree and light the candles, drink hot chocolate and eat gingerbread. we have made it a tradition to travel to little italy on this day, and have coffee, hot chocolate, pastries and cookies.

but first morgana and chanda had an ice skating lesson!

the rink became very busy with holiday tourists after the lesson. the ice was too crowded for chanda and i and chanda's friend, tessa. we went inside for hot chocolate and gingerbread.

this picture was taken by chanda.

after skating we returned home for a lunch of chicken barley soup and to pick up korrina before going to the italian cafe, ferrara's.

on our way morgana was suddenly compelled to climb the lamppost. i was sure we could get fined for this. there are so many odd rules these days.

i don't think this photo needs an explanation . .

skipping off to ferrara's.

korrina likes to knit wherever she goes. chanda likes to read. she is presently reading the chaos clock, by gill arbothnott.

morgana is looking at an apron that says "you don't lika my cooking, i breaka your head!"

finally . . at ferrara's!

pignoli and tre colori cookies: our favorites.

after the cold outside, the cafe was cozy and warm.

little italy, decorated for the holiday.

we made a stop at the mulberry street library: our favorite nyc library branch. i checked out h.a. rey's book find the constellations, and a cd, the four seasons by vivaldi. chanda chose a redwall book and island of the aunts, by eva ibbotson. morgana checked out a book about sacajawea by joseph bruchac.

we stopped at faicco's italian pork store on the way home. we picked up san danieli prosciutto for tomorrow's appetizer and for an appetizer on christmas day. we picked up quite a few goodies: imported provolone, green cracked olives, rice balls, bread sticks, italian bread, and five chicken sausage links for dinner this evening. after dinner we had hot chocolate and pfeffernusse and advent cookies while playing a few rounds of quiddler. and now it's time for some sleep.

oh dear. what's this. we're watching a movie. we're not sleeping. hmmm. even jack is in on the act. it's eloise at christmastime. i have to admit . . it's one of my favorite holiday movies.

every night before going to sleep we've been reading from this book by ruth sawyer durand. i found it in the riverside branch, and we've really been enjoying it. i love discovering books in the library.

this evening, being lille julaften, we read "a christ carol."
good night!

a library day

we finally got to the library this morning. we like to walk over to mulberry street. it's not our closest branch, as jefferson market is, but it's a pleasant village walk.

morgana found some books about egyptian gods and goddesses and the egyptian creation story. chanda found a book about immigrants. i look forward to reading them also.

schoolwork and a library visit

i pulled out a few of our books about egypt today, and read to c and m about the middle and new kingdoms (from susan wise bauer's the history of the ancient world). they then chose what to write about in their lesson books. c drew a picture of a gold collar, and linked it to the gold nubia was known to have; m wrote about ahmose's eviction of the hyksos tribe, and drew a picture of karnak in it's early stages. we then took a walk to the east side to downtown yarns, to get d's yarn for her ballet t-shirt that i need to lengthen. afterwards, we visited our favorite library in the city . . the mulberry street branch. i took a moment (after researching a few more books about egypt which we read this evening) to sit and knit. their book corner is the coziest in the city, and we like to sit there and read. c is measuring the length of her arms here, with a tape measure given to her from the downtown yarn store owner.