My First Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas Everybody!

For those of you who haven't met me, my name is Linden, I am 11 months old and I am pretty excited for my first Christmas.  Because of all my writing experience with my blog (www.LifeAccordingToLinden.blogspot.com), my mama and daddy put me in charge of writing our Christmas letter this year.

2011 started off on a high note when I got to meet the fantastic mama who had been carrying me around for so long.  Mama and daddy were over-joyed to meet me and were excited for all the year would bring.

Jake and Bella, my beagles, were very excited to meet me.  They weren't sure what to do with me at first, but we are quickly becoming best friends, they especially like when I share my food off the side of my high chair.  Turk, my cat, and I have always gotten along.  He loves when I pet him and give him loves.

We had a very busy summer and spent a lot of time in the car visiting my Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Tim in Alexandria, MN.  This summer I went for my first boat ride, enjoyed my first campfire, and learned the pure joy of splashing in the lake.  This next summer will bring even more adventures; I might even get to try my first S'more!  My favorite trip to the lake this summer was when Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Bob, and all my aunties came to the lake for Memorial Weekend!

I had a lot of firsts this year; my first smile, my first foods, my first words, and my first steps.  Mama and daddy are so proud of how much I have grown and how much I have changed.  Mama and daddy tell everybody how blessed they are to have such a happy and easy-going baby, I can't decide if I should throw them for a loop in year two!!

Mama is still working at Federated Insurance and daddy is still working at Truth Hardware.  They enjoy their jobs, but also look forward to getting to come home and see me after their day is done.  While mama and daddy are at work I get to spend my day at daycare.  Daycare is a lot of hard work!  I spend my day working on letters, numbers, shapes, colors and we even sneak in a lot of art projects too!  I have a lot of friends at daycare which makes it even more fun.

Beyond spending time with me, mama still enjoys baking, quilting, and spending time with friends.  Daddy spent a lot of time this summer golfing and looks forward to snowboarding and curling this winter.  My favorite hobbies include playing with babies, stacking things, telling stories and taking naps.  Mama and daddy took a couple of long weekends and even a trip to Las Vegas this year.  While they were gone I was lucky enough to get to spend time with my grandparents and aunties.

Even though we had a great time this past year, we also had a couple of sad moments.  My Great Grandma Dottie (Grandpa Tim's mom) passed away in December of 2010, I never got to meet her, but I know she was an amazing lady and is greatly missed.  Great Grandpa Glen (Grandma Carolyn's Dad) passed away in November of 2011.  I enjoyed getting to visit him over the summer, he loved seeing me and always looked forward to our visits.

I hope the past year has brought you joy.  May you have a very Merry Christmas, and may 2012 bring you love, adventure and many blessings.

With love,

Linden (mama and daddy send their love too!)

David, Amanda and Linden Aarsvold

Jake, Bella and Turk



My very first Christmas Eve

Today was a pretty eventful day, it was my first Christmas Eve!  I knew it had to be a pretty important day because when I woke up from my nap Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Bob, Auntie Heidi, Auntie Wendy, Auntie Missy and Cousin Tyler were all at my house.

After hanging out and eating a big lunch we went to church where we got to sing all of mama's favorite songs. I got to go up for the Children's Talk with my Cousin Tyler too!  After church we all went back to my place to eat dinner and open presents.

Daddy's family has a tradition of reading the greatest story of all time, the story of Jesus' birth, each year before opening presents and he and mama have decided to continue that tradition at our house.  It is pretty amazing that a little baby was born and because of Him all our sins are forgiven and we get to live in Heaven some day.  Mama thinks it is important to read the story before opening gifts to remind us all that we are celebrating Jesus' birth, not just getting presents.  Daddy let me help him read...

After the story was read I got to be the first to open a present.  I got a bunch of neat things, although I really liked the ribbons and paper the best...

After dinner mama and I set our cookies for Santa!  I overheard Jake, Bella and Turk discussing what kind of animals that Santa has.  Jake and Bella said he only had dogs, Turk was insistent that he had a bunch of cats.  To solve the issue we decided to leave cookies for Santa, plus some dog and cat treats to take back with him.  If he only takes dog treats then he must have a dog, if he only takes cat treats he must have a cat, I am guessing he is going to take both  :-)

Off to bed, mama told me Santa wouldn't come unless I am sleeping.

