Happy Birthday Times Two

The reasons to celebrate just don’t stop. With a large family all living so close by, there is never a week without cake. Last week it was Hege’s baptism, this week it was birthdays times two. Today was both Tante Kari’s 81st birthday, as well as her cousin Oddrun’s (pronounced Ode-run) 75th birthday. Unfortunately, because of Tante Kari’s broken hip, she wasn’t feeling much like celebrating so there wasn’t really a party for her. We stopped in for a visit and to bring her a gift this afternoon however, but it was tough to see her in so much pain. She gets a hip replacement on Wednesday.

Since all the sisters live next to each other, we can’t very well go visit one aunt without stopping in to see the others, so we also had a visit with Tante Aslaug and with Tante Ruth. Ruth went on and on about having the awning over the deck and how nice it is to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air. I planted some pansies in her flower pots so she was proud to show me how much they’ve grown in the last few weeks. She couldn’t have been more pleased, so it was good for us to hear how well she is doing. They use the word “thrives” here a lot (trives). We are always asked, “Trives du her i Norge?” (Thrive you here in Norway?) Everyone always wants us to thrive, and today we found out how well the plants on the deck are thriving as well as how Aunt Ruth is thriving with the awning. Good to hear.

Kory and I were thriving well this morning without Kaleb in the house. We were actually able to have a very long uninterrupted talk because Kaleb had spent the night with a friend. We were so engrossed in the conversation, we sort of missed church. Agape didn’t have a service today because of the three day weekend and Filadelfia just had Confirmation (no regular service). I wanted to attend a Confirmation, but the conversation we were having was more important. We talked about many things but mostly about when we need to head back to Washington. One of our upcoming vacancies in our apartment building in Seattle is from our current on-site manager, so we have to figure out Plan B, since he’ll be moving out soon. Within the next week we will be buying our tickets to come home – possibly in July rather than September. We figure we can always come back and do our European road trip next Spring, but things at home are piling up and it stops being fun here if we have too many uncertainties there. We promised Kaleb a trip to Denmark to go to Legoland so we will probably take three or four weeks anyway and travel around a little before we head back, but it won’t be all we had initially planned. Life happens.

Tonight we were invited over to Kory’s mom’s cousin’s house to celebrate her 75th birthday together with all her family. Oddrun is from the Solevaag clan that grew up on the original family farm where Kory’s mom was born. Kory’s mom’s uncle inherited the Solevaag farm and raised all five of his kids there, Oddrun being one of them. All the siblings (except one) live right on the same street as that farm and some of their children and grandchildren also live just a stone’s throw away, so it’s not too hard to rally the troops and call them all together to celebrate. That is one tight knit family. (See photo of the five Solevaag siblings and us. Oddrun is to the left of Kaleb, then there’s Kitty, Olaf, Arnfinn and Terje.) All their spouses were there, most of their children and about half of their grandchildren were all together in one house – at least 35 of us, eating dinner, drinking coffee and enjoying the 11 cakes made for the occasion. Birthdays are no small matter and we so enjoyed being part of that celebration.

Kaleb was pretty peeved with me as we picked him up early from his sleep-over so he could come with us to the party. He wanted to bring his Nintendo DS game to play, figuring he’d be bored to death in the presence of so many old people, but we told him other kids would be there so he couldn’t bring his DS. Turns out every single kid – all six of them there – brought their Nintendos! Kaleb got tears in his eyes and wanted us to go back home to get his, but by that time our car was already blocked in and we couldn’t leave. He managed to entertain himself by watching the others play and when one got tired, he was able to borrow theirs. It was the funniest sight, all these little boys sitting side by side on the couch with their faces planted right in front of a little computer screen – playing “together” – as the technology allows the machines to interact if they are near each other. I’m not sure what it’s doing for his social skills, but his small motor skills sure are improving with the work-out his fingers get. And perhaps this type of interaction is more indicative of his generation anyway, but I don’t think it goes as well with coffee and cake.