Since arriving home to Asker, we have laid very low for a few good reasons. First of all, several of us were not feeling 100%. I wouldn’t say that any of us were officially sick, but we were just not quite 100%. Secondly, it was very cold these past few days, hovering around -10 deg C for several days in a row. Although this isn’t supercrazycold, it is still cold enough that small children really shouldn’t be out in it for too long. And thirdly, our car is not big enough for all of us to fit into so other arrangements are necessary to really get anywhere beyond Asker. So even though the sun was shining for a few short hours each day (for the most part), we mainly hung around inside reading, coloring, watching videos, cooking and snoozing.
However, on this last day of the whole year we ventured out of the house. Everyone got bundled up and it took 2 shuttle runs to get us all (including Bentley) down to the beach at Vollen. Once there, Rhiannon tried to pet the ducks that hang out in the main cove. We walked out to our canoe launching spot and let Bentley chase (and swim) after a couple of very aggressive swans that were looking regal on the glassy and partially frozen fjord. He didn’t get hurt, thankfully, but that was just because he couldn’t swim all the way out to them because the water was too deep. Anyway, after Bentley had shook himself off, his fur and whiskers turned to icicles. Here is Bentley with the swans in the background.
It wasn’t too long before we headed back to the car and started the shuttle runs back to our cozy house for some late afternoon tea and cheesecake that our neighbor Beate had baked for us (see first photo on this post). We gave the kids dinner and put them to bed, then enjoyed a delicious feast that my Dad had prepared, followed by a quiet evening watching movies and sharing a special bottle of wine that we had saved (Chateau St. Jean, 2003 “Cinq Cepage”). It snowed just before midnight and we 4 adults stood in the window and watched all the fireworks with arms around each other, grateful for the holiday that was just coming to a close.
As always, the most special and enduring moments were not captured on camera. One of them was an ongoing lesson in the number “3”: Rhiannon likes to show the number “3” on her hand as being her thumb and first 2 fingers, and Grandpa Carl just couldn’t get it right! He kept showing 3 as being other combinations of fingers and thumbs, and Rhiannon had to keep helping him get it right. Then she would say “You GOT it! I helped you! Good job, Grandpa”, and it was so funny.
Grandma Debi was endlessly patient with both kids. She read books to Rhiannon over and over again, pointing out new details each time. She weaved in lessons about many other topics and Rhiannon just soaked it all up, listening closely to what Grandma was saying and then often repeating it later on. She loved holding Grandma’s hand and cuddling in her lap.
Tryfan associates Grandpa Carl with elephant noises, so whenever he saw Grandpa, Tryfan would make the elephant noise and raise his arm like a trunk. It is their own little gangsta sign! Tryfs loves being up high so he can watch people cook. Here he is with Grandpa.
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