Sledding and skating and 3D movie-ing!

While I wade through a truly extraordinary number of Christmas photos, I'll tide you over with these.

What we did with a sled before Christmas morning . . . yes, Mailman Dan loaded these up for the kids to drag to the house.

And after Christmas, the more traditional use for a sled:

 These are some of the cutest people in the world.

 Elin was totally into sledding, although when she would go down the hill, she would keep her face down so she couldn't actually see where she was going.

The local sledding summit.
Laugh if you will; this is a pretty big hill for our area!

And then Svea got ice skates from Daddy.

It is hard to believe that these toothpick legs can actually support skating, but after a couple mornings out on the rink with Nate, Svea's skating was, um, passable!

More winter fun inside:  going with my main men to see the new Hobbit movie in 3D.  3D glasses have definitely improved.  I was expecting white cardboard frames with red and blue lenses; instead we got what looked like sunglasses.  Viggo lucked out, the kids got red frames and Nate and I were stuck with black.  Glasses fashion aside, the best part of the 3D experience was that all of the sudden I would notice wild arm movement next to me, and it was Viggo reaching for things that he thought were coming out of the screen!

Stuffed Animal Sleepover!

The girls and I went to the library after dinner on Thursday night.

We don't usually frequent the library at night but we could not miss this event:

The annual Stuffed Animal Sleepover!

The only thing I can say is, this is a genius idea.  And the girls were so excited about it.

You bring your favorite stuffed friend, read stories and then - leave your stuffed friend at the library overnight.

That's right - your animal spends that night at the library!

While you are at home sleeping, your stuffed friend has all sorts of fun at the library - and then you get photos to see what your friend did!  We heard that sometimes, they get into mischief!

Our beloved librarian Dezra read stories about stuffed animals.
And we watched a little movie based on the book about a favorite stuffed animal - complete with popcorn and lemonade.  So fun.

Svea and Elin sandwich some friends.  Svea is holding Jojo, a stuffed puppet she actually won during the library's summer reading program, and Elin is holding Lily, a pink bunny that Svea bought for her at a thrift store in Cook, MN.

Our friend Oliver, sitting next to Svea, is holding a goat.  Svea happens to have the same one.  Hilarious conversation about the goat:

Me:  "Oliver, Svea has that same goat!"

Oliver:  "Yeah, I got Goatee when I had swine flu!"

Me:  "Svea - when did you get your goat?  Was that when you knocked your front teeth loose, or broke your leg?"

Oliver's bewildered father:  "There must be a better way to get a stuffed friend than that!"

I agree.  

Elin looks over all the stuffed friends that will be spending the night at the library.  They seem to be a good crew.

Then we went home.  Dezra promised to take good care of the stuffed animals.  We left, already wondering what Jojo and Lily were doing (:

The next day we trucked back to the library.

The girls were given photos of the fun Jojo and Lily had.

Jojo and Lily even got into the photocopier and made copies of themselves!

Those silly animals!

Here are some photos provided by the library:

 Jojo rides through the back of the library on the book return.

Jojo hangs out on the globe.

All the animal friends ride on a book cart in the elevator!

It looks like there was a stuffed friend parade after-hours!

Elin and Svea had so much fun.

We love our library and the librarians!  We are already looking forward to doing this again next year!