Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

The End and a New Beginning

@brittarnhild

The year 2013 is preparing to say goodbye. A new year is due in a few hours.
The House in the Woods will be full tonight. Together we will welcome 2014 with open arms.

I have a list: preparing the turkey, making the Waldorf salad, setting the tables, planning a few games, watering the bonsais, put new candles in the holders, check the white damask table cloths to see if they is still without stains.......

The guests will not be here until 7pm, so I am in no hurry.

 

In between doing the chores there will be time for reflections.
To say goodbye to old 2013.
To greet new 2014.

New Year´s Eve is one of my favorite days.
So is New Year´s Day.

 

Coming to thing about it, I have about 365 favorite days,
more or less. 

The tales from Ethiopia

@brittarnhild

I am writing a series of tales from Ethiopia in connection with the project we have; Give us this day our daily bread. The tales are based on stories heard, tales told, experiences shared during our time there this autumn. I had my notebook with me everywhere, making notes, writing down ideas, sketching, and a set of tale started to form in my mind.

The process of transforming my notes into tales worth reading, is time consuming, is difficult, feels impossible.........

- seven coffee beans in a picher
- one single candle lit on the middle of the diningroom table
- a kitchen without windows
- injera made and shared
- a dad proudly showing his children´s school reports
- ant bites

As I search for the words, I realize how these stories have changed my life, are changing my life. And I have a deep desire that the words can do magic in other people´s lives as well. Open our eyes. Let our hearts beat a little faster, a little warmer.

 The project we are doing together with the Ethiopians is called
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.

A prayer taught us by Jesus.
Give us, not give me, not give them.

Here, as so often in life, I feel like an apprentice.
I do have the best Master to teach me though,

and today, as every day, I fold my hands, silence my mind,
and pray.

 

Our Father in Heaven
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

Sharing dreams

@brittarnhild

 

With no snow for cross country skiing up in the hills behind The House in the Woods, there is no possibility for my husband to do cvross country skiing. I don´t mind, for now he comes with me on my morning photo walks. Every morning a new place in Trondheim.

 

The weather has changed since yesterday. Rain in the air and a fresh wind, but still quite mild.

We talk as we walk. Sharing dreams.

Somewhere we passed a huge poster, a movie promotion.
Stop dreaming, start living!

I am not sure if the creator of the words knows what he is talking about.

Dreaming is part of living.
Sharing dreams,
is an important part of a marriage long as your life.
An important part for life long lovers.

 

Enjoying the holidays

@brittarnhild

All week off from work. Late mornings, long breakfasts and then out to enjoy the lovely weather. The temperatures are extremely mild for the seasons, 9C during our walk today. The sun is out, though only for a few short hours, and when we go down to the sea there is no ice on the paths (the countryside near the House in the Woods is completely covered in ice harder than stone)

Parking our car at 10.15am, we thought we were late, that the paths would be crowded. But during our walk we hardly met other people. A few out with their dogs, some runners. And the two of us, walking hand in hand in a winter day somewhere in the middle of the world.

Walking hand in hand? Well at least that´s what we did part of the time. I can´t hold Terje´s hand and take pictures at the same time.

And believe me, there were so many pictures to take.......

I wish I could show you all.......

....or rather, I wish I could take you all with me,
along Ladestien.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

We are back from the walk.
No Christmas parties today, which makes it a special day.

So now the rest of the day is writing time.

 

How I love the holidays!

 

Living their dream.

@brittarnhild

You have met them before in BrittArnhild´s House in the Woods. The young Italian couple who loves Norway.

Now they have left everything behind in Italy, moved to Norway, got jobs, bought a house. Living their dream.

The last time we visited them in their new house, they told us they had ordered a ping pong table, so yesterday we took the ferry over the Trondheim Fjord, ready to play some table tennis.

The last time I played was in Ethiopia, along the road. Do you remember.
I have not lost my skills since then :-)

 

I lost all the games though.
But who cares. We had so much fun.

Sonia and Fabio, we will be back. For more table tennis, for more grissini, for more amazing view from your window, and for more talking.

 

We arrived with the car filled with Christmas goodies from our Norwegian kitchen.
We left with the car filled with Christmas goodies from Sonia and Fabio´s Italian kitchen.
(this photo shows Trondheim by night, from Sonia and Fabio´s kitchen, on the other side of the fjord)

Thank you Sonia and Fabio.

Give us this day

@brittarnhild

 

On the wall in my mother´s kitchen this plate hang. Just as it did in grandma Olga´s kitchen. Give us this day our daily bread.

This prayer, part of The Lord´s prayer which Jesus told us, has been following me lately. We travelled to Ethiopia with these worlds as our headline, I blogged about daily bread in Bodji, and I am working on a series of world wide daily bread tales.

Christmas traditions is alot about food. We went to the cathedral yesterday and had communion, the body of Jesus, the blood of Jesus offered us. Then we went to my parents´home for the annual halibut dinner. 13 around the table. Food, talking, piano and viola music, singing, more food, more talk.

Norwegian homes are filled with food these days, and most of it is home made.
We make from scratch, we have to use our fingers, our hands, our hearts. We share. We sit down around the table enjoying the food and each other. We give thanks. By the way, did you know that the Norwegian way of fiving thanks is to sing a prayer before, and after the meal. 

Food is an important part of Christmas celebrations.
Give us this day our daily bread.

