New Year's Day

I love New Year’s Day. I love the feeling of waking up with a clean slate. This morning was no different, even though Tryfan woke up around 12:45am and then didn’t go back to sleep until sometime after 3am and then Rhodri’s stupid alarm clock kept going off from 7 -8am and nearly got thrown out the window. So I wasn’t in the most cheerful of moods when I got out of bed to send off my parents. Tears were shed and I was really sad to kiss them goodbye. And then to top it off, this particular morning was absolutely stunningly gorgeous…clear sky, cold, and a tiny crystalline sprinkling of snow on the ground (that had fallen from 11:30pm until about 10 minutes past midnight just to provide a magical foreground to the barrage of fireworks that filled the sky). Not the kind of day that one can legitimately lounge lazily on the couch or go back to bed after breakfast, although I did try.

But I couldn’t sleep so I got up and took Bentley on a walk up to one of my favorite viewpoints. From there, I could survey the entire area out to and across the fjord, up north to downtown Oslo and the mountains all around. The fjord was glassy with a lone passenger ferry slowly approaching the port of Oslo just as it does every morning about this time, and I thought about New Year’s Day in years past.

We have a tradition in my family which is that every New Year’s Day we go out to breakfast at 8am at the Brown Pelican (in Santa Barbara). This little restaurant is right on Hendry’s beach and it is nothing flashy, but it’s a lovely location. The “we” in family is used loosely and means whatever assortment of friends and relations happen to be around. Some years it is just 2 or 3 people, other years we have had around 20. After breakfast we always go for a walk on the beach and then finally go home around midday. It’s a great way to start the year and now it is burned into my psyche so I really have to get outside in the morning on New Year’s Day. So even if the rest of the day is a struggle (as this one turned out to be), at least we got off to a good start.

So long, farewell...

...auf weiderschen, goodbye... oh dear, I really do have Sound of Music in my veins these days!

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.

Austrian adventure part 3: the final days

Yes the final days...Dec 24-27...
Well, first of all Eric and Kristin arrived on the afternoon of Dec 24th and we had a grand reunion at the chalet. Then all of a sudden it was Christmas Eve, the kids were asleep, and we were all watching "The Godfather" in the lounge, grateful that we were finally altogether. We thought a lot about the rest of the Gans family in the Galapagos and the Lewis family in Wales, wondering what they were up to at that same moment. Here we all are....
Christmas morning brought a bit of excitement because Santa made a delivery in the night and there were a few presents under our modest tree for Rhiannon and Tryfan.
Tryfan was most excited to find a couple of Clementines just for him inside his stocking. He is crazy about them and doesn't like sharing them if at all possible.
Rhiannon had never encountered candy canes before (specially imported from California) but she soon discovered that she loved them as well as the chocolate that was in her stocking.
There was a little hill right in front of the chalet that was perfect for sledding down. Here is Rhiannon with her Uncle Eric.
A view from the mountain looking down on the village of Maria Alm. The church steeple is just visible in the photo below, and it is the highest in all of Austria. It is such a gorgeous village - the clouds socked us in for the first few days, but then once the skies cleared it was such an amazing sight.
Aside from skiing/ snowboarding on our final days here, we didn't do much except simply enjoy each other's company and the fine meals that Ashley prepared for us. We were very sad to see our week come to an end and say goodbye to Eric and Kristin, who were staying in Maria Alm for a few more days since they arrived late. The grandparents accompanied us back to Asker, and they are here now until New Years Day.

