I wake up ugly early, would you have guessed? Like 5.05am – it’s so bright in our bedroom! I think this one is East facing, whereas in Oslo it’s South facing. But then again, our bedroom in Nice didn’t really have a window, only a window into the living room, which had two windows, with a wall right outside… Maybe it’s not the light.
But, what is one to do when one wakes up this early? There’s only one solution: get those blog posts up to date and finished, so that I can enjoy the rest of my weekend, and that you’ll still have something to read while I enjoy time with my sisters!
As I sat in the livingroom/kitchen, typing away on my computer, around 6.30am the girls wake up. Téa and Alma tumble out of their bedroom, and they settle in on the couch to do some reading. Lise brought them both a copy of her niece’s book yesterday, so today both girls get stuck right in.
When Maylin gets up, both books are in use, and she sits with me for a bit. At 7am, their iPad kicks in, and to be super quiet and let the other adults sleep, they watch some shows while we wait for the rest of the world to wake up.
When we first picked this house to rent, the only reason this house won over the other one, was because it has 1.5 baths. One bathroom has a shower, the other one has the washer and dryer. So two toilets and one shower for 9 people for 5 days? It seems like it would be inconvenient, but it worked so well all weekend! As people wake up in 20 or 30 minutes intervals, we never even face an issue.
I put the coffee maker on, and people trickle in. We eat breakfast whenever we want, we have bread and yogurts and granola. Some people want to go running, and others hang around the house. The three girls giggle and play and decide to make a movie together.
I head to the grocery store for a few things we realize we’d need more of, and find that my sister has her very own snack products on the shelf:
We have a calm day, and so we let the girls play. Joe and I are in “Vancouver prep mode”, researching available rental units and applying for jobs. We are heading over to tomorrow’s party hall to help prep soon, so we sit down for a quick lunch (but not a Kvikk Lunsj, as that is a chocolate bar).
We can walk from the house we rented both to the party hall and to the grocery store. I still haven’t driven a car since September, and am happy with that. Joe can drive. In any case, we walk down the road and up the other side and around the corner to a school with a sports field and a clubhouse. My sister has rented out the upstairs portion of the clubhouse for tomorrow’s confirmation, and so we head there to help set up.
When we get there, Frida and Kathrine have already done most of the job. We help with silverware and glasses and napkins, and then we call it a day. Others are coming to do different tasks, and so our portion is done for now. On our way back to the house, we spot some fun garbage cans:
Back at the house, we have some time to play and blog and job hunt and apartment hunt. Uncle Ste is an expert at all games, and the girls have the time of their life playing something called Exploding Kittens, I think? The shrieks of joy will stay with me for a while.
Kari-Helene is over at Lise’s to bake, and we are all heading there for dinner. Lise just bought this apartment recently, and it’ll be the first time for most of us seeing it today. When we get there, we stand in the parking lot, turning around and around while my sister is up on a balcony saying “no, the other way” and “look behind you” and waving as much as she can. Luckily, one of the girls spots her, otherwise we may still have been standing there in total confusion!
We get a grand tour of Lise’s two bedroom apartment, and more and more people trickle in. Frida has picked up her son Kristian from the bus, you may remember him from when he came to visit us in Osaka back in October? Once Kathrine, Bård, Andrea and Kaia arrive, everyone is here. (There are still two more people who couldn’t be here with us this weekend, but we are going to enjoy every moment with the people who are here.)
When we finally open the sparkling wine for a toast, we are 14 people in total. There’s wine and strawberries for a toast while we wait for the main course: a fish soup and a Thai soup, with fresh garlic bread. Then there’s dessert. Lise makes what her daughters call Easter cake, but the rest of us just know as Lise’s cake. It has a hazelnut base, a buttercream filling and a chocolate cover. It is AMAZING.
It’s a wonderful evening at Lise’s house, and I hope you get that impression through my writing. There won’t be too many photos shared from this weekend, but I’ll share as much as I can in words.
Eventually we do have to go home, and the kids do need to get to bed. Tomorrow is the big day, after all, so we all try to get to bed at a decent hour. All I want, is to sleep past 7am. Is that really too much to ask?
So great that you are spending time with family. Important for everyone.
Yes, it’s a rare event, and so enjoyed when we’re lucky enough to make it happen!