Gma Susie and Ruby setting out
2007 December 28 · 11:04AM · Friday
This picture just happened to be taken right next to our closest yarn store, Sofie’s.
Katy’s on a mission
2007 December 28 · 11:04AM · Friday
I knew we didn’t have much time to daly on the way to the train station. And in fact, we arrived at the platform just as the train was pulling up. Just in time!
Ruby’s got a puppy!
2007 December 28 · 1:03PM · Friday
Ok, I’m the one responsible for this horrible picture. But there were puppies!
beautiful!
2007 December 28 · 1:58PM · Friday
Hallvord’s mother is an artist and her touch was everywhere! It was very enchanting and I loved it. I hope I can be like her when I grow up!
blomster små
2007 December 28 · 1:59PM · Friday
These were the kitchen drawers. I would be so much happier in a kitchen with wee flowers painted everywhere!
at the kitchen table
2007 December 28 · 1:59PM · Friday
They had a long table with benches in a very sunny windowy plant filled area. It was wonderful. We had many homemade breads and local farm cheese (best brunost! and mom loved the bluey one). It was so cozy… Ruby’s gulping down hot chocolate in this picture.
Chris and Ruby
2007 December 28 · 1:59PM · Friday
more little details
2007 December 28 · 2:00PM · Friday
These were some very steep stairs that led up somewhere and there were drawers set under the stairs. I love how this is still in progress: they are making little cuts out of the cabinet door in very norwegian-folk-art shapes.
ice on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:21PM · Friday
ice on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:21PM · Friday
ice on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:21PM · Friday
ice on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:25PM · Friday
broken ice on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:25PM · Friday
C and the little cousin playing
2007 December 28 · 2:25PM · Friday
C and Alf Eivind on the lake
2007 December 28 · 2:25PM · Friday
Hallvord playing with C and Alf Eivind
2007 December 28 · 2:25PM · Friday
Randy and the Icelandic guy
2007 December 28 · 2:26PM · Friday
Dad had a great time talking to Hallvord’s brother in law, from Iceland.
Hallvord’s sister
2007 December 28 · 2:26PM · Friday
Harumi, Eiri, Gma Susie
2007 December 28 · 2:26PM · Friday
Harumi and Mom wisely decided not to venture out onto the ice with everyone else.
Hallvord, C, Alf Eiving playing
2007 December 28 · 2:26PM · Friday
You can see a bit of the town in the backgroud. So cute! The boys really enjoyed running and sliding around on the ice.
Ruby and Gpa Randy
2007 December 28 · 2:27PM · Friday
Ruby having fun on the ice
2007 December 28 · 2:27PM · Friday
Katy actually petting a dog
2007 December 28 · 2:27PM · Friday
Historically, I have not been known to be a dog person. But this was a very nice dog and hung around me a little but.
dog sniffing Noro
2007 December 28 · 2:27PM · Friday
This is the scarf I knit from my birthday yarn Back off doggie, that’s Noro!
Hallvord and Alf Eivind
2007 December 28 · 2:29PM · Friday
there was ice
2007 December 28 · 2:34PM · Friday
and this is what some of the ice looked like
2007 December 28 · 2:34PM · Friday
did I mention the water was all frozen?
2007 December 28 · 2:34PM · Friday
lovley view of the lake and hillside
2007 December 28 · 2:34PM · Friday
Hallvord playing with all the kids
2007 December 28 · 2:34PM · Friday
hey look, crazy ice
2007 December 28 · 2:39PM · Friday
ice crystals
2007 December 28 · 2:39PM · Friday
crystally ice
2007 December 28 · 2:39PM · Friday
grass under the ice
2007 December 28 · 2:39PM · Friday
Gma Susie, C, and Ruby checking out the old tractor
2007 December 28 · 2:46PM · Friday
awesome! vikings!
2007 December 28 · 2:47PM · Friday
These were on some little storage shed or something — gotta love those vikings!
yes, that’s a rock strapped to the front
2007 December 28 · 2:47PM · Friday
picturesque old thing
2007 December 28 · 2:47PM · Friday
moss in the woods
2007 December 28 · 3:04PM · Friday
people in the woods
2007 December 28 · 3:04PM · Friday
Out in the woods
2007 December 28 · 3:04PM · Friday
We visited the old wood pecker tree, found some licoricey fern root, saw tiny mushrooms, and delicate moss. It was a very good walk in the woods.
funny moss structures
2007 December 28 · 3:06PM · Friday
Not such a great picture — this lens isn’t so good for macro. Where’s the pringles can when you need it?!
Katy and Ruby warming in front of the fire
2007 December 28 · 3:20PM · Friday
they lit candles for Ruby and C
2007 December 28 · 3:41PM · Friday
Ruby near the candles
2007 December 28 · 3:41PM · Friday
I love these candle-angle-spinny things
2007 December 28 · 3:42PM · Friday
candle-angle-spinny thing
2007 December 28 · 3:42PM · Friday
This was sittign on top of a grand piano (baby grand?) that had also been covered in pretty little flowers.
