Julebord

On Saturday night, Dec 6th, Rich and I attended our very first Julebord. A Julebord is a traditional Norwegian Christmas party. This party was in Madla, just down the road from us, at one of the Norwegian bases. It is a training base for Norwegian conscripts. Everyone gives one year of service to the Norwegian military. A little off-track information that Rich just told me...there is only two different ranks within the enlisted corps here in Norway...you are a conscript (like a private) or you can be promoted to a Sgt. That's it...and the officer corps is also very different from the U.S. system. I just found that interesting... Anyhow, I digress! We were at Madla to celebrate Christmas with other military members from the Joint Welfare Centre (NATO - where Rich works) and the Norwegian Military Headquarters (currently co-located with JWC). There were people there from many different countries. We sat with some Americans, Germans and Norwegians. All of which were co-workers and friends. Our Norwegian friends talked us through the traditions, which was really fun. Although many of these Julebords end as a kind of "drunk-fest" according to our Norwegian friends, there wasn't a lot of heavy drinking because the JWC was in the middle of a big exercise and everyone had to go to work the next morning.
We had pinnekjøtt, which is a traditional dish on the western coast of Norway. It is salted and steamed mutton ribs. It literally means "stick meat". They tend to use birch soaked in water to create the steam. It's really good. We had some other traditional foods such as boiled potatoes (Mandelpoteter), meat cakes (medisterkaker)and riskrem (rice cream) as dessert. Because all of the foods were so heavy and had a high fat content, they serve a special Norwegian alcoholic drink along with the meal called akvavit. This is what is in the little glasses in the pictures. I don't drink alcoholic beverages, but did put a little on my lips and then licked them. It allowed me to feel like something was burning into my tongue for a good 30 minutes or so. I don't like the taste of alcohol...so perhaps I am not a good person to talk about this, but I imagine that akvavit tastes somewhat like paint thinner and vinegar mixed together. Evidently, it is never drunk by itself...it has to be combined with food. (That should be a real big red flag, right there!) However, they expecially drink it at the Julebords as supposedly it helps to digest all those heavy, fatty foods. We had a really great time and hope to go again next year!

Hey, Santa visits Norway!

On Saturday, Santa Claus himself, came to our little niche of the world. This is quite an impressive event because there isn't really a Santa Claus here in Norway. Porridge is put out for the jul nisse (little Christmas elves or knomes) and fjøsnisse (farm knomes). They have little red hats and can be found in all the shops right about now.
Santa stopped in at the BX at the NATO base to see the children there. Lily (due to the hectic basketball schedules of her brothers) was first in line and was very quick about her visit. Quick because we had to leave...and quick because the idea of Santa is exciting...actually seeing him....not so much. However, she did sit on his lap and didn't scream or cry. He didn't even ask her what she wanted (although we had practiced this for several days)...we decided he would know her heart's deepest desires...because he is Santa, afterall! :o) Tim's not in the photo because he was at basketball practice.
If you are interested in knowing more about what we are experiencing during the Christmas season here in Stavanger, Norway, please go to the following site: (beware if you are at work...it plays music)
http://www.stavanger-web.com/jul/christma.htm

Old-fashioned sledding too

We also did some old-fashioned sledding...much of the time down our own driveway...a blessing because it is right by the house...a curse because then it is an icy slick going down our driveway after that!

Sledding...Norwegian style

Our neighbors are great people. They have really made us feel welcome here. They have a four-wheeler and decided that simple hills for sledding wasn't good enough. How about attaching a rope to a sled and being pulled by the four-wheeler around the norsk agurk husen across the street? That sounds like something right up Rich's alley! So as I was madly trying to get things done around the house without Lily helping me...Rich comes flying into the house as excited as a kid on Christmas morning...shouting that I needed to grab my camera and meet him at the cucumber houses for a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Our neighbor, Tørres and his son, Ola, had as much fun as the Messina's did! There were smiles everywhere...except for one of the cucumber house workers, who just stared at us every time we made our way around the section he was at. :o) Of course, I was bullied into riding around a few times myself. How did I know that was going to happen??? :o)

Introducing the new karate kid!

I may have mentioned that I started to take TaeKwon-Do classes this fall. I have studied Kempo Karate (Chinese) and Okinawan ShorinRyu Karate. I was humbled to be awarded black belts in both of these martial arts. Now I am going Korean...and studying TaeKwon-Do. I am loving my classes! I used to take Kempo with my boys when they were younger. My oldest son has a jr. black belt and Tim has a brown belt in Kempo. It was something we loved doing together. Lily is officially starting in January when she turns 4, but because I was recruited to help out with the Little Puma's class, our instructor said that she could start attending class now. She is very shy so I wasn't sure how this was going to work out. However, this girl can kick! She does a fabulous job with padwork and really enjoys her Little Puma's class. So watch out for the Messina women!

Our first snow of the winter!

We got about 4 inches of snow the third week of November. It was pretty cold for here and the snow lasted several days. Lily and I had a lot of fun playing in the snow. Kona seemed to like it as well. It was her first time seeing it.

Mid-November fun

November is always a hectic time for our family. Not only do we have Rich's birthday and then Joe's birthday, but basketball season starts here at the International School of Stavanger. I am resigned to know that my life will be in the gym on bleachers (when I am not chasing Lily) until late March. I love basketball and the games that have been played so far have been really good ones. The boys spent their summer honing their basketball skills and it seems to have worked. Joe is on the JV 1 team (8th and 9th graders) and Tim is on the JV 2 team (6th and 7th graders...with a few 8th graders as well).
Tim had his first game on the Nov 15th...and the ref did not show up to the game. Joe and his teammate, Spencer, were tasked to ref the game. It was a big learning experience for both of them. The game ended in a tie...and went into a 5 minute overtime. I think Joe has a new appreciation for referees now. Although he really enjoyed getting PAID to be on the basketball court! Tim made several baskets and did a fantastic job during the game. ISS ended up on top! The next day was Joe's team's turn at an away game. They won as well...against some pretty big Norwegian guys. For those of you that don't know, Norwegians on the whole are tall and then...I used to think I thought that because I moved here from Japan and the difference was so striking...however, no...others that have moved in say the same thing. Joe is 6 ft tall and he is never the tallest on the court.
Tim is also playing IBA basketball, which is like a club team. Joe has aged out of that league. Tim wanted one more year of extra playing time.
The picture of me and my galpals in football jerseys was at the ISS International Festival. I was in charge of the U.S. food booth. This is a HUGE event at the school. Each country represented in the school does an activity from their country in the gym and then has a food booth with food from their country in the cafeteria. Our activity was American football. (boy was that a blast!) and so we fed (pardon the pun) off of that idea and did a tailgating them for food. We had rice krispy treats, chocolate chip cookies and frito pie. It was a great success.