A Jolly Time

Christmas was an international affair this year. Linnea has a Swedish friend, Mikaela Ronström, in a drawing class. This was her first semester away from Stockholm and she had no place to go for Christmas. So, like the spider to the fly, we invited her into our Swedish-Norwegian-American web.
Marianne, my sister, also came to visit from Whittier, Calif. So did Sharon, who is from Taiwan. When my cousin Alan showed up Sunday night with his Russian wife, I think we had a quorum for passing sanctions against North Korea.
The photo above shows Nils, Anders and Mikaela with Santa. As near as I can tell, Kirsti has some secret deal with this guy. Every Christmas Eve, he simply walks in the door unannounced, shaking his bells.
Personally, I find old guys who "see you when you're sleeping," and who "know when you're awake" to be creepy, especially when they just walk in like that. But the kids like him.