Have a Merry Christmas and if you haven't read the Christmas Story lately you should check it out, it is pretty amazing!
Linden

Team of 18,000

The Minnesota Wild are known as the Team of 18,000 and Saturday night, I got to be one of them!

If you remember WAAY back to February, my first hockey game was when I was only 1 month old!  I didn't know much about hockey at that time so I didn't really get to enjoy the game too much, but this time, it was great!

There was a big group of us there, mama and daddy (of course), Auntie Megan and Tommy, Auntie Heidi and Grandpa Bob, and a whole bunch of mama and daddy's friends.  I was really excited to get my picture taken with one of the Peanuts characters.  After the picture I made sure to study her play book really closely so I could follow the gave even better.

I'm not quite big enough to get my own jersey yet, but mama found me a cute Wild onesie, and I wore the sweatshirt my Cousin Tyler gave me when I was just a baby (it is still pretty big).  I had a lot of fun watching the game and playing with Auntie Heidi. 

Towards the middle of the game I got pretty tired and mama really wanted me to go to sleep, I was just too excited.  I loved all the noise, the fun lights, and most of all, I LOVED dancing to the music.  Over all it wasn't a very good game and we didn't win, but we did get to celebrate a goal, so that was exciting.

I can't wait for my next Hockey game!

Remember, only a few more days until Christmas, make sure you end up on the nice list!
Linden

Playdate!

Now that I am feeling better mama said that I can play with my friends again. 

I was going to go to the Children's Museum today with a friend, but she got sick yesterday and her mom didn't want to let her get me sick.  I was pretty bummed, I was very excited to play with my friend, and to go to the Children's Museum.

Mama had plans to go play with another one of my friends tonight, his mom had a Christmas party and it went past bedtime so he couldn't go.  I was pretty bummed that mama got to go play with my friend and I didn't, but mama came to the rescue!  She called and asked if we all could come over early to play for a little bit!  Check out his cute jammies!

My friend has the same table toy that I have so I already knew what to do!  They also have two dogs that wanted to join in the action, only their dogs are BIG dogs!  I learned that Labs not only are big dogs, but they also have big tongues.  Philly gave me a new hairdo.

We only got to play for a little bit because it was bedtime.  I still really enjoyed hanging out with my friend.

More adventures to come,
Linden 

Tummy Bug

I'm back. 

It has been a VERY long week.  I got my first tummy bug.

Mama picked me up early from daycare on Thursday and brought me to the pediatrician, she told mama all we could do was wait it out.  I am not a fan of tummy bugs, at all!  Even though my tummy felt icky I tried very hard to be in a good mood.  I really liked being home with mama and daddy and I tried to get in as much play time as possible.

Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Tim came down to visit me this past weekend, evidently I shared my tummy bug with Grandma, and daddy too.  I'm not sure why mama is always talking about sharing, I don't know why anybody would want me to share that?  I don't think I am going to try sharing for another couple of years.

Today was my first full day back at daycare, yesterday I went for a half day.  When I got back the other kids were so happy to see me, they came up and gave me hugs!  Gretchen missed me too.

The only good thing about having the tummy bug is that mama didn't make me eat any vegetables all weekend!  I got to eat lots of bananas, applesauce, toast and oatmeal, they are all on my list of favorite foods!

I don't have any pictures to share today...the tummy bug doesn't look very pretty.  But I can report that I am feeling much better.  I ate a very good dinner and stay up to play until my normal bedtime!

I am going to go to bed...Mama says the more sleep I get the better I will feel,
Linden

Christmas at Macy's

This Sunday mama and daddy decided to go on a mini road trip to see the Macy's Christmas display.  I was excited because I got to get all dressed up in my Christmas dress!!

The Christmas display was a lot of fun, it was all about the elves at the North Pole.  I got to see where they sleep, go to school, play and how they take care of the reindeer!  It was very neat.  I was pretty amazed at how many letter Santa gets each year!!  There was music and light and all sorts of fun things to look at.

After going through the display there was a big table and mama and I wrote my first letter to Santa.  I decided to scale down my list, I asked for a dolly!

Like I said, Santa get a lot of mail, look how big his mailbox it!!

I wasn't completely sure why I wrote a letter to Santa because the very next thing I got to do was meet him!!!  He was very nice, had a soft white beard and even said "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

I had a lot of fun.  Daddy and I are still trying to work out what kind of cookies to make for Santa, I really should have asked him what his favorite was...

