A mother of four, photographer, nature lover. Someone trying to make sense of it all, through photos and stories. 

I try to be free in all senses of the word, so I made the leap and now work with what I love doing; taking pictures, storing this life in moments, both for myself and for clients. My heart is in photographing birth and motherhood, but I take on just about any photography job. 
(See my birth photos at www.birth.no and the rest of my work portfolio at www.mariavatne.no.)

I live on a farm in Norway with my man Nik and my children Ronja, Freja, Falk and Ulv, plus a bunch of animals. We grow our own food as far as the seasons allow it, we don't go to kindergarten, the three youngest ones will be homeschooled.

We govern our own lives, we strive for independence, we want to be in this life wild and free and full of love.

Christmas so far, part I.

Love + vegetables

Aaah.

I've poured myself a big glass of wine and escaped upstairs to look through and edit photos from our Christmas so far. My kiddos are sleeping in the next room, I've put some sweet music on, and between the songs (of Ray LaMontagne, right now), I can hear my husband and his father talking downstairs. The stress is over, now comes the good part of Christmas.

I love many things about this holiday. I love slowly preparing for it through December. I love baking gingerbread cookies with the girls while playing a Christmas album for the first time (not so much the fourth, fifth and sixth), I love Christmas morning with the decorated tree and the stockings and watching a film snuggled up, munching marzipan and chocolate. I love the excitement of fjøsnissen (click on the word) coming to visit (he always comes on the evening of the 23rd), and oh how I love the food, the lunches and my mums turnip stew.

And then there are some things I wish we could skip, and which we thankfully scale down ever year: the shopping, the gluttony, the presents, the craze, the chaos of material things we swap and pile up. We're working on it, and I think slowly we will find a way of celebrating Christmas without falling into this trap. Because to me, the fact that my favorite part of it is after it's all settled down, says it all.

Anyway. I share with you some of the photos from our holiday so far in this and the next few posts:

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Christmas so far, part II.

From all of us, to all of you: