Merry 2nd Day of Christmas

A few weeks ago, cousin Odd came over for dinner. He told us that Turid wanted to invite us over to their house for dinner on Christmas Day, and Turid wanted to come to our house for dinner the day after – and she wanted turkey. So that’s how it was today. I made a turkey, and Odd and Turid and Hege came over to eat it. I also invited my pal Vestina, from school, and her boyfriend Minde (both are from Lithuania – see photo). We all had a great time and a lot of laughs and now Kory is cleaning up the mess. Minde is a wanna-be professional photographer, and he brought all his photo equipment along so he could take photos. He said he needs more practice but he is already very good and he got some great shots – especially of Odd. It was fun to pose for the camera, even though we weren’t dressed for such a thing. It felt like the meal was going to end up in a magazine article or something, as we were sitting around drinking wine, then coffee, talking, laughing and trying to look “natural.” What fun. I can’t wait to get copies of those photos.

Everything in Norway is closed on the 2nd day of Christmas – it’s considered a holiday right along with Christmas Day. It works well to have so many days of Christmas because families have loved ones in more than one household, and this way, they can bounce back and forth eating and visiting with no pressure to go back to work. Family and food is what Christmas is all about here. So we were happy to host tonight’s event and the food even tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. But it was way more American than Norwegian (although I did make mashed rutabagas – a Norsk favorite this time of year.)

We spent all morning packing food and winter wear for our big trip tomorrow. We need to leave early to catch the ferry and get to our final destination before it gets too dark. It will be at least a seven hour drive and we are dealing with just a few hours of daylight now so we need to use the twilight hours as well. Norwegian roads are hard enough to drive on when it’s daylight, but given darkness and slush or ice, they are just downright suicidal. So our focus was torn today between getting dinner on the table and getting everything ready for this insane trip we are taking so Kaleb can experience a dog sled ride. At least there are no storms forecast for this weekend so all the roads will be open and we should have sunny days and minus ten degrees for a high once we get there. At night we’ll have minus 16 degrees celcius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) and I just pray the reindeer hides we will be sleeping under in the tent, will keep us plenty warm. (And I hope somewhere in that town I can get internet access so I can post my blog!)

I realize now we didn’t even get out of the house once today, as we were so busy. It was a beautiful day too and we watched a parade of families taking leisurely walks down our street, some with dogs, some not. A friend from church stopped by about 9:30 tonight as he was out walking his dog (“lufte hunden” as they say – which literally translates means, “airing out the dog.”) He is also Kaleb’s religion teacher at school and one of his afterschool program leaders. He’s getting ready to move to Australia in a few weeks to go to Hillsong Bible School so he wanted to stop by and take a picture of us to take with him. It’s so funny here in Norway that people drop in or call up until about 11pm, then after that it’s considered too late. Back home I would never call anyone after 9pm, thinking THAT was too late – but they are on a different time schedule here. I think it could come from the fact that no one has a very long commute to work, and no one starts work before 7am so everyone is pretty much on the same schedule.

Kaleb spent the day with Tobias and Sabina – bouncing back and forth between all the houses. Tobias’ parents stopped by when they were out for a walk around the neighborhood and we asked if Tobias could stay for dinner. He discovered at Thanksgiving that he really likes turkey and it’s not a common food served here. His mother said she was going to have to start giving us his “barnetryg” because he eats here so often. (That’s the “child support” money the government pays for every child to help with expenses in raising them.) I thought that was pretty funny. But we love having him here – he’s such a good influence on Kaleb as he is very calm and tolerant and gently corrects Kaleb when he’s being obnoxious. How those two are such good friends is beyond me – they are nothing alike and they don’t really have many common interests, but somehow it works - and for that – I’m thankful. (I guess when I think about it - they are a little like Kory and I, but I won't say which one of us is the obnoxious one.)