Ruby checking out the cookie offerings
2007 December 28 · 3:42PM · Friday
Hallvord, Eiri Luise, his Mom
2007 December 28 · 3:43PM · Friday
Gma Sus, Gpa Randy, and Hallvord’s dad
2007 December 28 · 3:43PM · Friday
Hallvord and baby Eiri
2007 December 28 · 3:43PM · Friday
Real live candles on the tree!
grandparents
2007 December 28 · 3:43PM · Friday
Hallvord’s nephew
2007 December 28 · 3:44PM · Friday
the pretty tree
2007 December 28 · 3:45PM · Friday
I loved the handmade oranments! Especially the julekurver.
candles, hominess
2007 December 28 · 3:45PM · Friday
grandparents talking still
2007 December 28 · 3:45PM · Friday
Hallvord and Eiri Luise
2007 December 28 · 3:46PM · Friday
Ruby singing
2007 December 28 · 3:46PM · Friday
Ruby singing
2007 December 28 · 3:46PM · Friday
I’m looking at the song book — I don’t think we’d begun singing yet, but Ruby looks like she’s got a head start on us.
Ruby singing
2007 December 28 · 3:46PM · Friday
the kids under the tree
2007 December 28 · 4:03PM · Friday
Alf Eivind gave Ruby and C balls of bird food to hang out for the little birdies. It seems like everyone is very conscientous about keeping the little winter birds fed. It’s very sweet.
Ruby examining her bird ball
2007 December 28 · 4:03PM · Friday
Hallvord, Alf Eivind, Ruby, and C under the tree
2007 December 28 · 4:03PM · Friday
Hallvord and Alf Eivind
2007 December 28 · 4:03PM · Friday
Ruby and C loved the bird balls
2007 December 28 · 4:03PM · Friday
little K-A and her Dad
2007 December 28 · 4:04PM · Friday
Katy and Randy
2007 December 28 · 4:04PM · Friday
Katy and Randy
2007 December 28 · 4:04PM · Friday
Susie in front of the piano
2007 December 28 · 4:04PM · Friday
This is just about the only decent picture of the scarf I knit for mom. It was feather-and-fan, but the long way. I cast on about 90 stitches and repeated for 17 (or 23?) rows.
Gma Susie and the kids with the bird balls
2007 December 28 · 4:04PM · Friday
Katy super closeup!
2007 December 28 · 4:05PM · Friday
taking picture? of me?
2007 December 28 · 4:05PM · Friday
I’ve had to get over the camera-shy thing lately — for a long time it was me behind the camera and tons of pictures of the kids and Chris, and none of me! Now it’s just the opposite and I have to remind myself to take Chris’s new favorite toy away from him to take a few pictures of him, too.
Harumi and Eiri with Alf Eivind
2007 December 28 · 4:06PM · Friday
Hallvord is fixing the candles on the tree
2007 December 28 · 4:06PM · Friday
Gpa Randy setting the table
2007 December 28 · 4:10PM · Friday
pretty canlde holder and tea-cup-corner
2007 December 28 · 4:13PM · Friday
yes, a window inside
2007 December 28 · 4:15PM · Friday
As the house evolved and expanded, some parts taht used to be outside were engulfed and became inside. I think it’s adorable that they kept the window in this wall. You can see from the entryway down into the kitchen.
Ruby fell asleep
2007 December 28 · 5:07PM · Friday
extended view
2007 December 28 · 5:13PM · Friday
Hallvord is talking on the phone, I think. But this is another view from the sitting room, through the entry way, and down to the window on the kitchen.
An interseting anecdote: Hallvord is standing right next to the wall where a David Mollet painting is hanging. His wife gave it to the family when they met in Iceland. David Mollet is a well-known Alaskan painter, and aquaintance of my Dad, and I took a couple of painting classes from him in my youth. Imagine the coincidence!
and dramatic snow on the way home
2007 December 28 · 6:15PM · Friday
A thousand thanks to our hosts for a lovely time. It was extraordinary!
What I liked about this pictures was that you could see the strobing of the flourescent lights in the little “beads” of snow.
Hallvord invited all of us out this his family’s place near the lake Mjøsa, a town called Tangen. It was just beautiful! The whole place reminded me of Alaska — more rural feeling, lots more trees around, actual dirt roads! And his parents’ house… well, I just fell in love. I don’t think the pictures can really do it justice. This is a house the kind of house you can’t just build all at once, it have to evolve. Every corner was filled with life. We had a lovely lunch with the fam, took a walk out to the lake and in the surrounding woods, had dinner and songs around the Christmas tree. Just about perfect!