Confirmation Day

Today was Tobias’ big Confirmation day (see photo above of him and his mom).  We were honored to be part of it.  We were up early and in our finest duds in order to conform to the standard attire expected on such a day as today.  We went to Agape Church for just the first half, then had to leave early to make it to the State Church to see Tobias get confirmed.  Agape showed a video of Kaleb being baptized in the Jordan River, so that was a nice surprise.  Pastor Mark talked on baptism too, but unfortunately, we had to leave before he gave the message.

We got the State Church (which is right next door to where we live), half an hour early and still had a hard time finding a place to sit.  That place was packed!  Kaleb’s nemesis at school, Morten, was sitting just a few rows in front of us with his grandparents and mother.  His older sister was being confirmed today, too.  We also ran into a few other people we know so it was a big social time, wrapped around many formalities.

Our guests from America chose to stay home this morning because they both were wiped out.  Stuart got a call early this morning that he had a little flood problem in his kitchen back home and Judi didn’t sleep more than two or three hours, so they just needed a day to relax at home.  It was good timing, since we had places to go and people to see.

After the Confirmation ceremony in the church we came home for a few minutes before heading over to Tobias’ house for dinner and cakes.  There were 24 of us for a sit down dinner, complete with place names at the table made from sand dollars they picked up off the Oregon Coast last year when they were with us for a visit.  The whole thing was very classy and formal and the food was yummy.  They had 13 cakes.  Every party in this part of Norway goes overboard with the cakes.  I’m still suffering, several hours later, because I had to try a little bit of nearly all of them.  Kory loosened his belt twice.

Normally, there should be many speeches and poems read to the confirmant on Confirmation Day, but Tobias wanted nothing to do with that.  So we all sat quietly and ate dinner and just watched him beam.  It’s kind of like a party that celebrates his entrance into manhood, and it comes with a lot of cash.  To date, he’s received almost eight thousand dollars (40,000 kroner).  This is no small celebration.  One set of his grandparents gave him a treasure chest full of 10 and 20 kroner coins ($2-$4), totaling over ten thousand kroner ($2,000).  He enjoyed the process of counting it, and he kept counting the paper money as it showed up in every envelope he opened. Neighbors were even knocking at the door during the party, just to drop off a card.  It’s not the norm to invite everyone you know to the party, usually just immediately family (with us being the exception), but pretty much everyone the kid knows will give him some cash or a gift of some kind.  We gave him a little cash and the photo book I made of his time with us in America last year.  Everyone took some time to look through it during the party.  And I embarrassed him by not honoring his wishes, as I stood up and read a poem I’d written for him on this big day.  He wasn’t too mad, it seemed.

We had gorgeous weather today, which was nice for taking photos and letting the kids run outside.  Kaleb was a particular pest because I wouldn’t let him bring his Nintendo along to play with in case he got bored.  Instead, he ran around shooting at people with rubber bands.  He’s currently on my “list.”  It’s a good thing we’ll be gone tomorrow so we can get a break from each other, otherwise he might end up with some severe consequences.  That kid knows how to push my buttons, and currently, they are all pushed.

Judi and Stuart both took sleeping pills tonight hoping to get their body clocks adjusted to local time.  It’s not an easy thing to do, but hopefully tomorrow they will be on the mend and ready for their adventures to start.  Our first stop will be the bank where Stuart has had an account for decades, set up by cousins of his dad.  Good thing it was on the schedule for tomorrow too, because Tuesday all the banks are going on strike.  He may fall in love with the beauty of this land, but sometimes the inner workings of it can get pretty ugly.