It is so good to be in Norway this time of year! It is lovely to sit here in the comfy, red sofa in my parents’ house (just to clarify: it is red all year round, we don’t have a “special” sofa we get out for Christmas, but it is nice that it is red this time of year). I am sipping a cup of PG Tips tea (we get the massive 500-teabag bags in the local shops run by immigrants, and they are very cheap!) and eating a julegeit (literal translation: “Christmas goat”. It’s a type of bread-roll shaped as a goat which is a little bit sweet) with our traditional brown cheese (it’s a slightly sweet cheese made from goat milk and it’s called “brown” cheese because it is brown in colour). We’ve started to put out our Christmas decorations, and now I am having a little break while I eat and write a little blog-update.
My brothers have headed up to some woods close by where they will pick and chop the Christmas tree (and I won’t get into the whole ethical debate surrounding the use of real trees and chopping them down etc. I like having a real tree.).
The last few weeks have been busy. I don’t know how December goes by so quickly when I distinctly remember it feeling like the longest month of the year when I was a child. Looking back over the last few weeks I think what strikes me the most is just thinking about all the lovely people I’ve met and got to know since arriving in Kansas City. Some I knew from the beginning of the year, but others I’ve just got to know in the last 2 months or so. And December was definitely what I would call a bonding month. It was so nice to have different Christmas get-togethers and people coming over for coffee and cake. I loved it!
Time flew and suddenly it was time to fly home! Packing was easy, I mean, how much do I need for 9 days at home? However, I somehow managed to pack 48 pounds worth of stuff in my suitcase (why is that? I always seem to pile stuff into it, when I was wondering starting off if I’d even need a suitcase that size). But 48 pounds works (especially since the weight limit on the plane is 50). And when I remove the weight of the Christmas presents, it leaves quite a lot of space for things I want to bring back to KC again.
My journey home was the best one yet! I hardly had any time at all at the airports! At Minneapolis I had some water from McDonald’s (free) and a pack of Doritos from a vending machine while I waited. At the airport in Amsterdam I actually had time for a cup of Earl Grey, but not much more then that. No delays and two out of three flights arriving early is pretty good! The day after I got home my good friend Elisabeth came to visit (I would say from Hawaii which is where she lives, but she is home for Christmas so that’s about 3 hours on the bus so not too far). We had a great time catching up, drinking lots of tea and coffee, and going shopping at IKEA (I love that shop!).
On Saturday evening I got together with some good friends of mine from school (we’ve known each other a long time) for the annual Christmas-cookie-baking evening (I think they’ve done it for 3 or 4 years now, but this was my first attendance). One of them is a vegan, and it was very exciting to bake vegan gingerbread cookies (vegan means nothing that comes from animals, including milk, cheese, eggs etc.). They actually turned out very nice and not different from “normal” ones. We baked them and decorated them with a light green icing and small silver sugar pearls and jelly sweets.
So, here I’m sat. Tomorrow it’s Christmas Eve, which is when we celebrate here in Norway. It’s exciting! I still have to clean some bits and bobs in the house, and wrap my Christmas presents, but everything is really relaxed. I might or might not write some more another day. We’ll see. At least I have a working camera to capture the Christmas moment here at home. Merry Christmas!
My brothers have headed up to some woods close by where they will pick and chop the Christmas tree (and I won’t get into the whole ethical debate surrounding the use of real trees and chopping them down etc. I like having a real tree.).
The last few weeks have been busy. I don’t know how December goes by so quickly when I distinctly remember it feeling like the longest month of the year when I was a child. Looking back over the last few weeks I think what strikes me the most is just thinking about all the lovely people I’ve met and got to know since arriving in Kansas City. Some I knew from the beginning of the year, but others I’ve just got to know in the last 2 months or so. And December was definitely what I would call a bonding month. It was so nice to have different Christmas get-togethers and people coming over for coffee and cake. I loved it!
Time flew and suddenly it was time to fly home! Packing was easy, I mean, how much do I need for 9 days at home? However, I somehow managed to pack 48 pounds worth of stuff in my suitcase (why is that? I always seem to pile stuff into it, when I was wondering starting off if I’d even need a suitcase that size). But 48 pounds works (especially since the weight limit on the plane is 50). And when I remove the weight of the Christmas presents, it leaves quite a lot of space for things I want to bring back to KC again.
My journey home was the best one yet! I hardly had any time at all at the airports! At Minneapolis I had some water from McDonald’s (free) and a pack of Doritos from a vending machine while I waited. At the airport in Amsterdam I actually had time for a cup of Earl Grey, but not much more then that. No delays and two out of three flights arriving early is pretty good! The day after I got home my good friend Elisabeth came to visit (I would say from Hawaii which is where she lives, but she is home for Christmas so that’s about 3 hours on the bus so not too far). We had a great time catching up, drinking lots of tea and coffee, and going shopping at IKEA (I love that shop!).
On Saturday evening I got together with some good friends of mine from school (we’ve known each other a long time) for the annual Christmas-cookie-baking evening (I think they’ve done it for 3 or 4 years now, but this was my first attendance). One of them is a vegan, and it was very exciting to bake vegan gingerbread cookies (vegan means nothing that comes from animals, including milk, cheese, eggs etc.). They actually turned out very nice and not different from “normal” ones. We baked them and decorated them with a light green icing and small silver sugar pearls and jelly sweets.
So, here I’m sat. Tomorrow it’s Christmas Eve, which is when we celebrate here in Norway. It’s exciting! I still have to clean some bits and bobs in the house, and wrap my Christmas presents, but everything is really relaxed. I might or might not write some more another day. We’ll see. At least I have a working camera to capture the Christmas moment here at home. Merry Christmas!