Family Holiday Recap :)

         Alina and I traveled to Aurebekk to stay with my Norwegian family on Dec 22, and left Jan 2. Though it seems like a long time, it absolutely flew by. We had such a wonderful time making holiday memories we will never forget. While we stayed in a little apartment to ourselves, we ate our meals with Anne Tone and her family, and spent most of our days hanging out with them. 

        One day, we went for a hike nearby. We'd gone for walks in the forest near Aurebekk, but due to home being so close, one kid or another always wanted to go back. This time, we drove to a hiking destination. Lea led the way, setting the pace and walking around like she owned the forest. Alina kept up with her, while I stuck with Sara. The hike took us up to where there was a nice view of the area, and we ate our lunches. On the way down, Sara was convinced that Lea was chasing her, so we ran most of the way and got to the car first. Lea and Alina appeared shortly after, wondering why we'd been acting so crazy! The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Ice Age with the kids, and just relaxing. 

        Another day, Gunlaug invited us over for lunch with a few of her other kids and their families. We ate a delicious meal of elg (moose), and when she brought out desserts, helped ourselves to riskrem and krumkake. About an hour later, after we'd run around with the kids for a bit playing hide and seek, it was teatime. Or giant dessert time. A huge spread of desserts was laid out, so of course we had to try some of everything. After tea, everyone else left to put their kids to bed, and Alina and I were able to talk to Gunlaug. She is so cool, always knitting and sewing--she showed us a Bunad that she stitched herself--and writing books. She claims she "only does what [she] thinks is fun." Sounds like the life. 

        The dessert situation really deserves its own paragraph. It's Christmas, it's New Years, we're celebrating, eat dessert! That was essentially the motto of the week. Or rather, "It's not what you eat between Christmas and New Years, but what you eat between New Years and Christmas that counts." Every night there was an assortment of delicious goodies on the table: chocolates, candies, ice cream, homemade cookies, and riskrem. The riskrem was especially dangerous, and Alina and I became known for our love of both that and Kransekake. Another thing was the Gome--a special Christmas cheese that Gunlaug made. I ate it every morning on my bread, and went through two full jars myself while we were there. I was even given a jar to go! 

        We had a few fun day-trips during our stay. The first was to a pool, with a few families. Odd Magnar drove, and has become famous in the family for driving right into a branch hanging over the road, despite telling us moments before that "No, these Norwegian roads aren't scary at all, nobody ever hits anything". We had a nice time chilling in the sauna, and playing ball with some of the kids in the pool. In many ways, it feels like the pandemic doesn't exist here, but Alina and I are always sure to be extra careful. 

        Another trip we took was to an ice skating rink for Sara's birthday on Wednesday. I played hockey for two years, but I haven't skated since the rinks were shut down for Covid in the spring. It took three pairs of skates, but I finally tried one that went perfectly over the ice. I showed off while Alina tottered around, and I spent time helping the kids learn to skate. Lea had never skated before, but she was a natural. By the end, we were practicing going backwards! It was so much fun, and reminded me of how much I love skating. When we went home, we ate chocolate cake (more dessert!!) and called it an early night after a long day of fun. 

        New Year's Eve was also a great time. Anne Tone and Andreas both brought their families to Odd Magnar's house, where Alina and I distracted the kids with Snapchat filters and games before sitting down to an incredible Turkey dinner. I stuffed myself full of mashed potatoes and gravy, but made sure to save room for the PECAN PIE that Anne Tone had made for Thanksgiving, and then saved until I'd be there for Christmas. I was so excited, and it was absolutely delicious! On Thanksgiving, we hadn't been able to find pecans anywhere, and had made a walnut pie instead. Anne Tone said that she couldn't find them either, but that Gunlaug had some in her freezer. The pie was so good that Alina and I had it for breakfast the next day. At midnight, we lit off fireworks and sparklers. It was so much fun! 

        We also did a few Kahoot quizzes (that you play together by each selecting answers on your phone, which show up on a leaderboard with the questions) with the kids. It's tradition of some sort for the family to do Christmas quizzes, and they even had two 2020 Julequiz books. Every night, we would get together, in person or through zoom, and quiz. Sometimes Kahoots, but mostly from the book. (Quiz nights were when we ate the most candy, sitting at the table for hours). It also became our study time, as all of the questions were in Norwegian, and for the two of us it was a quiz within a quiz. Even so, it was so much fun, and we stuck around every night so that we could quiz. Hopefully around Easter, if we're not there, they'll send us the zoom link! 

        The night before our last full day at Aurebekk there was a tiny snow, barely covering the ground. That was all we needed to have an intense snowball fight! We--four families and us--threw snowballs at each other until there was no more snow to throw. Then we went sledding. The kids had sleds which Alina and I used, but some of the dads had those orange fishing pants, and threw themselves down the hill using their pants and a sled. 

        Alina and I both had an incredible time at Aurebekk, making memories and building connections here that will last a lifetime. Gunlaug proposed that our whole class could visit Aurebekk someday, check out the mill, make lefse, and maybe even spend a night in nature. Leaving was hard, and I'm almost sad to be going back to school, but when I think of the fun that awaits, I know I'm just leaving one adventure for another!

    Some people have mentioned in the past that certain videos don't load, and I've discovered that videos exported from Snapchat don't work well here. I've compiled a video on imovie of all the fun and crazy videos that we took--the editing is quite rough, as I only spent about 12 minutes doing this on my phone, but I hope you enjoy! Here is the link.