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| Hanging out on a viking ship (a replica of one that was found in our city) |
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| Charming home in a town we visited last week |
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| This shop had great baked items! |
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| What a scenic area! This place is about 40 minutes from where we live |
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| We attended our first Sandefjord Fotball game |
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| Zack hanging out in Oslo (Starbucks!) with good friends |
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| First day of school in February/ Last day of school in June |
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| Boat Procession on Midsummer Eve (June 23 – the longest day of the year here) |
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| Exploring a viking burial ground with friends |
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| The boys love trying new foods. Here, Daniel is enjoying caviar paste, mackerel in tomato sauce, and liver paste |
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| One of our new favorites: biffsnadder |
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| We love walking by the whaling monument in our city |
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| Saw our first Norwegian rainbow last week! |
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| People have to stay in shape for cross-country in the offseason! |
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| We rarely see squirrels here. They are brown, very small, and have pointy ears! |
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| Hanging with new friends! |
So we started with the dough. From there, you can make boller, skolebrod, kanelsnurrer, klippekrans, and more. S taught me three of the more common items.
A couple of things to help you along…
First up: skolebrød. From what I’ve read, it gets its name from the fact that it used to be packed in lunches for dessert, or sold at bake sales.
A delicious boller, filled with vanilla cream, baked, and then topped with a confectioner’s sugar and coconut glaze.
Wow.
Kanelsnurrer, or skillingsboller… or for our American friends, cinnamon rolls!
We made a LOT of these. This was a pic I snapped quickly as we were taking them up from the trays.
Finally, we made klippekrans, or kringle. The word klippe is Norwegian for cut, and comes from the fact that you use scissors to cut it before baking. Our variation included a thin layer of vanilla cream, and chocolate.
About nine months ago, the movers pulled into our driveway in Georgia. They boxed kitchen items and toys. They carefully wrapped beds and other furniture. And most of our personal belongings (what remained after several yard sales and countless trips to drop donations at thrift stores) were placed in some faraway storage facility, awaiting our arrival in Norway.
Nine months later, I sit in our home on another continent. Awaiting the arrival of another team of movers. This team will come today with all of those boxes and furniture. And after almost three months here, we will finally get to unpack and really settle.
I don’t know exactly what to expect today. I imagine there will be surprise as we see things that we’d forgotten were around anymore (many things were packed when we sold our house back in September 2011). There will be excitement as the boys unwrap beloved toys. Maybe some disbelief as we wonder why in the world we thought it necessary to pack some of the items for the move. And probably a little anxiety and frustration as we try to find a place for everything!
One thing is for sure: this weekend promises to be a busy one!
We sat at a table as we ate lunch today. The first time we’ve sat as a family at home around the table for a meal since we left Oslo in mid-February. We are thankful for a great deal we found on Norway’s version of Craigslist. We are now the proud owners of a lovely table and 6 chairs! Can’t wait to see who might end up around this table over time 🙂
And while we’re talking dining tables, I’ll share a bit of humor with you…
A dining table is called spisebord [SPEEH-seh-bord] in Norwegian. It is a combination of the words for eat (spise) and table (bord). You see, in Norwegian, when you describe something it becomes one word. So you put SPISE and BORD together: spisebord. Take a look at the funny picture one of our Norwegian friends posted on Facebook. It shows you how we can really mess up the language with just the incorrect use of a space. Dining table? Or eating a table? 😉
We (Zack & Jenn) have Wednesdays off from language class. So this morning once the boys were off to school, we studied for a while and did homework. Then we decided to take the bus to Tønsberg, a nearby town we’d visited once before. We leisurely walked around the mall, and even found a couple of items we’d been trying to find for a while. Then we grabbed two kebabs (similar to what some cultures call doner, donair, shwarma or gyro) and found a bench by the fjord. The sun was out and it was 7C – a beautiful day! We enjoyed an outdoor lunch & beautiful scenery (and the rare chance to eat slowly and quietly 🙂 ).
Unplanned dates are often the best dates!
