Tag Archives: holidays

Godt nytt år! Happy New Year!

January 1, 2015 Dove Familie Leave a comment

Sending greetings from lovely (and COLD) Budapest, where we are already three hours into 2015…

Hope everyone has a safe and happy time celebrating New Years Eve. We’ve enjoyed a fun but busy day, exploring more of the city with friends.

Here’s to a new year filled with lots of opportunities to improve areas that need improvement, get rid of things that are holding you back, focus on things that matter beyond just today, and find ways to show love and help others.

celebrate

God Jul fra Sandefjord / Merry Christmas from Sandefjord!

December 24, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

Merry Christmas

from the Dove family!

Luke 2:8-20

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Christmas cheer

Christmas Cheer (part 18): quick and easy craft

December 23, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

We recently attended a Christmas craft evening at one of the churches in our city. It was a lot of fun, making things nr singing songs together, and just generally getting into the Christmas spirit.

My favorite project of the night is one you could probably do today, without even making a trip to the store.

All you need is:

One empty and cleaned glass jar (we used jars from jam and from pickles)

One egg white

Granulated sugar (we tried regular and coarse sugar, but you could probably used other types like raw)

Random decorative items (ribbon, stickers, pine twigs)

Make sure the jar is clean and dry. Crack the egg into a clean glass. Discard the yolk. Coat the inside of your jar with the egg white, then pour it back into the glass (you can use it for multiple jars).

Now pour some sugar in the jar. Roll it around to coat it well, then dump the excess.

Decorate the outside however you’d like, and add a tea light or other small candle.

A quick and easy craft, and when you’re tired of it, just wash it out!

We also made these cute tea light covers, using napkins and laminating sheets.

Christmas cheer

Christmas Cheer (part 16): Early Christmas

December 22, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

While my dad and his wife were here, we had an early Christmas celebration together.So Saturday evening, we began with a nice dinner (who wouldn’t want to eat salmon while in Norway?!), and then exchanged gifts. It was a fun evening, and a nice way to spend our last night before they headed back to the states.

cross-cultural living

Change of plans: the latest in the surgery saga

December 3, 2014 Dove Familie 3 Comments

It has been quite a day.

The short version is that my surgery has been postponed…

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 this morning. I had followed all of the instructions to the letter, including no food after minow and then the nurse stopped by for some small thing, like sending me for a blood draw or giving me medicine.

By noon I had the pre-op meds in my system, was settled into my lovely hospital garb, and had begun napping in my bed. Soon a lady came by to start my IV. That was a disaster all its own. She struggled to start it, and reluctantly said she thought it should be okay. But as soon as she was gone, the nurse tried to begin the IV fluids, and realized it was no good.

After a few more delays, it was now past 2:00. And by the time the nurse came into let me know the surgery wouldn’t be happening, we had been there almost 7 hours.

Side note: the combination of medication and limited language skills can result in very slow processing of important information. Like the nurse saying ‘the operation is NOT happening today.” Yeah, I missed the word not. But once the words finally sunk in, the waterworks turned on rather quickly.

So all of this to say, no surgery for now. The two procedures before mine took much longer than anticipated. Of course I was not happy about the news. But I did appreciate that the surgeon came by to explain what happened and apologize.

Because of the upcoming holidays, looks like I’ll be waiting until the new year to get this behind me. Just another little surprise in this crazy chapter, but hopefully it won’t last too much longer!

Christmas cheer

Christmas Cheer (part 2): Oslo

December 3, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

Windows. That will likely be what I post most during this series.

And as I post more, you will probably see why. The window displays here are so cool. Some are beautiful, others whimsical. While they are of course primarily for the purpose of sales, some manage to create a bit more magic and distraction than others.

Here are a couple of windows I saw in Oslo on Saturday.

Not sure about other countries, but the red/white/gray combo is quite popular here right now.

celebrate, cross-cultural living

Don’t Judge

November 22, 2014 Dove Familie 2 Comments

We decorated for Christmas this weekend.

The city is starting to look a bit more like Christmas with each passing day. So we thought we’d get in the spirit, too!