Austrian adventure part 2: Salzburg

So on Dec 23rd, we hired a driver to take us into Salzburg and surrounding area for the day. First we went to the Christmas Market in the center of Salzburg to get some goodies and walk around. Rhiannon was entranced by the beautiful angel that was handing out sweeties to little people, and she wasn't the only one because the boys in the family (not just Tryfan) thought she was pretty nice too.
It was colder than we expected at the market, so we had to bust out the extra layer of wool that was in our satchels. Rhiannon and Tryfan ran around like little monkeys.
After we were done with the market, we took a cable car up to the fortress called Festung Hohensalzburg which had amazing views of the city and surrounding mountains from the top. Here it is as we were driving away. Our driver pointed out that the red turret visible to the bottom right of the fortress was the location of the convent that Maria was from in the Sound of Music!
Anyway, we had lunch inside the fortress and Tryfan got to sit in a high chair throne that was really cool.
Our driver also took us past the house that was used in the Sound of Music as the back garden by the lake and to the separate location of the infamous gazebo where Liesl sang and danced with her suiter during a rainstorm. Of course we had to have a photo of me with my parents in front of it!
After our driving tour, we went to one of the two salt mines in the area (Salzburg means 'salt castle', referring to the fortress we visited and also to the area's abundance of white gold in the mountains nearby). The one we went to was near Hitler's Eagle Nest in Berchtesgaden. This mine tour turned out to be such a great activity! We all had to wear coveralls with reflective tape and ride on a train deep into the mountain at quite a fast speed. Here is a self-take of all 6 of us on the train (before we started moving).
Once we were inside the mine, we all had to go down a big slide in groups of 2-5 people in order to get lower down into the mine. So fun! We went fast! Then we did the standard tour thing - following our guide around to see different highlights of the mine - and then we got to go on another big slide, then on a boatride across a mirror lake and finally ride an elevator back up to the top level so we could get the train back outside. We all got little bottles of salt as souveniers to take home. I am not so fond of tours and stuff like this, but just when my feet were starting to feel heavy it was time to get on the train to zoom back out into the fresh air!

Austrian adventure part 1

Now that we are safely back home in Asker, I can write about our adventure to Austria for Christmas! First we met Grandma Debi and Grandpa Carl at the Oslo airport for our 10am flight on Dec 20th to Salzburg. Our gate was right next to the play area which featured an airplane that kids could climb into and on top of and then slide down the tail section back to the ground. A lady was going around handing out head scarves to all the kids, so Rhiannon put hers on right away and then asked a 'big kid' to please move out of the way so that she could pilot the plane.
We landed in Salzburg, got our luggage, and eagerly went out to the arrivals area to find our driver. We found him right away, but he was surprised to see that we had 2 small children and had not installed car seats. I was quite upset about this because I had been assured several times that there would be car seats for them. So anyway, eventually the driver was able to locate some seats and we were off to Maria Alm. Here is Grandma with the munchkins in the airport baggage claim.
It was snowing as we were driven the hour+ to Maria Alm, so we couldn't see the mountains around us. We got settled into our new home, Chalet Sonne, and then went for an exploratory ramble into town. Chalet Sonne is only ~200 meters from the center of Maria Alm village, so it was very easy for us to meander into town and explore. Here are the troops being pulled into town on a borrowed sled.
In front of Chalet Sonne. The three bedrooms are on the top floor, each with french doors leading to a common balcony. Below is the dining room and living room.
The next day we built a snow man even though it had started to rain :-(
On Dec 21st and 22nd we had a routine where we would all hang out together in the morning, then put Tryfan down for a nap and leave to go skiing for a few hours. Actually, Rhodri and I went snowboarding and my Dad went skiing while my Mom stayed at the chalet with the kids. We had planned on x-c skiing the whole time, but as it turned out, there was not enough snow down on the valley floor to be able to do this so we 'had' to take to the mountains. These were also the days that it was raining, so it wasn't the best conditions for going up and down mountains, but we did it anyway and at least it was snowing up there.
In the late afternoon everyday, we headed back to the chalet in time for afternoon tea, followed a couple of hours later by a 3-course dinner. It was so lovely to just be able to enjoy each other's company without worrying about cooking or cleaning the whole week! Our host was Ashley, and we had the privilege of being the first guests under his care. He was quite shy and hesitant at first, but he quickly warmed to us and vice versa.
The next day, Dec 23rd, we took the whole day to make an excursion into Salzburg and that will have to be a whole separate post because it was quite a day!
Then Dec 24th was the day that the skies cleared and Eric and Kristin arrived. We were finally altogether then until we left on Dec 27th to fly back to Norway.

Merry Christmas!

Well, I made it to a computer that has internet access just long enough to wish a very Merry Christmas to anyone out there reading this and also to say that we have had a wonderful time in Austria thus far!
I will update more about our trip later, but for now we just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and say that we are thinking about our family and friends scattered around the world :-)

Stars in the night

The snow has mostly been washed away by icky rain here and we have had some very dark days and nights. Quite sad. But not too sad, because almost every house has candles and/or lights and stars in the windows, and it is so lovely to walk around the neighborhood and admire these lights. This photo is of the type of star that I like the most -- it is made of metal and typically has 6 or 8 points. I have been looking around for one to invest in, but I have the feeling that they are quite old-fashioned and are not made anymore.

Anyway, the dark nights are coming to a hiatus for us because we are leaving in the morning for Austria!!! yay! We are meeting my parents at the Oslo airport, flying to Salzburg and then driving southwest for ~1 hour to the village of Maria Alm in the Hochkoenig mountain ski area. My brother Eric and his wife Kristin are meeting us there on Christmas Eve while the rest of my family are going to be whooping it up in the Galapagos Islands! We are not bringing computers with us to Austria, so this might be the last post for a week unless we go to an internet cafe or something. So in case this doesn't happen, Merry Christmas everybody!!

Fun with tinsel

Fun and games in the Lewis house...

I've created a monster

Yesterday was a quiet day at home. Most of us stayed in our jammies nearly the whole entire day! In the morning, the kids and I baked some pepperkaker (gingerbread). This was Tryfan's first experience being a baking participant, and oh boy - I have really created a monster now!
Here is a scene from the action. Tryfan has developed a technique of screeching loudly when he doesn't get his way. This morning saw him screeching because he wanted to play with all of the shape cutters and not let Rhiannon have any, then Rhiannon wanted to share the rolling pin and Tryfs wanted it all to himself, then she was taking up too much room on the stool...and so on. I have the feeling it's only just begun...
Here he is trying to push Rhiannon off the stool they were sharing.
Anyway, we did actually get some gingerbread into the oven - not all the dough was eaten beforehand fortunately.

Santa Lucia Day

Today was Santa Lucia Day (actually I guess the real day is tomorrow, but it was celebrated today). Rhiannon didn't want to wear the sparkly crown on her head that Grandma sent for her :-( but she seemed happy enough anyway.
The following is the description from Wikipedia about St. Lucia Day:
In Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Finland, Lucy (called Lucia) it is venerated on December 13 in a ceremony where a girl is elected to portray Lucia. Wearing a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, she walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle. The candles symbolize the fire that refused to take St. Lucia's life when she was sentenced to be burned. The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Neapolitan song Santa Lucia; the Italian lyrics describe the view from Santa Lucia in Naples, the various Scandinavian lyrics are fashioned for the occasion, describing the light with which Lucia overcomes the darkness. Each Scandinavian country has lyrics in their native tongues. After finishing this song, the procession sings Christmas carols or more songs about Lucia. A similar version occurs in Scandinavian communities and churches in the United States.

3 years old

So our girl is officially 3 today. Here she is at dinner eating Jello with vanilla custard on top from a glass while wearing her birthday crown that was made for her at barnehage. Special treat!
Lately she has been wanting to play out domestic scenes -- she is always the self-proclaimed "Big Mama" and I get to be either Daddy or else Baby. Her house is usually under the dining table or in the corner of the living room. The other activities she loves right now are building things with Legos or blocks, coloring with pens, playing in the snow, eating snow (just the white kind, thankfully), and especially reading and having books read to her. Her first language must be still Norwegian because that's what she normally talks and sings to herself and Tryfan in (although she also is fluent in Welsh and English also).
Rhiannon's birthday present from us was a rolling pink "Piglet" suitcase that is big enough to actually pack her stuff into when we go to Austria for Christmas next week, and also a bucket of Legos. Tryfan gave her a "Hello Kitty" coloring book that she has been pining for every time we go to Rimi (the grocery store) together.