There are different times throughout the year.
Christmas is for feasting. There are other period for fasting.

Give us this day our daily bread God.
Help us appreciate what we have been given.
And keep our minds open never to forget the rest of the world.
Make us willing to share.

 

The Gift

@brittarnhild

 I have already told you about Marta´s advent calendar, the one she has made for me this year, with one gift for every day through advent, from December 1st till December 24th. Yesterday it was time to open the last gift. Only a tiny little gift was left in the basket, and the night before Marta made me promise that I would not open it until she was awake the next morning. Of course I promised, and then, after I had been up for a few hours already, time had come.......

With eager fingers I tore off the wrapping, to find a little piece of paper: 

Hi, this is a first clue. If you want to find the last gift in your advent calendar, you have to search where the pea is put to check if one is a princess.....

And quite right, under my mattress I found a tiny packet, shaped like a pea. Inside was another piece of paper:

This is clue number 2. You like to read books, but it is a long time since you´ve read Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone. What about checking it?

So I did of course, and here is what I found:

Your husband was quite an artist when he was young, and arent´t we lucky to have two of his pieces of art hanging here in this house. I wonder, where is that?

Haha, remind me to write a blog post about Terje´s art some day :-)
I went there, and found:

This is the forth and last clue. Thanks to you we now have a huge, fantastic television, and I was lucky to get our old one. But where is my old one now? May be together with your last gift?

I was all smiling now. I ran down the stairs to the basement, found the gift, ran back up where Terje and Marta were waiting and started unwrapping

 

 

 A doormat :-)
And now I wonder, how many of you will use it the coming year?

By the way, marta has now proved that I am NOT a princess.

:::::::::::::::::::

Merry Christmas, and thanks for all the lovely greetings yesterday.

 

Merry Christmas, god jul!

@brittarnhild

With my julekrybbe, my nativity from the Nidaros cathedral,
I am wishing all of you a Merry Christmas.

 

"Julegryta" and The Salvation Army

@brittarnhild

Yesterday was the last night of the Christmas Market in Trondheim. The market has been there for 10 days, the huge Christmas tree since the first Sunday of Advent, when the lights were lit at 5pm as always. During my childhodd we always went downtown then, to look at the tree when the lights turned on, to walk around the city to look at the Christmas decorations in the shop window, and never to forget, to admire the manger The Salvation Army had set up below the tree, and to put money into julegryta.

The manger is still there, and so is julegryta and The Salvation Army.

Terje and I had julegryteduty for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. Guarding the money, smiling, saying thanks, wishing people Merry Christmas.

My two best hours this Advent.

The Salvation Army in Norway has had a difficult December this year, after they refused to promote one of their members who is gay and is living with another man. Several artists have refused to play at the Army´s Christmas Market concerts, our soccer team Rosenborg withdrew their support and discussions have been hot in the newspapers.

 I don´t agree with The Salvation Army on this issue. I support marriage for all people, no matter their sexual orientation. But for me, for us, the solution is not to stop supporting.  The Salvation Army helps everyone, and we want to take part in this important task. There are different views among the members in Frelsesarmeen (as is the Norwegian name of the Salvation Army), and no matter their view, all people, no matter their way of life, will get support if they are in need. So instead of boycotting we became active supporters.

Terje and I loved doing our duty yesterday.
Ask us again next year, and we´ll be there.........no, you don´t need to ask, we will come by ourselves, offering our help.

.....an extra bonus doing julegryteduty was to say hello to so many friends who passed by :-)

 

Duties are done, now is letter writing time.

@brittarnhild

With the smell of soap still filling the House in the Woods, the duties housefun before the holidays is all done, and it is time to start the real fun. My Christmas writing.

I have been a terrible letter writer this year. Wait till Christmas, I have told myself again and again, then I will bring out my stationary, my favorite pens and my creativity. Then I will write Christmas letters. We have sent out the traditional joint letter to family and friends here in Norway, but any English one is not made, and will not be made. Instead I plan to write by hand letters to a long list of oversea friends. Many of you I have met this year, some of you I have never met, will never meet, but still you have a very special place in my heart.

I used to be a serious Christmas card writer. Starting in November, I sent out loads of cards, letters and stuffed envelopes. Not so any more. Let us say that my advent blogging has taken over. I do miss the letter writing days though. Or rather, I miss receiving letters. We used to have a full mailbox every single day during December. And I loved coming home from work, bring in the mail and sit down with a mug og spiced advent tea to "meet" my friends.

These days there might be days with one or two cards in the mail box, or if I am lucky four or five. There might also be days with none.

There is still one tradition I keep though. Ever year I pick out one or a few favorite cards and glue them into a special book I have. I have already picked out this year´s........you see it above. It is from Fran in England, with linocuts made by her late father, many years ago.

Fran, thank you for making this card for me.

::::::::::::::::::::::

After finishing cleaning yesterday, I started to bring out a few of our Christmas decorations. Among them an old cardboard folder where I keep grandma Olga´s Christmas card. From a time when sending Christmas card was a serious task of art.

::::::::::::::::::::::::

I plan to start my Christmas letter writing today. The letters which will be sent to the US, to England, The Netherlands, Italy, France, Canada, India, east of the sun, west of the moon. They will not reach their destination in time for Christmas, but as Christmas is a gem we keep in our heart all year, they will still arrive.....on time.

Duties are done.
Now is letter writing time.