January in Stavanger

SNOW -- it is still on the ground.  And it is getting old.  Really, it is the same snow that fell before Christmas.  There is ice on the sidewalks, making walking semi-dangerous.  And, for me anyway, running is not happening.  I have fallen just walking.  I wish it would melt or snow or again.

Rory has taken quite awhile to readjust to Norwegian time.  After a week she was going to bed almost on time and then we had a Norwegian lesson at our house (when she was supposed to be in bed) and she would not go to sleep. After that it took another week to get her back to her normal bedtime.  Unfortunately there are still nights when she wakes up in the middle of the night.  Ugh.  These colds that we have all caught do not help.  I think we are all on the upswing now though.  
 

Back to Stavanger

We are back in Stavanger after a fabulous Christmas trip to Georgia.  We had a great time visiting family and friends.  And it was nice just to be back in the States.

After two and a half weeks, it does feel good to be back on our own home again.  Rory always seems glad to see her room and her toys.  We were greeted by SNOW covering the ground and COLD.  

We had a fairly uneventful trip back.  Bobby Bowden was on our flight out of Tallahassee.  He wore sunglasses the whole time and was on his way to California.  All three flights were delayed a little, but not enough to affect our next flights and we ended up arriving in Stavanger about an hour late.

We have a jet-lagged two-year old.  She woke up in the middle of the night last night, hungry, right on time for supper in Georgia.  And slept until 10:40 this morning.  Yikes.  No nap, lots of good food, and plenty of activity today, to maybe get back on Norwegian time.  Good thing we found a snowsuit on sale when we were in Georgia.

Thanksgiving dinner in Norway

If I do say so myself, Thanksgiving dinner at our house went really well and (almost) everything was quite tasty.

We ended up with 16 people at our house Thursday for dinner.  We lost three to swine flu on Wednesday.  I had my list of everything that needed to be done and when to do it and things came together nicely.  Monday I made the cranberry sauce.  Tuesday I chopped onions and celery and grated cheese.  Wednesday I put together the red macaroni and the sweet potatoes.  Thursday morning while Rory was at school I put the dressing together and got the turkey started in the oven.  My 16-pound turkey barely fit in our tiny Norwegian oven.  One of the guests that we lost on Wednesday was not actually sick herself and had already offered to bring green beans and corn casserole, so she brought it over anyway early Thursday afternoon.

Our guests started arriving at 5:30.  At first Rory was very shy, but she warmed up to everyone.  She'd been looking forward to it all week.  The food was all ready as planned, except for the sweet potatoes which ended up taking just a bit longer.  Our guests were Norwegian, British, Scottish, Irish and Canadian and many had never had a Thanksgiving dinner before so we explained all the food to them.  We served turkey, dressing, rice, gravy, red macaroni, green beans, corn casserole, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.  For dessert Stepler made pecan and pumpkin pies.  

I wasn't totally pleased with the dressing, but everyone else liked it.  They also enjoyed the red macaroni and a few even requested the recipe!  The pies were also a hit with everyone.

We set up our patio furniture in the living room and expanded our dining table to seat eight so that everyone had a spot at a table.  We also put Rory's table in the living room and Stepler was the lucky one who got to sit with her.  She was too busy talking to everyone to really eat much.  She did sit in my lap to eat a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert.

And since Thanksgiving Rory has had lots of leftovers, especially red macaroni!


  

Pecans found!

We're preparing to host Thanksgiving in our home this year.  We invited Stepler's group at work and they've all accepted.  So we're having 19 for Thanksgiving dinner (that does include Rory and a six-month old).

With the usual stresses of Thanksgiving dinner preparation come doing it in a country that does not celebrate the holiday.  So trips to four different grocery stores have been made to find all necessary ingredients.  Found pecans for the pies today and now there's just one more trip to one grocery to pick up the turkey and fresh food.  We do not have 19 plates etc, but I bought some plates rather cheaply at the Freetex (Salvation Army), am borrowing other needed items, and will be using paper plates for dessert. But I'm also wondering about the size of our apartment, where everyone will sit, the size of our oven, the size of the refrigerator, and on and on.

Many of our guests have never had Thanksgiving dinner before.  It will be fun introducing them to my family's traditional Thanksgiving meal.  And I can't wait to eat it myself.  I just need the gods of Thanksgiving to smile on me for the next week.

