Kragerø Dec 27 thru Dec 31
We headed out mid morning for Kragerø. This is the town where Tore grew up as a child. It's right on the water of a fjord and absolutely beautiful. We were greeted by Per Fredrik and his wife Sigrunn. Per Fredrik is Pappa's first cousin and such a great guy. He speaks English quite well. They offered us a drink of tea, coffee or pop, and then told us we should get ready to go to the village. The day was so gorgeous and they wanted to take us to an overview looking over the city. We hiked a little ways to get to the overlook, it was pretty cold, probably in the 20's, but clear and sunny. Wow, we got some great photos.
Their daughter, Anette, is a professional photographer and she had gone out that morning to take photos. She got some awesome ones, and made collages of them. They are on my picasa site.
We got back to Per Fredrik's and settled in. They have 2 fluffy cats, which was hard on Emily's allergies, but thankfully they had all the kids stay in their garage. It is renovated with a bathroom with small shower, a spiral staircase leading up to a small kitchen and mini bedroom. The living room had 4 beds alongside the walls in the eaves. Super cute and fun for the kids to stay together there.
Then we had a wonderful meal of pork roast with crackling and potatoes and carrots and lots of other yummy things. They had recently remodeled their kitchen to make it larger, which was good. They have 2 of their kids who live very close by, with their children, so the roomier kitchen will work well for them in the future too.
We enjoyed visiting and meeting Anette's kids: Amallie, 12 years old, Herman, 10 years and Brage, 4 years.
Brage enjoyed hanging around with Bryn and Ryan even tho neither could speak each other's language. He played computer games with them and loved to punch them and rough house. Any time he asked Bryn a question in Norwegian, Bryn would say, "Smør brød, which mean sandwiches." It was hilarious. All of our "kids" were great with the Norwegian family's kids. I was very proud of them the whole trip actually. They were so polite, even tho they couldn't understand everything and very gracious and thankful. Willing to try new foods and experiences.
One of the days in Kragerø we went downtown and did a little shopping. Erik was so happy to find a bløtekake, a cream cake with marzipan frosting. He bought a whole cake from the bakery, that's his Norsk souvenir. We all enjoyed eating it with him, yum! Each day we had cakes and coffee with different family members. One night it was at Anette's home, another was at Inge Elena and Harold's (we sang lots of carols that night and saw cool birds that are in Harold's collection) and another was at Preben and Hege's home, where we enjoyed waffles. Anette and Preben are Per Fredrik and Sigrunn's children. Preben and Hege are parents of Kristian, a 2 year old sweetie and Hege has 3 children, Andreas and 2 daughters, whose names escape me. Nice family! Inge Elene is Per Fredrik's sister and Harold is her son.
Per Fredrik and his family have built a huge awesome swimming pool. One morning we helped shovel the 8-10" of snow off of it so it wouldn't break thru the cover. He also showed us all the electrical set up for heating it and the jet that is in it so you can swim "laps" and the heated concrete below, too cool. They have an outdoor living room, which had a fireplace. We spent several hours each day out there, enjoying the fire and playing lots of pinochle and other games. It was a good place for Emily since the cats don't go in there. We also had a big snowball fight one day.
Our favorite thing was the outdoor picnic in the snow. We hiked up in the forest behind their home for about 20 minutes, thru pretty deep snow, at least a foot deep. They own a little shed/overhang (see my photos) and fire pit. There was wood up there already and they had packed lots of food and reindeer hides to sit on. It was so amazingly cozy and gorgeous. Harold had elg heart which he cooked over the fire, our guys loved it! He also had a reindeer leg which was smoked and he carved off thin slices of that for us, quite tasty and a very special treat! Anette pulled out candles and oranges and chocolate, quite the nice picnic. We also had our favorite, pølse, which is Norwegian smoked hot dogs, yum.
I had asked Anette if she would take a family photo of us, several months before we traveled. She said "yes", so I had all 9 of us bring Norsk sweaters for the photo. She took them of us on the snow up in the forest. They turned out so awesome. I am so very happy with them. Thanks Anette!!! Here is the link if you haven't seen them yet. https://picasaweb.google.com/107525715707559384779/KragerNorwayFor4Days#
Bryn, Ryan, Erik and I headed out early on New Year's Eve day for Oslo and London. Andrew and Emily left in the middle of the night for their 6 a.m. flight, from the airport about an hour away. Thanks, Bestefar for driving them to the airport. Kari and Tore and Jared headed up to Porsgrunn on New Year's Day. I hear they had amazing shrimp for dinner and close awesome fireworks for NYE! Happy 2013.
Really, the trip to Norway was a dream come true for Erik and I. We both love Norway so very much and were so happy to share it with our children in such a special way. Thanks to all our Norwegian family for taking care of us so well and for sharing your lives with us. Tusen Takk!
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