Make sure you stay on the Nice List!
Linden

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

My first real snowfall, at least the first one I can remember!  I woke up this morning it and was beautiful!!

While daddy was out shoveling snow I convinced mama to let me go out and play in it.  Evidently there is a specific suit you have to wear when you go in the snow, lucky for me mama got one from a friend before I was born!  It was really hard to play inside with it on because it was so slippery, it was also very hot!  I wanted to get outside!

It wasn't what I was expecting, it was REALLY cold!!  I had a good time playing and watching it stick to my snowsuit.

After a little while mama made my go inside, evidently it isn't good to get too cold.  I can't wait until I am older and mama and daddy teach me to snowboard!

Stay tuned for next time, I got to meet a very special person today!
Linden

Christmas Baking: Part 2

I LOVE Christmas!  My house, more specifically, my closet, is FULL of cookies!!! 

Today was mama's big day of cookie baking, today makes yesterday look like child's play.  I didn't get pictures of everything, but here are some highlights...

She started out the morning making these fun treats, I don't know what to call them, but they are pretzels with a Rolo melted in it and then a pecan on top, mama says they are very yummy!

The Rolo treats are pretty easy and only need a couple minutes in the oven, she she made those between all the stirring needed to make yummy Carmel corn.  She says this stuff is equally delicious.

Mama had a friend come over before lunch and they made 7 dozen sugar cookies!!  In addition they made a batch of chocolate star cookies and a batch of Peanut Butter Cup cookies!  Mama also made three pans of fudge, one with nuts, one without nuts and one with mint chocolate, that one smells the best!

Mama decided to take a break when I got home from daycare so she could play with me and daddy, but after dinner she was back in the kitchen to make a Norwegian cookie that Grandma Nancy taught her, Krumkaka.  They look kind of like ice cream cones...

I don't know if anybody is keeping track, but here are the totals so far...

• Two Batches of Banana Bread
• Two Batches of Blueberry Bread
• Two Batches of Cranberry Bread
• One full bag of Almond Bark Dipped Pretzels
• Two packages of Almond Bark dipped Mint Oreos
• One Full Box of Chocolate Covered Ritz Crackers with Peanut Butter
• Two Batches of Krumkaka
• One Batch of Star Cookies
• One Batch of Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
• Two Batches of Carmel Corn
• Three Batches of Fudge
• Two Bags of Rolo treats
• Two Batches of Sugar Cookies (for mama's friend)

Mama has one day of baking left...All she has left are a couple of batches of Rosettes (another Norwegian Christmas Cookie), and another package of Mint Oreos, just to be certain we don't run out!  Mama also told me we have a special cooking project to work on tomorrow!

I'm really hoping I turn 1 before Christmas...Mama said that I can't have any cookies until I am 1, I'm not really sure what I need to do to get there though...

Have a good night, I know I'll have sweet dreams!!
Linden

Christmas Baking: Part 1

December 1st means one thing...Bring on the Christmas Baking!!

Mama and Grandma Nancy have a tradition of baking cookies together, they have been doing it since mama was a little girl (that is a REALLY long time...)  Last year I got to take part in their baking day, kind of...

Mama wanted to get an early start on baking...and she told me I have been a great help.  I don't really understand how she thinks I am being so helpful, she only says that when she bakes when I am sleeping...

None the less, after I went to bed mama went into baking mode (shhh...mama doesn't know that I am up blogging...)

Notice the "Part 1" of the blog title...that's right, this is only the start of mama's baking.  She got some pictures of what she worked on tonight.  I can't wait until I am old enough for almond bark (mama's favorite!!)

Mama made all sorts of yummy breads...Blueberry, Cranberry and Banana Chocolate Chip!

She has a really fun pan that makes little mini loaves of bread, that way you can sample them all!

Chocolate covered Ritz Crackers with Peanut Butter...Chocolate, Salt, Peanut Butter...I'll take mama's word...DELICIOUS!

This is where things get good...Almond Bark Covered Pretzels!!

I saved the best for last...Almond Bark Covered Mint Oreos...Mama has a special ingredient, if you promise not to tell I'll share it with you...(It is Cool Mint Oreos, you can only find them during Christmas Time, stock up!!)

I'm excited to see what mama has in store for tomorrow!
Linden