God Bless America

On Saturday, Jamie invited Alan and I to a thanksgiving dinner at her house. It was a 'no kids' event so we organised a babysitter and went. I was very curious about the whole thing as I've never been to a thanksgiving dinner before (may have something to do with the fact I'm not american and neither is Alan!). Anyhoo, I was quite looking forward to the whole thing.

Apart from the historical part, thanksgiving nowadays is just an excuse to have a massive dinner. So we had turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping (I kid you not!), pumpkin bread, waldorf salad and lots of obligatory red wine! Then we all went downstairs for coffee and dessert which was either pumpkin pie or apple pie. I must admit, the pumpkin pie sucked (sorry Jamie) but the apple pie was seriously delicious!

In all it was a very good evening and I'm very glad I experieced it.

On Sunday, I took the kids to a craft workshop at the school where they made lots of Christmas decorations, etc. Both kids had a ball, making mess with glue, pipe cleaners and icing!

After the craft workshop, I took the kids home then went out to the airport to meet Michelle, Jørgen, Mathias and Sanne on their return from 4 weeks in Seattle. Ziela and Erlend went too as Michelle had warned us about the amount of luggage they were bringing back so we needed as many cars as possible.

Went to IKEA today with Ziela, Jamie and Michelle. It was great to have the gang back together again. Did a bit of shopping for Xmas then headed to Lagunen with Ziela and Zara. Then we met Jamie and Michelle later for lunch before school. The Norwegians celebrate 'advent' which is the 4th weekend before Xmas and they put an illuminated star and welcome light in their window. So, naturally I had to join in. I won't do the tree, etc until next week but for the moment it's nice to have some festive lights in the kitchen.

Winter has arrived!

dad at house.JPG
Originally uploaded by Groovy Biscuits.

Well winter has descended upon us. After countless days of relentless rain, the wind changed and it turned to snow. The temperature has dropped to around -4 degrees and it's freeeeezing

It's quite good though, Scandinavia is beautiful in the winter - very picturesque. The kids are in their element, playing out in the snow and having fun. Luckily we bought them a snowsuit each just last week. All the Christmas decorations are in the shops now and it's really starting to feel festive! It was my mum and dad's last night with us last night so we all watched the Muppet Christmas Carol with the fire lit and the lights off. It was so Christmassy!

Anyway back to the realities of the cold weather - freezing house, iced up car, icy roads, frozen pipes, gritters ruining the paintwork on the car and having to wear seriously uncool clothing to the pub!

How long is it til the spring?

heather in snow.JPG
Originally uploaded by Groovy Biscuits.

ulriksdal.JPG
Originally uploaded by Groovy Biscuits.

Our visitors have gone...again!

mum and dad.JPG
Originally uploaded by Groovy Biscuits.

Well my mum and dad left today after an excellent stay with us in Bergen. Unfortunately the weather has been really poo for them and totally eratic too. We had torrential rain for the first week to the point where we had flooding and a landslide where someone died. We had 200 ml of rain by noon on one day!

So it goes without saying that we didn't do much on those days. We managed a trip to IKEA and Lagunen a couple of times (shopping mall). On Sunday we had quite a nice day so we all took the Floibanen funicular up Mount Fløyen. It had great disabled access so my dad managed with no problems. We had lunch at the top then let the kids play in the park while we browsed the gift shop.

The dry weather didn't last and the rain soon returned only to be followed by SNOW!!!

So off my parents went this afternoon on their long trip home to the UK. The ferry left Bergen at 4pm and will arrive in Newcastle at 7pm tomorrow night. The sailing should be ok as the weather is very calm but I'll find out tomorrow night.

So we've got a brief pit stop tonight before Julie arrives tomorrow for the weekend. Planning a night out so will no doubt post some drunken pictures after that.

mum dad and kids.JPG
Originally uploaded by Groovy Biscuits.

Meet the parents

Just a quick post to say that my mum and dad arrived safely last night after their 36 hour sailing from Newcastle to Bergen. They seemed to enjoy the crossing and were lucky to have calm seas. I'll probably not be posting for a while as we'll be busy catching up so check back soon...

Boring week

This week has been pretty boring in all. Didn't do much at the beginning of the week other than collect Heather from school with Hamish. On Wednesday, Ziela and I wento to IKEA with Hamish and Zara. I had to get some blinds for the study and they also do a yummy breakfast for 15Kr (about £1.20). Then Heather had ballet in the evening.

Didn't do much on Thursday. No school on Friday as it was a staff planning day so me and the kids just pottered about the house for the day. It was very wet and miserable so didn't feel like going out anyway. On Friday night I went over to Ziela's for coffee and chocolates. We just vegged watching MTV all night. She drank wine but I was driving so stuck to the coffee.

Went food shopping today with Ziela and Zara as Ziela had no car. We went to ICA Maxi at Åsane then had a look at the shops in the Åsane Senter after. Drove Ziela and Zara home then headed home to make dinner. Quite mundane really.

Michelle called on Saturday evening from Seattle which was great as we've been missing her heaps here in Bergen. She's there for another couple of weeks so it was good to hear from her. Heather is really missing Michelle's son Mathias as they are best friends at school. She's been really miserable since he left and from what Michelle said, Mathias has been the same. Awwwww young love!

My mum and dad are coming tomorrow night for 2 weeks so looking forward to that. They're already on the ferry as I type this. Let's just hope the North Sea is kind tonight!