We have been so slack lately – we really must apologise. Unfortunately the blog has taken a bit of a backseat to other priorities lately, but that is really no excuse. We must do better.

So I will bring you all up to date.

So in our last posts we had just been to the Laerdal cabin at Knaben, and Joel had taken Sally and Håkon up to Preikestolen. Sal was really so lucky with the weather she had in Stavanger, we were amazed how many days of sunshine we had while she was here. She did see the best possible side of Stavanger, even during this gloomy wintertime.

Emma and Sally in the candleshop in the mountains.

The next major event was of course Christmas. We ( ‘I’ really – Emma) made the house look quite festive with a REAL fir tree (not the pine tree branches we use in Australia) and lots of decorations. We even had an advent calendar – quite a different concept over here to what we’re used to, the advent calendar is prepared well in advance and each day in December you get a little present that fits into a pocket in the calendar, usually they are little toys or a chocolate bar etc. Sometimes, the day corresponds to a little numbered packet which contains a present. Our friend Aud Trude’s exchanges advent calendars with her sister and they give each other something for each day – a pair of socks or some earrings etc.

Christmas over here is really taken seriously. I think its something everyone looks forward to in the middle of a dark and cold winter. In a way I think its lucky that over here you get to have a second focal point in the year – in Oz we have summertime, holidays and Christmas all at once, I quite like the European approach where it’s stretched out a bit. And of course it’s so much more fun to indulge in all the food and drinks knowing you don’t have to be in a bikini next week…

Christmas Day.

Virtually every house has a light in the window (so of course to fit in with the Jones’ we put up a lit star in our window!), and a wreath on the door. There are traditional Christmas cookies (no less than 7 varieties!) which are baked and shared among friends and colleagues. We had a great afternoon with friends in a ‘pepperkakehus’ competition (gingerbread house), we didn’t win with our Sydney Opera House design, but got extra cred for our curved roof (created by carefully moulding sections straight from the oven around an upturned bowl). The engineer’s handiwork of course!

Work of art!

Christmas day itself was really fun. It was a very hectic morning with lots of phone calls to friends and family back home, amidst preparing a turkey with all the trimmings (our first time!). Ryan and Sally were a huge help to Joel and I in getting everything ready, it was really a team effort. A friend Pete also joined us for our ‘orphans christmas’. He’s an Aussie who studied at AMC with Joel and Ryan.

Ryan looking festive with a sprig of holly from our garden.

Ready for our present opening session.

Pete and Emma - pre-lunch snack of smoked salmon.

We predicted the present pile under the Christmas tree this year would be a bit smaller than usual, but it was actually huge! Thanks so much to everyone for thinking of us, and especially to Sally for transporting it all! We had a ball unwrapping everything and loved all the gifts.

The meal itself was a hit (if I do say so myself…!) the turkey turned out beautifully – cooked on the BBQ. Dad’s bread sauce recipe went down a treat, likewise mum’s stuffing and the good old Womens Weekly Cookbook came good with directions for cooking our raw smoked ham! The mince pies (bought) and plum pudding (also bought) were complemented beautifully with Grandma C’s brandy
butter.

Pudding with high quality french brandy!

The dinner table - one of Joel's many talents!

The now famous turkey!

Coobs showing off his christmas hat.

We listened to music and drank lots of good wine, we even christened the couch with its first red wine spillage! We also played celebrity heads which was heaps of fun (especially after a few wines) although Joel was a bit stumped by “Mr Bennet” from Pride and Prejudice, and with good reason (good one Sal!), and I was equally stumped with Mick Fanning (the surfer)!

Stylish Sally having one of many glasses of red for the evening.

Later in the evening our friend Åsmud dropped in with a gift wrapped six pack of beer (which was most welcome as we had drunk the wine rack dry by this time).

The following morning we were up early (with sore heads) to prepare for our trip to France. It didn’t start well when the mercy dash to McDonalds on the way to the airport ended in disaster – it was CLOSED! That’s Norway for you! Fortunately it got a lot better from there. And on that note I will will wind it up, and promise that the next instalment (Paris and Les Deux Alpes) will be coming up very soon!

Ahhh - happy family.

Time to show off the rock

I took a couple of days off work when Sal was here and along with Håkon (colleauge) we braved the sub-zero temperatures, snow and ice, on a magnificent winters day and showed off the rock again. This was my 4th visit to this special place and I am not sick of it yet - it always amazes me - truly stunning.


















Here is me - taking photos as usual.




















There are a couple of "bathing" pools on the hike up. We tried to go for a swim - but we couldn't break the ice!

















We had the entire rock to ourselves which was extra special. Not a soul to be seen. Here is Håkon and Sal finishing up the Norskmat (Norwegian food) for lunch. As usual Kvikk Lunsj, plane smash, knackerbrød, finshed up with a thermos of hot aussie milo!




















Sal considering her future!



















Sal and Håkon with a lovely pose!


















Pretty.



















Very content ... and cold.

















You (and sal) can see the clouds in one of the valleys on the other side of the fjord. The weather was truly amazing - not a breath of wind!


Stay tuned for our Christmas day feastathon photos ...

Ha det godt!

Episode 1 of the last month or so ... stay tuned.

Hi again.

Sorry we have been a bit lax with the posting, but all of a sudden life got very busy in December and is finally calming down a little - pity I can't say the same for work ... but anyway.

Rather than bogging you down with all the updates at once we thought we'd take it bit by bit over the next week or so to keep you in a state of anticipation, unable to leave the computer screen, for fear of missing the next update!

So here goes.

Emma's sister Sally arrived to spend some time with us (more of this later) but the first thing we did was whisk her off to the Norwegian mountains to a place called Knaben. Emma's work has a cabin here that she borrowed for the weekend and it is in a little snowy village or old mining town popular at times in winter when it has enough snow for skiing. We decided to scare the jetlag out of sally by having a bunch of our friends come with us.















Here is the three of us with Rob "boneheading" in the background. This is looking back over to Knaben from near the mine.
















Ryan was creative and made a snow angel. Awwwwww ... how cute.






















Who's this handsome fella? We slid down the slopes on plastic frying pan death traps and this is me practicing the crash position. Last time (see last Easter's post) I ripped half the skin of my back so didn't want that to happen again.
















Of course cooby needed to come with us and looked as beautiful as ever.
















The cabin had these funny sleigh things which we took out on the icy roads for a bit of fun. This is me pushing em down the slope - cool fun.
















Concentrating hard ... precious jetlagged cargo.

















On the way up we came across our first wild moose. You can't see much from the photo but trust us he is pretty big!

















Sally looking back to Knaben.
















Emma looking lovely as usual.

















The girls found these icicle stalagtite thingys (AKA ice lollipops).

















No comment required ... but anyway it kind of reminds me of the erotic museum we saw in Paris!
















And finally - Rob getting dressed up in Sofia's flash thermals and doing a fashion show for us all. Once again it kind of reminds me of the erotic museum we saw in Paris!

Stay tuned for our next update including trip to Preikestolen with Sal and Christmas day!