Oh what a great day it was! I almost got breakfast in bed, but Kory forgot to turn on the crock pot so the oatmeal wasn’t cooked, but he made a mean cup of coffee and that was just fine for me. At school, my partner, Vestina, gave me a beautiful candle as a birthday gift and the entire class sang a real Norwegian birthday song (and I thought there wasn’t such a thing!). I had to remain seated as the entire class got up, sang, clapped along with the melody, hopped up and down, turned around and danced a jig - as that is all part of the song. (I guess that’s why they usually just sing the American version of the Happy Birthday song - no hand motions required.) It was all very special and I got many good wishes from my classmates, text messages on my phone, a call from a cousin in Oslo who remembered today was my birthday as well as our first call from America since we’ve been here -- my friend Barb Schummer (a good Swedish woman, no less), called to wish me the best – and it was! During our lunch break at school Vestina walked me over to her gym next door and let me sit on the massage chair there for a good 20 minutes and I had an incredible massage to help these old tired bones. And if that wasn’t enough, Kaleb just happened to have early dismissal today so after my school was done, Kory and Kaleb came to my classroom with a dozen red roses in hand and whisked me away to a secret location where they promised me “the best lunch in town,” and they weren’t kidding! Kory had gone through tremendous effort to make a scrumptious lunch – a Norwegian shrimp sandwich on fresh baked rolls – and fresh fruit with vanilla sauce. He also brought along some bakery made chocolate cream cake and coffee. The two of them set up a table and chairs in a very isolated spot by the sea (just out of the reach of the breeze we had today) and there the three of us sat, with soft jazz music playing in the background and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore nearby. It really couldn’t have been any more perfect. The pictures today are of Kory and Kaleb setting up, and then the dance afterwards I had with Kaleb (Kory and I danced too but Kaleb didn’t take a picture of it.) It was all very special as they waited on me hand and foot and wanted to be sure my every wish was their command. Kaleb did keep telling me however, that this was not the norm and the only reason they went through all this trouble was because I was OVER 50 now. I hate to break the news to him that every birthday from here on out, I’ll be over 50, but if this is the only year I get such treatment, I’m sure I can live with the memories the rest of my life (hopefully my brain will hold out for that.)
Then this evening I got DOZENS of e-mails from friends in America wishing me happy birthday - all of the cousins and aunts (except Aunt Ruth) came over for cake and coffee! Our little house held 20 people for the entire evening (I had plenty of fresh American coffee available so the party just kept on going…). It was fantastic! I guess that’s the norm here – Turid told me yesterday that you invite folks over for a little coffee and cake on your birthday, so today we bought several cakes and brewed up several pots of coffee and started making phone calls. Most of them didn’t know about it until an hour before it began – and they just dropped everything and came over. How cool is that? And I got gifts – completely unexpected – and most of them were beautiful flowering orchids and exotic plants – so now our house is loaded with flowers and it’s as if I died and went to heaven – literally.
As they say in Norwegian – “Dagen var helt fantastisk!” – THE DAY WAS TOTALLY FANTASTIC! Turning 51 never felt so fine. :)
Then this evening I got DOZENS of e-mails from friends in America wishing me happy birthday - all of the cousins and aunts (except Aunt Ruth) came over for cake and coffee! Our little house held 20 people for the entire evening (I had plenty of fresh American coffee available so the party just kept on going…). It was fantastic! I guess that’s the norm here – Turid told me yesterday that you invite folks over for a little coffee and cake on your birthday, so today we bought several cakes and brewed up several pots of coffee and started making phone calls. Most of them didn’t know about it until an hour before it began – and they just dropped everything and came over. How cool is that? And I got gifts – completely unexpected – and most of them were beautiful flowering orchids and exotic plants – so now our house is loaded with flowers and it’s as if I died and went to heaven – literally.
As they say in Norwegian – “Dagen var helt fantastisk!” – THE DAY WAS TOTALLY FANTASTIC! Turning 51 never felt so fine. :)
