Merry Christmas, God Jul & Feliz Navidad :)

Ok, so it's been another two months between posts, but hey, it was three between the last two so I'm actually getting better ;)

At the moment we're celebrating Christmas (Jul) at my parents' house and as ususal there is a grand mix of Norwegian and English in both spoken word and customs kept. We hung our 'julestrømper'/Christmas stockings on the night before Christmas Eve (because in Norway we do of course exchange gifts on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day) and then we waited for Santa (aka 'nissen') to come fill them with sweets/'godteri', which he did since we had all been so good. :) On Christmas Eve we got dressed in our finest threads and went to church.

We then had dinner and after that... whaddyaknow, Santa showed up again! Because in Norway the man himself will come knocking on your door and invite himself into your living room to dole out the pressies :) The kids, my own three (Ben, Nic and Christi) plus my niece and nephew Linnea (3) and Marcus (9), out of which one and a half actually still believes in Santa (Ben (5) says he doesn't, but was extremely polite to Santa even so, just in case) were all very good. (Though Nic (9) who professes not to believe anymore hid behind the sofa...) They were all very handsomely rewarded indeed!!!

I don't quite know what to say about the language in general. As per ususal when we are visiting people we keep to Norwegian more than we do at home. There is still a good deal of English spoken here, especially as the children more often than not will instigate English conversations particularly when they have been away from school for a few days. I don't know whether they consciously miss speaking English or if it is in some way sub-conscious. It is normally Ben who is the quickest to ditch Norwegian, and he very rarely calls me 'mamma' anymore, but will rather go straight to 'mum' (perhaps as he knows that will get my attention quicker...). After him follows Nic, while Christi is pretty much on and off, but will talk at length to me in English, especially when we are on out own. I find myself very lucky in that all three of my kids are very willing to chat to me in English when none of them have been raised bilingual from birth. :-) I know there are people out there who struggle to get their children to reply in the non-native language, while mine seem to relish the fact that this is something we have in common.

I have also noticed that my nephew speaks a lot of English when he is around my kids, and he is really good at it too! What is even cooler is that my three year old niece speaks "English" when she's with us. She doesn't know many words but will make them up as she goes along, all in a flawless English accent. LOL I think she is quite influence by Ben, and have taken to calling her mother 'mum' too! She will probably be starting the same International School my kids attend in August 2012 and I'm very much looking forward to following her progress. Because there can be a squeeze to get in I've offered to tutor her a bit to improve her English before school starts in order to perhaps better her chanced of being admitted.

Now, as for the Spanish... Mine is getting along quite well but dragging the kids with me has been...well, a drag. I've not been very successful at all but because I'm still hoping that they will one day come around and actually want to become tri-lingual (to some degree) I won't make a giant fuss just yet. Instead I've decided to celebrate the small victories. Christi is still in Spanish Club at school. One lesson a week is surely better than none, and so what if she can only name a few colours and remember about three of the days of the week. Again, that is still better than nothing, right?! :) And Nic might not learn a lot of Spanish but he does remember a lot of what he has learnt. We were watching a show on Disney Channel the other day called Special Agent Oso and I asked Nic why he thought the agent was called Oso. Nic was sure it was cause he was a bear and in Spanish bear is 'oso'. That made me very happy. Small victory! Yay!

My own Spanish had flourished with the use of various iPhone apps, my flash cards in particular. I only wish I could find something that was as addicitve to the kids as those flash cards are to me. They've played a bit with the apps I have for kids on my phone but not enough to learn a great deal, and they never have to use it. I suppose the best bet is to go back to what we did during summer where breakfast was designated Spanish time. They all still know what 'que quieres' means and the difference between 'leche' and 'jugo'. As I am typing this I realise they remember because they had to actively understand it and use it and therefore that would definitely be the way proceed... It would be weird to start now because we're still at mum and dad's and it weird enough speaking English without me making us seem like complete nutters by mixing it up with Spanish as well :) They already find me very amusing with my Spanish apps and me listening to Spanish radio in the kitchen while cooking dinner. Jajaja :)(<- Spanish laughing cracks me up!LOL)