T minus six days, as the countdown is on to the big Harry Potter birthday party we are having for Kaleb here next Saturday. Today we started setting up for it. In the Harry Potter books, all the students go to Hogwarts School and they are sorted into four different “houses” and they compete in games during the year to win points for their house. The party is going to be kind of like that, and we even have four real houses to use since our neighboring houses are all empty and Kory has the keys! So we set up one house today to be the grand ballroom where the 16 kids will be eating lunch, another house will be the game room, another will be a craft and activity house and yet another will be Diagon Alley where the kids can go shopping for their prizes based on the points they win in the games. Our house will be used for sorting the kids when they first get here and for opening the gifts toward the end. We have things pretty well worked out now but there are still a few details to do this coming week. It’s a birthday “American Style” so it should be interesting to see how these Norwegian kids handle it. I guess most birthday parties here are fairly routine and follow in the same traditions and customs, so here we go again, shaking things up a bit. Kaleb has been looking forward to this party for over a year as he thought his 9th birthday party would be in Norway last year, but the wait is worth it, since we have the ideal setting now for it take place. I’m so thankful we live where we do as there is NO WAY we could get 16 kids in our house and do anything but stand them shoulder to shoulder. Once again, God provides for all our needs.
I asked the pastor from Agape Church (who is from England) what he thought of the whole Harry Potter thing, as I know many Christians in America get pretty uptight about it and I didn’t want to have a themed party like that here if anyone would take offense or if it was going to upset any Christians that get invited. He said there are no negative connotations to the book here in Norway as it’s just fiction, no different from “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.” He said he heard an interview once with J.K. Rowling (who is a Christian) talking about how she intentionally worked in the basic gospel message and a lot of scripture into the books and how the story is all about the battle that rages between good and evil (God and Satan). So he said it was no problem to throw such a party (thank goodness). He also mentioned that a friend of his grew up in a house where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were often dinner guests, as his friend’s father was close friends with the two of them. What a life that must have been.
So today Kory ran around getting tables and chairs from cousins, and Kaleb and I got the boxes of supplies out of the attic and moved things to the different houses where they belong. Nothing too thrilling about the day, but tonight we were invited to a dinner party over at cousin Odd’s ex-wife’s house, so that was nice. Kory met her years ago when he came to Norway when he was in his 20s before she was married to Odd. We run in to her every now and then so she invited us over to meet some of her friends. (Kaleb stayed home with Tobias and they watched movies together.) I don’t know her at all, but I was thankful I didn’t have to cook dinner tonight, so it was a real treat to go out. Plus I like seeing people’s houses and to observe what the customs are for different occasions. I guess one custom is that when you go to someone’s house for dinner, you get very dressed up. We were completely under dressed tonight as everyone else was looking mighty fine. Oh well! Our sloppy American lifestyle came shining through. And the other things that’s a bit different is that when someone enters a room for the first time, everyone stands up to greet them. If you already know them, you just shake hands and say “Takk for sist” which literally means “thanks for the last” but the full meaning of it is “thanks for the last time I saw you… I remember it so well and have such good memories of it.” And if you don’t know the person, you shake hands and say your name and a standard greeting – i.e. “Mickey, så hyggleig,” (which literally means “so comfortably nice” – “to meet you” is implied and not always said.) Then that scenario gets repeated with every person they don’t know, so that the person who just walked in repeats saying their name to everyone there. I think it’s a bit strange on one hand because wouldn’t it just be assumed their name was heard the first time by all standing there? But on the other hand, it’s easier to remember their name if you hear it over and over again, so there is some logic in that custom.
There’s really nothing like having dinner and dessert in a Norwegian’s home. There is a lot of emphasis on the beautiful table setting and everyone has nice china, silverware, linens, and centerpieces. The coffee table is also “set” for dessert as everyone moves into the living room and pulls up chairs around the coffee table for coffee and dessert, with fancy china dishes and spoons and candles burning. It’s the kind of ambiance that I’m not sure was ever part of American culture, at least not the crowd I’ve hung with, but then, I was raised in a trailer court so it’s hard to compare anything to that! My ex-husband used to say, “You can take the girl out of the trailer court, but you can’t take the trailer court out of the girl.” Maybe that’s why we were under dressed tonight? I guess I’m still comfortable being white trash.
I asked the pastor from Agape Church (who is from England) what he thought of the whole Harry Potter thing, as I know many Christians in America get pretty uptight about it and I didn’t want to have a themed party like that here if anyone would take offense or if it was going to upset any Christians that get invited. He said there are no negative connotations to the book here in Norway as it’s just fiction, no different from “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.” He said he heard an interview once with J.K. Rowling (who is a Christian) talking about how she intentionally worked in the basic gospel message and a lot of scripture into the books and how the story is all about the battle that rages between good and evil (God and Satan). So he said it was no problem to throw such a party (thank goodness). He also mentioned that a friend of his grew up in a house where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were often dinner guests, as his friend’s father was close friends with the two of them. What a life that must have been.
So today Kory ran around getting tables and chairs from cousins, and Kaleb and I got the boxes of supplies out of the attic and moved things to the different houses where they belong. Nothing too thrilling about the day, but tonight we were invited to a dinner party over at cousin Odd’s ex-wife’s house, so that was nice. Kory met her years ago when he came to Norway when he was in his 20s before she was married to Odd. We run in to her every now and then so she invited us over to meet some of her friends. (Kaleb stayed home with Tobias and they watched movies together.) I don’t know her at all, but I was thankful I didn’t have to cook dinner tonight, so it was a real treat to go out. Plus I like seeing people’s houses and to observe what the customs are for different occasions. I guess one custom is that when you go to someone’s house for dinner, you get very dressed up. We were completely under dressed tonight as everyone else was looking mighty fine. Oh well! Our sloppy American lifestyle came shining through. And the other things that’s a bit different is that when someone enters a room for the first time, everyone stands up to greet them. If you already know them, you just shake hands and say “Takk for sist” which literally means “thanks for the last” but the full meaning of it is “thanks for the last time I saw you… I remember it so well and have such good memories of it.” And if you don’t know the person, you shake hands and say your name and a standard greeting – i.e. “Mickey, så hyggleig,” (which literally means “so comfortably nice” – “to meet you” is implied and not always said.) Then that scenario gets repeated with every person they don’t know, so that the person who just walked in repeats saying their name to everyone there. I think it’s a bit strange on one hand because wouldn’t it just be assumed their name was heard the first time by all standing there? But on the other hand, it’s easier to remember their name if you hear it over and over again, so there is some logic in that custom.
There’s really nothing like having dinner and dessert in a Norwegian’s home. There is a lot of emphasis on the beautiful table setting and everyone has nice china, silverware, linens, and centerpieces. The coffee table is also “set” for dessert as everyone moves into the living room and pulls up chairs around the coffee table for coffee and dessert, with fancy china dishes and spoons and candles burning. It’s the kind of ambiance that I’m not sure was ever part of American culture, at least not the crowd I’ve hung with, but then, I was raised in a trailer court so it’s hard to compare anything to that! My ex-husband used to say, “You can take the girl out of the trailer court, but you can’t take the trailer court out of the girl.” Maybe that’s why we were under dressed tonight? I guess I’m still comfortable being white trash.