Tuscany, London

We have such fabulous opportunities for travel living here in Norway.  Rory is an incredibly lucky girl and I hope that she'll remember some bits of it.

Right now if you ask her what she did in in Italy she'll say, eat pasta.  If asked what she did in London she'll say, [double] decker bus.  Hopefully the pictures we've taken will help her to remember.

We're just back from a quick weekend trip to London.  They speak English there!  All the signs are in English!  They have Starbucks and the Gap!  We rode a train, took a cool London taxi, saw Christmas displays in the windows of the big department stores, took a double decker tour bus (rode on the top of course!), tried to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but got to see and hear the bands, ate Indian food, saw the Christmas lights, walked through Hyde Park, saw the Princess Diana Memorial, ate at Hard Rock Cafe, visited the National Gallery, and walked along the Thames.  Rory was a wonderful little traveler and even slept well in the pack and play at the hotel.

In early October we went to the Tuscany region of Italy.  We flew into Florence, rented a car, and spent six nights near the town of San Gimignano.  We stayed in an apartment that was part of a renovated farmhouse on a working vineyard.  They had a pool, laundry facilities, and we could walk to San Gimignano.  San Gimignano was a great town because it was small and not too crowded, but there were plenty of things for us to do and see, and plenty of restaurant options.  We ate well while in Italy -- pizza, gelato,  pasta, and cappuccinos.

We got settled in on Saturday and did a little grocery shopping; our apartment had a kitchen.  Sunday we explored the town of San Gimignano.  Monday we took a winery tour in Chianti.  We visited Pisa on Tuesday.  Rory was too young to climb the tower so Stepler stayed with her while I climbed to the top.  Wednesday was spent a lot of time driving around the town of Siena looking for a place to park.  Thursday we took it easy, swimming, and wandering around San Gimignano a bit more.  Friday we headed back to Florence where we turned in our rental car and spent the rest of the day seeing the sights of Florence.  Florence was crowded and dirty.  I don't think Rory liked it because we made her ride in her stroller all the time.  We finally let her out to ride a carousel and I think that made up for the day in the stroller.  Saturday morning before flying back home we walked to a park and let Rory play for awhile at a playground.

Rory is always excited to go on an airplane.  Maybe it's the gum.  Maybe it's the new pack of stickers in her backpack.  She gets worried about her stroller when we check it at the gate, even though we usually have to coerce her to ride in it.  She's very happy to get her stroller back when the flight is over.  She's also very happy to be back at home when our trips end.  

One more trip planned before flying home to Georgia for Christmas.  We're going to Munich the first weekend in December for the Christmas Markets.

    

Pumpkins

Still slacking.  Know I should write about Rory's birthday or our trip to Italy, but that's too daunting, so I'll start not slacking by writing about things a little more mundane.

This weekend we went to a pumpkin patch.  Rory loved it!  It was cold, but we wandered through the field to pick out the right pumpkins.  We got an orange one, a green one and a couple of multi-colored ones.  As we were leaving the farmer gave Rory a small white one that was just her size.  When we got home we put our five pumpkins together on the floor and Rory is calling it her pumpkin patch.

Sunday evening we carved one of the pumpkins (a green one!).  Rory also enjoyed that.  She especially liked eating the pumpkin.  I decided to attempt to make pumpkin bread from the jack o' lantern remains and Rory thought that was great that she'd get to eat more of the pumpkin.  She went to bed saying eat the jack o' lantern.  I wasn't expecting much since it really wasn't the right type of pumpkin for baking, but the bread turned out okay and we all ate it for breakfast this morning.

Fall forward.  We did this weekend.  It gets dark so very early now.  A little concerned about the dark winter.  Hoping that Rory will adjust to the new time and start sleeping a little later in the mornings.  Right now she's napping.  She fell asleep in the car and let me put her down.  I'm marking the day in my calendar as she's let me do that maybe three other times.  From the parking garage to the elevator, up seven stories, shoes off, coat off, and she still didn't wake up.

Another new recipe tonight.  A variation on Savory Vegetable Bread Pudding (Southern Living, September 2009).  I'm looking forward to it.  Also a Norwegian lesson tonight.  Looking forward to that less.

Highlights

I am a blogging slacker.  You already knew that though since it has been a month since I last posted.  I will try to do better.

Highlights since I last posted: