Christmas preparations!

Christmas if by far my favourite time of year! I love the bright and colourful decorations, to sing along to the Christmas songs, and to bake so many delicious cookies.

Everyone may know how much time and effort goes into baking the Norwegian Pepperkaker, it takes hours making the dough, cooling it in the fridge over night, and rolling it out, shaping them and baking them in the oven and then decorate if with icing sugar. It is by far one  of my favourite things to do in December. Yesterday I baked for work again, and while baking, I was listening to the very fun and lovely Norwegian Pepperkake Visa (youtube clip underneath).

I have also found a new recipe for my snowflake crochet project. The more advanced the recipe, the longer it takes to make them. I wish I knew how to make these earlier, so I could have made more advanced one for Christmas gifts. Maybe next year!

It is getting hotter and hotter in Queensland, and the thunderstorms are more frequent as well. I used to be terrified of thunderstorms, to the point that I would stay at friends and family it one was closing in. You cannot be doing that here, as they almost as common as heavy rain. I think it took me a year to get used to them and now I don’t care unless they forecast hail. The storms usually hit in the late afternoon and evening, making the day hot and humid. Nothing beats a hot and humid day than a day in the water, whether it be a swimming pool, a lake, river or ocean.
That is exactly what Luke and I did on the weekend and it was lovely. It am enjoying the heat until next week, when I will be going home to Norway for Christmas!

I am so excited to be going home for Christmas, and the countdown to next week is on!

Write Soon

Xo

Coming Home for Christmas!

Hi All,

It is 3rd of December on this side of the world and Christmas is just around the corner. I am proud to say that I was done with the Christmas present shopping before the 1st of December. A first for me as I am usually one of the people buying some presents the day before Christmas. I have t say it feels great being done with it all so I can relax with Christmas songs and baking. This time of year I bring Norwegian Christmas cookies to work each week and it is usually very popular. A whole box full of cookies will empty in a day.

This year I am extra excited about Christmas as I am finally celebrating it in Norway! 14 days, 11 hours until I leave from the boiling heat of an Australian summer, to the cold and hopefully white winter in Norway. I am of course hoping for a white Christmas, but in any case it will be great spending if with my family. Christmas with my family feels like proper Christmas to me, weather it is here in Australia or in Norway. My suitcase is full of presents and there is barely space for me to pack some clothes to wear. Lucky I got an amazing early Christmas present from Luke, a 1.5 kg carry on suitcase. Thanks to that I will be able to bring clothes as well!

When I was younger I always loved the Christmas song , I'll be Home for Christmas and I would never have thought then, how much the lyrics of this song would mean to me now. It gives me butterflies in my stomach and puts a smile on my face. Another song that has the same affect on me is White Christmas. Such a classic song that means more to me now that I long for white Christmas each year.

I have found that my trips to Norway becomes a bit hectic between seeing everyone I would like to. Family and my best friend is a priority but I will try to catch up with as many as possible.

Looking forward to catching up with most of you soon.

Write soon,

XoXo

Visit from Dad - Sydney trip

As I sit at home after work, I often look at my saved photos of my family and friends and take a little trip down memory lane. I figured this time, I would share it with you. I am often think of what it would be like to have both of our families close by. This thought usually takes me home to Norway or to a time when my family was here in Australia. Most recently I had a visit from my dad, Arnt, just a few months ago. He was here for a week and I was able to take some days off work.

He was here just in time for an annual festival with fireworks from the city. Due to my line of work and the location of my office, I was able to take him up on one of the lower rooftops in the city. This gave us a clear view of the fireworks with a different angle from everyone else.


This gave us time to go on a father-daughter trip, and we chose to go to Sydney. I have been to Sydney a few times but this was dad's first visit there, so I was able to show him some of the main touristy attractions. We did of course leave a great deal out so he can go back and see a bunch of new stuff with his wife.

 I am so lucky that my family are able to visit so often, and I had a great time with my dad.

Write Soon
Xo

My new hobby

Hi all,

Three different types of snowflakes

I have recently taken up a little Christmas project, crocheting Christmas  tree ornaments. I stole the idea from a market stall that sold home made snowflakes. So instead of paying overly much for something I could possible make myself, I decided to give it a go. 

Glue and glitter as a finishing touch

Little did I know that as I self-taught myself how to crochet by copying YouTube demonstrations, I would develop a genuine interest in crocheting. I have found myself a hobby, something creating, where I can make an endless variety of things. My imagination is the limit.... well it will be after I watch some more YouTube demonstrations and I might even buy a recipe book for crocheting.

