Portrait Day – Day 259 – May 19, 2026

I’ve been waiting for today for a long time. When Téa was 1 year old, she and my mom and I went to a photographer in Toronto and we had pictures done. I have the best little baby faced smile photo of Téa, and a great one of the three of us together. I asked my mom if she would please join us for new pictures, now that there are two grandchildren, and she said yes!

There’s a photographer in Lillestrøm that my friend used for great family photos years ago, and so I reached out to her a couple of months ago. Her name is Anna, and once we park and find her building, she welcomes us in to her studio as she is setting up for the morning.

The girls are dressed in their new dark jeans, Maylin has a dark blue t-shirt and Téa in a white t-shirt and dark blue cardigan. My mom and I have dark blue dresses. Anna directs us to stand, sit, lean, hug, tickle and laugh as only a photographer can do, and the whole event takes about an hour. The girls brought some lighter t-shirts as well, and Anna takes what I will call “this year’s school photos”.

By 11.30am, we’re on our way home. Or not quite! My mom is looking for something in particular, so we have to stop at a different mall than yesterday’s one, still on our way home from photos. This is also a mall nearby where I grew up, but I do not recognize it. At all! You could drop me in the middle, spin me around, and I would have no idea where I was. While my mom goes into her store, I grab the girls some baked snacks from the grocery store, and then they discover a helicopter.

All items crossed off my Mom’s list, we head home to Joe, and the warm hot dogs waiting for us. A hot dog should always be rolled in a potato wrap blanket, with ketchup, mustard and shrimp mayo. Our days when this will be available to us are severely limited at this point, and I almost want to eat one hot dog per day. Almost.

After lunch, it’s Joe and I’s turn to head to the grocery store. We decide to walk down to Tveita again, armed with a backpack and reusable bags, and the option to take the bus back up, should we buy too many heavy things. But first, we need a treat:

We get some chicken for tonight’s Japanese curry dinner that Joe has planned, and then we start ticking off the rest of our “must bring home” list. One of the things we always buy in Norway, is seasonings. Norwegians love paprika, so we have a BBQ seasoning, “grillkrydder”, that is very different from the smoke-forward BBQ products in North America. There’s also one called “French fries seasoning”, which the girls love and adore, so we need some of that. We stock up on Smash, the irresistible blend of salty corn chips, coated in Norwegian milk chocolate. I mean, it’s really really really good!

I hunt for something called “hornsalt” in the baking aisle, and almost buy it. It’s a very smelly leavening agent, vital for making our beloved lefse from scratch, and I cannot find it in North America. But – it’s a small container and all of the ones on the shelf have an expiry date that is too close for my liking. Would I even use it once before it expires? I am not sure. If I decide I need it, I can always ask the next visitor from Norway to bring it. Fun fact (or rather, bizarre fact): hornsalt was initially derived from crushed deer horns, hence the name. It is now fully lab produced, of course.

We pack all our groceries in Joe’s backpack, and start our walk back up the hills. If we lived here long term, we would have the strongest legs of all! It’s quite the trek when you only do it for a brief visit every few years!

Joe made the curry based on our favourite Japanese Golden Curry, that we found at the Asian grocery store we went to last week. He added chicken and vegetables, and served it with basmati rice. My mom really liked it, and it’s always a favourite with our kids, so it’s a regular rotation at the Cheng household.

There may or may not have been ice creams for dessert, but what happens at Mormor’s house, stays at Mormor’s house, remember? My lips are sealed…