Rhiannon's Birthday party!

Even though it is not Rhiannon's 3rd birthday until Wednesday, we decided to celebrate it today with 2 of our closest friends and their families. We went to a nearby farm and got to go for a horse-and-sleigh ride through the snow, cook polser (hot dogs) over a fire in the forest, choose a Christmas tree to take home, go inside and warm up with gingerbread and warm drinks, then finish off the afternoon with a roll in the hay (not the grown-up sort!). What a day! Here is the location of the farm (though not visible), just at the edge of a wide open area at the base of Vardasen mountain (actually this is the back side of the mountain we see from our house).
We were 5 adults and 6 children, so we split into 2 sleighs: all the boys in one and all the girls in the other one. As we approached the end of the ride, 'our' sleigh caught up with 'their' sleigh and Tryfan was so happy to see us!
The back row of the girl sleigh:Elianne, Sofie, Elin and Johanne.After the sleigh ride was finished, we had to hike for ~200 m to get to the campfire sight..not too far, but far enough when you are carrying a toddler.
We brought along flasks of tea and cocoa, as well as pølser (hot dogs) to cook on the fire. Here are Henry and Rhodri doing their manly duties while the rest of us tried not to let the wee ones too close to the fire but close enough to keep a little bit warm. The temperature was -8 C/ ~16 F!
The view from our campfire up to the 3pm sunset colors on Vardasen.
Rhiannon LOVES pølser and she was so stoked to get one of the first ones. Simple pleasures, eh?
Once the kids started crying/ whining we went inside to warm up and eat birthday cake and gingerbread. Yum. And then when everyone had their energy back up, we went outside to the hay room and everyone jumped in. None of my photos turned out from this because there were so many particles in the air! Anyway, Tryfan was happy to just lay in the hay and put it in his mouth. Johanne was happy to just sit and watch Tryfan eat hay. The rest of the kids had a great time jumping off the bales and laughing. Such a simple recipe for fun. Unfortunately Rhodri's phone fell out during one of the jumps and we had to call it in order to find it buried deep in the pile!

Through a different lens

I got a new camera recently and I love the color accent option! Today's color was lilac :-)

First day on skis!

Well, it snowed most of yesterday so today we had to get our skis out and try to remember how to cross-country ski! Rhiannon just got her own skis and boots, so she was keen to try too. And Tryfan didn't know any better, so he took his nap in the pulk as he was towed behind Rhodri.
Our outing didn't last terribly long, but that was the plan. Both kids were tired and glassy-eyed today, so we just took it easy and practiced a little bit in a meadow ~5 minutes drive away. After about 30 minutes, we set up a base camp and Rhodri and I took turns doing laps around the meadow for exercise. Success!

Start of the season

This week Rhiannon and Tryfan had their fancy dress Christmas Dinner (called "Julebord") at barnehage. Celebrating Christmas starts early and finishes late here in Norway, but we don't mind.
The teachers had prepared a long banquet-style seating arrangement in the main room and the kids had a grand feast in their nice clothes before changing into normal play clothes for the rest of the afternoon. I don't have a picture of Tryfan because he fell asleep in the car during the 5 minute drive from home! He had woken up at 4:45am this morning for some reason and hadn't gone back to sleep until now.

Today Rhiannon got to go into the forest with all the other 3-year-olds in her school (2 classes) to play in the snow, cook sausages over a fire, and hang out in a lavvo (northern Norway traditional tent, similar to a tipi). Great way to spend a Friday!

Snow at last

Finally we are having some snow! Not a huge amount, but a little bit every day and it has been so nice! On Sunday, we spent some time in the forest by our house just hanging out in the white stuff while Rhodri chopped firewood. Rhiannon loves eating it, Tryfan loves laying in it, and Bentley loves bounding through it, so everyone was happy during this episode.
The outing wouldn't have been complete without at least one ride in the wheelbarrow!