Someone might get something a little obvious for Christmas this year :)

Write soon,

XoxO

Our first gardening attempt

So we have finally finished the garden beds in the front of the house, hoping that it improves our street view. Big thanks to Tormod for helping to build the retaining wall a couple of months ago. Also a big thanks to Luke's parents for helping us with the gardening last weekend. I think it turned out nice and we are very happy to be done with it :)

We also got a new carport, so about halfway there with the front of the house.

Write soon

Xx

As you know, I live to travel and I will do everything to follow my heart anywhere it leads. I absolutely LOVE that I share this passion with Luke. It is one of the first things we spoke about when we met and so far we have been able to travel to a fair share of places. We have found that if you are passionate about traveling, you will never run out of places to go. The world is amasing and I want to see all the wonderful things it has to offer.

Our last trip overseas went to Japan, where Luke started his traveling experience so many years ago. I had never been to Japan and as much as I want to see the rest of the world, I would love to go back to Japan one day. It might be a great winter holiday for teaching our future kids to snowboard. Prior to our trip I downloaded a language app on my mobile and learned some phrases that I would later find very useful in Japan. (I have decided to do this for our future trips as well because it was very helpful and I even got compliments on my pronunciation)

Our first stop was Tokyo, the largest city in the world with a population of 13.35 million people. The busy streets were surprisingly organised in the chaos of people running in every direction. It was easy to find our way around using the subway and I remember thinking how helpful most people were. At one stage, we were not able to find what subway line we were going on because the map was in Japanese signs. A woman offered to help (in Japanese) and I pointed at our destination on our English subway map. The woman showed us to the ticket machine and entered in Japanese until the price came up. This was incredibly helpful and all without a word of English.

Other highlights of the trip:

• The Shibuya crossing
• Bamboo forest
• Monkey forest
• Kyoto Temples
• Osaka
• Hiroshima

For our wedding anniversary we went out for dinner at one of the many high-rises in Tokyo. KOZUE was located on the 40^th floor of the Park Hyatt building, the view was great, the service was amasing and the food was tasty (not cheap of course).

We stayed at a traditional Japanese Inn, a Ryokan. This is a MUST EXPERIENCE in Japan, I loved everything about it. It is a little bit expensive but it is worth it, at least for a night. Upon arrival we were given a servant that showed us to our room, made us tea and showed us how to use the Japanese clothes properly. When we had a traditional Japanese course in the restaurant, the servant made our beds and when we were eating breakfast, she would pack away the bed and prepare the room to be a living-room. The ryokan had the most amasing traditional Japanese gardens and it was incredible peaceful to walk around there.

We were lucky as out trip took place in the famous Cherry Blossom season, and I don’t believe I have taken more photos of a plant in my entire life. Japan embraces the season with several cherry-blossom viewing festivals, markets and event. Walking along a canal in Tokyo, eating street food and drinking wine will be a memory I will never forget. The view was amasing, I enjoyed seeing all the different people with their cameras embracing the nature of the cherry blossoms.

I can go on and on about Japan, and we were only there for 2 weeks. We had an awesome time and recommend the trip to everyone.

Write Soon

Update and Welcome Back

Hi All,

I am so sorry for taking so long in publishing a new post. I guess it can be a good thing that I am just so busy being happy and living that I haven't been wanting to form blog posts to share. This doesn't mean I don't want to share my life with you so please don't take offence.
I see I haven't been updating the blog in well over a year, and I will try to make it more frequently and consistent going forward. But as online security becomes less safe and I won't want to share my life with anyone, I will soon implement a login for you all. But until I figure out how to do that, here's a little update on what I have done for the last year and a half.

As you may remember, Luke and his two oldest brothers and myself went for a trip around the world. In 6 weeks we visited Hong Kong, Norway, Spain, New York, Toronto and Niagara Falls.

In October my mum came visiting for nearly two weeks, by her self. It was absolutely lovely to have her here and we spent the days talking, shopping and having fun. It was an absolute blast and I am so glad she came all the way to the other side of the globe to spend some quality time with me.

Christmas was very quiet here this year, as it was only Luke and myself for the 24th December. We celebrated Norwegian-style with traditional food and Norwegian Christmas Music playing all day.

For Easter this year, Luke and I went to Japan for 2 weeks, and it was amazing. I will share more details with you in a later blog.

July/August we had visitors from 4 awesome people; my mum, Tormod and my brother, Christian stayed with us for 4 weeks and Maria (sister) was here for 2 weeks.

Renovation update:
We have now finished the kitchen, laundry and the retaining wall in the front yard. I will share photos later.

I will share heaps more in a later post. for now, take care.