Snow Day!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning! Snow, snow, snow! The Girl was the first one out of the house, raring to play in the white stuff. She even offered to shovel  the drive. Big E and Little e joined her soon after and they slid down the small hill behind the house and then made 3 crazy snowmen. By this point in the visit, 2 opinionated 6.5-y/os minus adequate sleep = lots of squabbles, including over sleds and snow person design. Big E didn't want to share her sled (and neither did 2.5-y/o Little e), prompting The Girl to stomp into the house and say she wanted to go home. T went out with them, fulfilling the Norwegian "need to be outside" and providing a parental influence to keep the girls in line.

P and I stayed inside and watched the New Year’s concert in Vienna, followed by a lot of crazy Norwegians, Germans and Serbs skiing down an enormously steep luge and flying in the air. And some cross country skiing. We talked about going to the sled hill, but the girls stayed outside for most of the afternoon, and we were invited to T's parents' house in Oslo for dinner, so we had to bathe and get moving.

T's parents live in an enormous house, just next to a huge hill. His mom is an amazing cook! She fed us mussels as an appetizer and then reindeer (seriously yum), gravy, potatoes, Brussels sprouts with bacon and carrots. I was stuffed! Then I had to go sledding down the huge hill in the dark with The Girl. (T said that the previous week, on Christmas, his nephew had a similar complaint - "you are wasting my time!") Big E was still feeling chilled from the previous evening (wearing only tights when you are used to wearing tights /wool unders and a snowsuit contributed to this), so she stayed in with farfar and farmor. P took Little e as well, but they went on the lower hill. The hill had actually three parts. It had started to rain over the snow, so it was quite icy and slick. The plows went by and I walked in its tracks up the street that ran alongside the hill as well. There were trees to watch out for, and we I hit the kid-created moguls a few times, getting quite a bit of air. It was fun and I am glad that I didn't have a big bruise on my bum. We went back inside and had a scrumptious dessert that farmor made: whipped chocolate mousse and ice cream. I passed on the ice cream, but the chocolate mousse was sooooo good. And then after that, farmor served more snacks! Homemade peppermint fudge, little cookies and coffee or tea.