Kaleb and I slept until noon. I can’t think of a better way to start the year. And when we got out from under our blankets, we saw that the world outside our window was covered in a white blanket of its own, as more snow was falling fiercely from the sky. Oh how I love a good snow day.
We didn’t have much on the agenda today, which was good. We just all sat around and read for a while and had a genuine Norwegian “slapp av” day (relaxed). Kaleb wasn’t awake long before the desire to be with Tobias kicked in. Tobias called just as we were finishing up breakfast so they were together the rest of the day. Kaleb strapped on his cross-country skis and headed over to Tobias’ house to play Nintendo, Guitar Hero and Wii fitness. Kory and I spent the alone time figuring out the partnership and financial details of buying The Sinking Houses.
This is the first year in a long time we haven’t had our annual “business meeting” on the 1st day of the year. Normally, we get a hotel room and leave Kaleb with friends and we go talk about our plans for the year; what home improvement projects we want to focus on, what vacations we want to take, how we will pay for it all. It’s always a good idea to be on the same page when it comes to the big ticket items in life and we have always enjoyed the time we take to work out the business details in our relationship. I bring my planner and we check on dates, figure out the hows and whens and at least start the year off agreeing about something because Lord knows we spend enough time the rest of the year disagreeing about other things (but then, that’s what makes our relationship so “interesting”.) But this year is already pretty well scripted out so we don’t have as much to talk about. We just sat over a cup of coffee and talked about this new scenario with buying the houses, and how it all might play out. We aren’t quite sure yet of all the details but Kory is very excited to be part of the picture. The bottom line for me is always how it will pencil out and right now the biggest thrill I’m getting is that we will be able to write off the cost of our future trips to Norway from our American income tax return – woo hoo.
Tobias came home with Kaleb so after dinner we all watched a movie together and Kory popped kettle corn (popcorn with sugar). I probably should have gone for a walk today or something, but since I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions to increase my physical activity or any such nonsense, I was just happy to sit on my butt and organize some files on my computer. Kory and I did get out for about an hour as we went over to wish the tantes a Happy New Year. Tante Kari said Ruth wasn’t getting out of bed today because she’s made herself sick just worrying about her latest test results, which she’ll get back next week. She finds out then just how quickly her cancer is spreading. We know it’s in her lungs now but she’s worried it has spread throughout her whole body. I’m sure, if she finds out it’s not spreading very quickly, she’ll be back to her perky self again. So, we didn’t go see Ruth. Instead we visited with Tante Kari and showed her pictures and video clips from the dog sled trip. She was quite happy for us and so glad we are having such a good time here in Norway (so are we). Her granddaughter Caroline was there visiting too. She is home from Oslo for the holidays and it’s always nice when we can see her. She came and lived with us for six weeks the summer after Kaleb was born and took care of him while Kory and I worked on the house, as it was far from completed back then. She’d always dreamed of going to America so we were happy to give her that opportunity (we even drove her to Disneyland.) Now I think, Tobias will be our next long term visitor from Norway as he talks about coming to visit us once we go back. He might just have to move in with us for good, as Kaleb will be going through serious withdrawls once we leave. I can’t even begin to think about it.
Tobias and Kaleb broke apart our Gingerbread house today they made a few weeks ago. I guess the breaking up and eating of the houses is a big deal in Norway. Last night Kaleb and Benjamin broke apart their houses (Kaleb helped make them when he spent the night a while ago.) We’ve always had the hardest time getting the houses we make at home to even stay together and by Christmas, they are barely standing. But here in Norway they use a “secret” ingredient - egg white - mixed in with the powdered sugar and it’s so effective as glue that Kaleb really hurt his hand when he karate chopped the house and it didn’t come apart. It was so comical to watch these “Norwegian built” houses stand FIRM and not break up. There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere but it’s now after midnight and I can’t think of it.
We didn’t have much on the agenda today, which was good. We just all sat around and read for a while and had a genuine Norwegian “slapp av” day (relaxed). Kaleb wasn’t awake long before the desire to be with Tobias kicked in. Tobias called just as we were finishing up breakfast so they were together the rest of the day. Kaleb strapped on his cross-country skis and headed over to Tobias’ house to play Nintendo, Guitar Hero and Wii fitness. Kory and I spent the alone time figuring out the partnership and financial details of buying The Sinking Houses.
This is the first year in a long time we haven’t had our annual “business meeting” on the 1st day of the year. Normally, we get a hotel room and leave Kaleb with friends and we go talk about our plans for the year; what home improvement projects we want to focus on, what vacations we want to take, how we will pay for it all. It’s always a good idea to be on the same page when it comes to the big ticket items in life and we have always enjoyed the time we take to work out the business details in our relationship. I bring my planner and we check on dates, figure out the hows and whens and at least start the year off agreeing about something because Lord knows we spend enough time the rest of the year disagreeing about other things (but then, that’s what makes our relationship so “interesting”.) But this year is already pretty well scripted out so we don’t have as much to talk about. We just sat over a cup of coffee and talked about this new scenario with buying the houses, and how it all might play out. We aren’t quite sure yet of all the details but Kory is very excited to be part of the picture. The bottom line for me is always how it will pencil out and right now the biggest thrill I’m getting is that we will be able to write off the cost of our future trips to Norway from our American income tax return – woo hoo.
Tobias came home with Kaleb so after dinner we all watched a movie together and Kory popped kettle corn (popcorn with sugar). I probably should have gone for a walk today or something, but since I didn’t make any new year’s resolutions to increase my physical activity or any such nonsense, I was just happy to sit on my butt and organize some files on my computer. Kory and I did get out for about an hour as we went over to wish the tantes a Happy New Year. Tante Kari said Ruth wasn’t getting out of bed today because she’s made herself sick just worrying about her latest test results, which she’ll get back next week. She finds out then just how quickly her cancer is spreading. We know it’s in her lungs now but she’s worried it has spread throughout her whole body. I’m sure, if she finds out it’s not spreading very quickly, she’ll be back to her perky self again. So, we didn’t go see Ruth. Instead we visited with Tante Kari and showed her pictures and video clips from the dog sled trip. She was quite happy for us and so glad we are having such a good time here in Norway (so are we). Her granddaughter Caroline was there visiting too. She is home from Oslo for the holidays and it’s always nice when we can see her. She came and lived with us for six weeks the summer after Kaleb was born and took care of him while Kory and I worked on the house, as it was far from completed back then. She’d always dreamed of going to America so we were happy to give her that opportunity (we even drove her to Disneyland.) Now I think, Tobias will be our next long term visitor from Norway as he talks about coming to visit us once we go back. He might just have to move in with us for good, as Kaleb will be going through serious withdrawls once we leave. I can’t even begin to think about it.
Tobias and Kaleb broke apart our Gingerbread house today they made a few weeks ago. I guess the breaking up and eating of the houses is a big deal in Norway. Last night Kaleb and Benjamin broke apart their houses (Kaleb helped make them when he spent the night a while ago.) We’ve always had the hardest time getting the houses we make at home to even stay together and by Christmas, they are barely standing. But here in Norway they use a “secret” ingredient - egg white - mixed in with the powdered sugar and it’s so effective as glue that Kaleb really hurt his hand when he karate chopped the house and it didn’t come apart. It was so comical to watch these “Norwegian built” houses stand FIRM and not break up. There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere but it’s now after midnight and I can’t think of it.
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