Christmas part II

I left off on the 26th...Boxing Day to some, Second Christmas Day to the Norwegians.
This time the family came to Grandma and Jan's house, about 20 people in all. Grandma cooked for at least 40. We had a whole extra ham that didn't even get cut into! Good thing I love left-overs! The highlight of this night was the white elephant gift exchange. I started out with a hamburger patty shaper (don't ask) and finished with a big box of chocolate bars, which I was more than happy with, as it just means less for me to buy! It was still kind of hard to be sitting in a room where you don't understand 90% of what is being said, but all in all it was a fun night.

The 27th was another shopping day: returning stuff that didn't fit and buying anything else that I wanted to take home with me. We had dinner at IKEA (such amazing meatballs!) and tried not to think about the fact that I was leaving soon. I spent most of the next day packing (and weighing and repacking and weighing again) and just hanging around the house. We had leftovers and oh, they were just as good. I don't think I will ever tire of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries and gravy. One of the best meals ever. Then it was to bed, as we had to leave the house by 10ish to get to the airport in enough time; no sleeping in until noon that day!

My flight went really well, but that is for the next post. All in all, I had a great time in Norway and do not at all regret going, though I did miss my family. Trondheim is a beautiful city and I can see why my grandmother loves it so much there.

Prepare yourself, this one is a bit whiney

When I first planned this visit to Norway, I thought about how happy it would make my grandma to spend Christmas with her over here. She is always begging us to come visit and it just seemed like perfect timing.
But I did not realise how much it would suck not to spend the holiday at home. This will be my first xmas without my family-ever. I know I complain about them a lot, but Christmas is time for families and I really miss mine. More than I ever thought I would. And not only them, but I miss all the familiar things about home, especially now at Christmas time. I miss how beautiful my house looks all decorated and having a real christmas tree. I miss baking cookies with my mom. I miss all the familiar things and decorations that come out once a year, for all of my years.

And there is snow in the TC! It hardly ever snows in December. Not to mention the snow in Portland and Tacoma too! I hate that I am missing the washington snow. Though there is pleanty of it here, its just not the same.

So as not to finish this out with all my negative nacy-ing let me say this:
Norway is beautiful. I know how blessed I am to be here and who knows how long it will be until I come back. It is also really nice to see my grandma in her reguarl habitat and the chocoalte here is WAY better than in the US. When you see me next, ask if I have any left, I will be happy to share, though I can't promise I won't have eaten it all ;-)

And so it ends...

I am currently sitting in the guest bedroom of my grandmother's house in Trondheim where I will be spending the next two weeks before a last night in London on my way into Seattle.
Still hard to believe I am even here. Time in London went so fast. The last 72 hours were an amazing mixture of stress (ew, finals), drinks (yay, finals are done!) and sad goodbyes to amazing people (why can't you all go to UPS?!?)
Here are some of the highlights of our goodbye party at the Rugby, nights out at the Fat Controller (our pub in Harrow) and a last dance party:















I still haven't really had time to process it all. My time in London is over. Holy crap. And i have no doubt that these next two weeks in Norway will go just as fast as the last three months did. I am still sad to be missing Christmas with my family and friends, but I am already in love with Trondheim- its just so pretty here! (not that it holds a candle to my beautiful London-I shall return!!)

More as my Norwegian adventures continue. Love and miss you all