Cleaning frenzy

Today was a snowy/sleety/ rainy day and Wales was playing Australia in rugby, so that meant that I got the kids to myself for the afternoon. (Wales won 21-18, by the way!)
We had a good time together though - played outside for about 15 minutes (Rhiannon forgot her gloves so her hands got cold quickly), made some hot chocolate for Rhiannon's first taste of it, read books, did puzzles, watched "101 Dalmatians" (the old school movie version) and played with cleaning equipment. Cleaning equipment? Well, yes. Tryfan is obsessed with hoovers (vacuums) and once he starts hoovering, there is no stopping him that doesn't lead to tears of protest. We got the hoovers out (main one and a dustbuster, just so each child has one to use) late in the afternoon when we ran out of other fun things to do. Anyway, today I observed a new frontier in Tryfan's cleaning skills:
Yes, he is cleaning the inside of the play kitchen's oven. Here's the story: all 3 of us were upstairs - Rhiannon was sitting quietly at the desk playing with ink stamps, I was putting away clothes, and Tryfan was putting things into play cooking pans and moving them from one room to another. Then I saw Tryfan pick up a tissue from the floor in our room (probably fell out of a pocket) and disappear. The house was just a little too quiet several minutes later so I went into Rhiannon's bedroom and this is what I saw: a "deer in the headlights" expression on Tryfan's face as he crouched over reaching his tissue into the back of the oven and wiping vigorously. He definitely takes after his Daddy, who is the most thorough and efficient housecleaner I know (absolutely one of the perks I take advantage of by being married to him)! Let's hope Tryfan keeps honing his skills...

New addition

Oh you beauty! Yes! We finally broke down and bought an espresso machine. It's not as expensive as it looks (for Norway!). We have been importing Peet's coffee for the past 2+ years and our stock has run out so we saved up and brought this little baby home on Monday. Even though the box it came in was written in English, the manual is only in Scandihooligan languages so I had to use my new best friend Google Translate to figure out how to work this beaut. So far so good! It helps me want to get out of bed on these dark mornings...the sun has been waking up around 9am lately, so every little bit of incentive helps.

Home again

We were very sad to leave Llandudno and the rest of the Lewis family, but it is nice to be home. Tryfan was especially happy to be home, I think. I had forgotten to bring his special blankie with us to Wales, and he hadn't slept very well during our entire stay (whether from not having the blankie or because it was a new place or whatever, we will never know!). So when I put him to bed last night, he burrowed his face into the satiny blanket and slept for 12.5 hours straight.

Today we picked up Bentley from our friends' house, and Tryfan was really happy to see him! Tryfs had become increasingly interested in "Thomas", the tabby cat at Nain and Taid's house, while we were there. He had started following the cat around the house and saying "Yeah! Yeah" to Thomas whenever he saw him. Fortunately it appears that Tryfan just loves furry animals - not exclusively cats - because he is delighted to see Bentley in the video below...

Celebrations

Well, this holiday is coming to an end and we are really sad that we have to leave tomorrow. It's been a super great visit and we can't wait to come back! Here is Taid Trefor with the urchins.
Yesterday I turned a year older and we had a celebratory day! I was treated to an afternoon at Bodysgallen Spa and then after the kids were in bed for the evening, we all went out for dinner at our favorite place in town. Here are (l to r around the table): Llinos (Trystan's wife), Nain Beryl, Trystan (Rhodri's brother), Taid Trefor, Steve (Sioned's boyfriend), Rhodri, Sioned (Rhodri's sister) and me.

Good times

Can you tell these two are related? Rhiannon with her Auntie Sions.
We had a quick visit to our friends Bleddyn and Geri's house this evening before dinner so that all of our kids could play together. Ceiro is almost 4 and Meilir just turned 2, so it was a pretty funny session in the playroom with these four. No fights broke out though!