Christmas Party #3 (aka New Year's Eve)

Who needs to go to a fancy dance party with entertainment like this?

We started with a Hannah Montana look-alike contest,

with a performance by the winner,

and followed up with a little lounge singing!

(Make sure you play the video to then end; its a good example of the day-to-day with our three year old. Hopefully March and a 4th birthday will bring some relief!)

Christmas Party #2

Well we didn't get any pictures at the extended Lybeck-family Christmas party, but Mona took some pictures to remember her trip by:

What holiday would be complete without these conditions?


Here we are in front of the Fargo Theater.
Note the lack of bundling; we got lucky this year!

We also spent a pleasant, pictureless evening with Carlene and many of the extended Paulson clan - Great to catch up!

Christmas time at the Lybeck's

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning. We also went to Fargo Christmas Day for the Lybeck clan festivities. We will head out tomorrow again to celebrate New Year's with the Drakes in Wisconsin. They just got a ton of snow so we look forward to skiing and sledding.

As you can see, both pairs of sisters got a set of matching pajamas for Christmas.


I'm sure I don't know what Santa was thinking when he brought a guitar and drums to our house, but hopefully the noise will mean some musical interest, apart from playing CDs!

Santa also left a replica of Rudolph behind, so we were well lit on Christmas morning!

ESL teaching students - Fall 2008

Here are my students from my combined graduate-undergraduate English Structure class. This was a really cohesive group and I think most of us really enjoyed our time together!











They are in the back: Adib (Afghanastan), Tabea (Germany), Mai (Vietnam), Tom, Mariya (Ukraine), Jessica, Binki (Nepal), Katy.
Front: Ling and Ting Ting (China), Me, Leisha, Veronika (Ukraine), Aaron, and Kizuna (Japan). Joan is behind the camera.

ESL at MSU

Here are pictures with me and my students. There were 20 in my class and I think between the three pictures we have all but one classmate. We've got representatives from Ethiopia, Morocco, France, Germany, Muldova, Kirgistan, China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Berma, Korea,and Japan.

Holidazzle Parade in Downtown Minneapolis

On Saturday we went to Minneapolis for an exchange student event that included the Holidazzle parade.

Adoption Day!

12/12 is adoption day! We celebrated by getting ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and then the girls wore their china dresses. They still fit!













In the background, you can see the advent calendars that Mona's mom sent.