I know a lot of people will say it’s too early. Maybe it is. But if you read my last post, you know how dark and depressing it can be this time of year. And expat life during the holidays can be a little rough if you’re not careful.

So this is one of the ways we combat the blues! It sure did put smiles on everyone’s faces. And for that, I will not apologize!

Day-to-Day

Where does the time go?

November 13, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

I could make excuses for my lack of blogging, but I’ll just sayI’m back!

Well, for now at least.

Life has been hectic. Mostly good stuff, but hectic all the same. Between lots of language study, meetings, and daily routine stuff, I simply let my writing slip. But I really do hope to get back to it now. We’ll see how it goes!

Things are going well here. Fall is here. We are getting a lot of rain. But we really shouldn’t complain after the last few months of beautiful weather. It hasn’t been very cold yet. We had one chilly morning with a little snow, but it only lasted an hour or two and was replaced by more rain.

William finished another football season. We were very proud of him for his effort. And apparently his progress impressed the coaches as well. He got one of the three awards given out at the end of each year: Best fremgang (best progress).

William with one of his coaches at their year-end party

Daniel is continuing with art lessons and is doing a great job! We attended an art show that his teacher was in, and really enjoyed seeing what she creates.

In fact, we liked her work so much that we bought several pieces. This one is now hanging in our kitchen. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

We’ve also had the opportunity to meet friends and colleagues for coffee, go to a couple of birthday parties, attend a costume party at the boys’ school, attend a musical, meet with friends for meals and other events, host a small Halloween party, and attend some seminars and conferences. Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Travel

Road Trip: getting there

August 19, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

While travel throughout Europe is generally quite easy, Norway isn’t exactly the easiest country to navigate from. Most trips require either a plane ride (so thankful for inexpensive local airlines!), or at the least a ferry to get you going.

Our recent road trip to Germany began with a ferry ride. We drove just south to Larvik, and took the ferry to Hirtschals in Denmark. It was an early morning for us, leaving the house just after 6:00. The ferry journey was almost 4 hours, but a sweet friend gave us free tickets that included reserved seats.

What’s even better is the seats were like business class seats on an airplane, comfy and with lots of space. Complete with personal screens for television and movies, free headphones, and complimentary self-serve snacks and drinks: it was a treat! Add to that some cool duty-free shops to explore, and those four hours went by rather quickly.

Made it to Germany!

The idea of getting to drive through a new country (first time in Denmark!) was exciting. The reality? Not so much. While the speed limit was a bit higher than Norway’s very conservative 100 or 110 kph, there was very little to see along the way.

Once into Germany, we still had quite a few hours ahead of us. Of course as I mentioned before (see post here), Zack enjoyed finally getting to drive on the autobahn. But still, a lot of driving will wear you out!

Our first stop was Dusseldorf, and we arrived at the hostel around 9:00 at night. We were exhausted and glad to have finally made it.

Day-to-Day, Norway

Summer: so far, so fun!

July 17, 2014 Dove Familie Leave a comment

While we haven’t done our big summer travel yet, we are enjoying summer holidays so far.

Life here really is quite different during the summer. The rhythm changes. People seem a bit more social and a bit less rushed. Our city’s normally quiet and distant veneer seems to fade in the summer sun, as many travel to the area to spend the summer in their seaside cabins.

With that comes a big population increase, but also a population shift. While we do have a lot of tourists, it seems the majority of the faces we see most often have also travelled away from home. This is especially true in July, the official holiday/vacation month. This means most regular events and activities are suspended during the summer, including the majority of church services. This was a big cultural difference for us!

So what have we been up to the past few weeks?We’ve hiked a lot, been to the beach a number of times, attended some cookouts, and strolled around the city. We’ve made some new friends, and worked on building upon existing relationships. We enjoyed a weekend visit from an American friend, spent a few days in Stockholm, visited Oslo, and grilled by the sea. We attended a couple of conferences. We’ve experienced some disappointments, as well as some much-needed encouragement. We’ve met folks for coffee, and shared meals as a way to slow down and grow closer. We’ve taken the time to rest a bit, to practice language in less formal settings, and to simply enjoy each other.

Still to come: a weekend trip to a cabin, and then a big road trip to Germany!

How is your summer going?