We are off....Merry Christmas!

Above you can see our baggage at 4am today, and that's only two thirds of what's going.

Daniel was hoping to take scuba gear and some board games along.

We might as well.....

So you can see that getting us ready to go anywhere is like mobilizing an army.

I woke up Tuesday morning from a dream of something that looked and felt like Alexander the Great with his 35,000 men crossing the Hellespont, complete with lots of grumbling (in my dream) about having to face an army of 4,000 elephants.

I think in reality, Alexander's adversarial army of elephants was way beyond the Hellespont, wherever the Hydapses River runs.

For a quick dream interpretation, the Hellespont probably represents Pierson Airport, and the army of 4,000 elephants is what it might be like going through Heathrow with six children. Looks like Oslo gets to be Babylon.

Anyhoo, we're off to pick up my niece Virginia at Terminal One, drop my man and boys off at Terminal Three, a little later it's Terminal Three and then into the air for us five girls. And after a tiny bit of fun in London , we'll all meet up again at Vigdis and Hans Olav's house Saturday morning.

Then there's lots of sledding and maybe skiing in the dark, bread and cheese for breakfast and lunch, cold touristic adventures in Oslo, aquavit with every dinner, a very happy Jon, and what is guaranteed to be a wonderful two weeks. We're so glad in particular to have this time with Jon's dad, as he has fought lung cancer this year, and we weren't sure what Christmas would hold for him.

Again, there's a whole lot to be thankful for.

Books for the trip are as follows: I'm still reading Idols for Destruction, taking A House for Mr. Biswas, and The Godly Man's Picture.

The Amazing Mandi at 200 Books would have taken a dozen books for this trip, and I bow to her superior reading abilities. Three is all I can do. I do have to visit with all these fun people, too.

My prayer is that none of these passports go missing this time.........

Have a wonderful Christmas, and Happy New Year! See you in 2009.