It's Snowing!

It’s been a mix of snow and rain all day but now, at 10pm, we have full on snow that’s sticking to the ground. I imagine we’ll wake to quite the winter wonderland scene around here. The weather in Aalesund is so exciting, you never know what you’re going to get. What amazes me most is we haven’t had to turn on the heat all day, even though it’s been bitter cold outside. This place is well insulated, as we haven’t even needed to put on a sweater to be comfortable inside.




We cleaned up the place a bit this morning before we headed off to Agape Church, which was a good thing. We were given a warm welcome back at church, but two teenagers there were being Confirmed right after the service, so they didn’t have the usual coffee and cake hour. We were hoping to visit a little with some of our friends so we invited them over to our place instead (because it was fairly presentable). It was our first time officially entertaining in our new home, so it was pretty exciting. I pulled off a genuine Norsk “coffee” event almost without a hitch.



I made waffles (a common food eaten in Norway when someone comes a calling). Tobias (our old neighbor kid) and his parents came by to see our place before our friends from church came by.  They will be visiting us this summer in Mount Vernon so we had to talk a little about the plans we had made already and what they want to do when they come for a visit.



Before Tobias arrived, Tante Kari came up to say hello and ask why we didn’t go to Philadelphia Church today (we split our time between the two churches when we lived here). She was looking for us and missed us sitting with her. She was more than impressed with how cozy the house was (I even had candles burning on the coffee table and all my 17th of May decorations out.) If ever I need to feel good about myself, I can just spend a little time with Tante Kari. She is one of the most uplifting, positive people I’ve ever been around. When we told her about the idea I had to partition off Kaleb’s room with a stair step down partial wall, she was sure I missed my calling as an architect or interior decorator. I hope she drops by daily – she just lives downstairs.



When our friend’s from church came for coffee (see photo), they brought their two boys with them, so they sat in the kitchen with Kaleb and Tobias playing a card nearly the entire time we had coffee and ate waffles with our fingers, and talked in the living room. It felt so real, so settled, so Norsk. I loved every minute of it, until that is, Kaleb decided he was bored, and frustrated that he didn’t have a playdate today with his ex-school chums, and became ever so disrespectful and nasty. I’m sure it was his lack of sleep the last two nights more than anything, but he was downright embarrassing in front of company – acting up in such a way. He will now suffer the consequences and have to stay home tomorrow from playing with his pals. I almost dread having him home all day when he’s in such a sour mood, but I’m hoping he wakes up normal. I know he was disappointed in many things today, including not being able to go to the movies. We live right next to an indoor swimming pool and movie theatre (under the same roof), so all the boys left to go see if any good movies were playing. Both the swimming hall and movie theatre were closed. The fact everything but church is closed on Sunday really takes some getting used to. So does Kaleb’s mood when things don’t work out as he had hoped.