tacksägelse
sunday morning barb woke up with a mission and that mission was to save the pumpkin/squash pie. so she made a new pie crust with a different recipe--a more reasonable recipe and she patched together a pie crust with that new recipe and the left overs from my attempt. and she did it. it worked. hallelujah. in the meantime the turkey was taken from it's bath on the balcony and patted dry. then we shoved things inside her. things like apple, lemon, garlic, butter, herbs and spices. we stuffed butter under her skin and barb tied her legs together and tucked her wings under her and we popped her in the oven just before we left for church. the husband of barb promised to baste the bird while we were at church.
it was one of those gorgeous fall days and the walk to church was lovely. for the most part we were along side the river and we strolled at a leisurely pace and enjoyed ourselves and generally chitchatted away. we reached the chapel by going under the road and up some cute stone steps. inside we were greeted by many people. barb introduced me to everyone. one guy was a swedish guy who was just a kid when i was on my mission. he remembered elders tuttle and kimball. elder tuttle was in my mtc group and elder kimball was my district leader the 2nd time i was in östersund. he said that they used to watch the fresh prince of belair at his house. insert a shocked face here. then he said something happened and they both got really into missionary work. a few minutes into the service barb showed me a text from t saying how do you add liquid to the bird, and then that he poured cold water on it. both of us almost jumped up and ran home yelling tearing our hair out. lol. but that husband of barb. he was pulling our proverbial leg. barb had the sister missionaries translate for her. she wore head phones. i wanted it see if i could understand. and i could. it was fast and testimony meeting and i understood everyone. i think the time at the temple really changed things for me with understanding norwegian. like flipped a switch. i even understood the bishop's wife who had a strong drammen accent. then we had relief society in the same room. the teacher used a power point with really cute art by lisa aisato. her lesson was on a talk by president eyring. church was nice. oh, during sacrament we were sitting behind this family with 3 or so kids. the dad was sitting there busily knitting a sweater. that's normal here. i love scandinavia. i just had this moment in church when i was feeling just immersed in that intangible feeling. immersed in this place, these people. i love these people so much and this culture. it was like i was remembering. it was like "oh yeah, i used to live here (not norway but you know what i mean) and i used to have joy in these people. and love them and their ways....and i still do." and i felt so grateful to be back. what a gift. a good gift. my heart was bursting with the goodness of it. after church i talked a bit with the bishop. he's from sweden and was from handen my fist ward. he told me that per nilsson, a man who used to enjoy my sarcasim, passed away a few years ago. i remember calling him and telling him that so and so, who we were teaching, seemed to like him, and adding " i don't know why..." and then feeling shocked that i actually said that, and he belting out a laugh. and i remember seeing him in malmö at the big conference when president monson was there to make it a stake and syster lawrence and i were companions again. we were in a huge auditorium and i remember nudging her, "hey there's bro nilsson!" and he swooped up to us arms wide "flickor!" (girls!) and enfolded us in an embrace. ... anyways here are some lisa aisato art that was used in the lesson. i really like her work. the last one wasn't in the lesson but barb and i saw it in an art gallery shop the next day and i feel like it's me.
after church we walked home and it was still a lovely walk. somehow we started talking about the budgets you get in your different callings and barb was talking over me and i was like "barb you have to let me talk. this is not a conversation!" and then she let me talk and i forgot what i was going to say. haha.
back at home we got jiggy with our thanksgiving dinner. baking the pie, doing the roasted roots, baking the stuffing, making the gravy, baking the apple crisp, mashing the potatoes, and sweet potatoes. the pumpkin pie was a real wild card. we weren't sure if it would turn out and it was using up oven time. but in the end it all worked out. the husband of barb mr. tall t himself carved the turkey. and we piled all of our bounty on the coffee table and all the special drinks were put out. we were just waiting for jessica who hadn't showed up yet.
turned out she was just late. had thought the time was an hour later. we started without her. barb asked us all to say what we were thankful for. she started us off and got teary. tallt was like this is not what norwegians do, but he and hovard his son, both did it however uncomfy it was and i did too and then we ate and ate and ate. \and jessica showed up and ate a teensy tiny bit but gratifyingly said she like my roasted roots. t was surprised that he like the stuffing which was also nice for me since barb had sassed me about it. :)
after dinner we played games. i taught them unstable unicorns, we played headbandz/20 questions, and jessica taught us this crazy game which involved matching patterns and grabbing a squeezie thing in the middle of the table. it was fun, but i lost. then jessica showed us celine dion on james cordon's car karaoke. she thinks she's hilarious. the way jessica laughs is very infectious. t wandered off to bed and jessica left and barb managed to get most of the food in the fridge somehow. we left the chaos of the kitchen to another day.
it was one of those gorgeous fall days and the walk to church was lovely. for the most part we were along side the river and we strolled at a leisurely pace and enjoyed ourselves and generally chitchatted away. we reached the chapel by going under the road and up some cute stone steps. inside we were greeted by many people. barb introduced me to everyone. one guy was a swedish guy who was just a kid when i was on my mission. he remembered elders tuttle and kimball. elder tuttle was in my mtc group and elder kimball was my district leader the 2nd time i was in östersund. he said that they used to watch the fresh prince of belair at his house. insert a shocked face here. then he said something happened and they both got really into missionary work. a few minutes into the service barb showed me a text from t saying how do you add liquid to the bird, and then that he poured cold water on it. both of us almost jumped up and ran home yelling tearing our hair out. lol. but that husband of barb. he was pulling our proverbial leg. barb had the sister missionaries translate for her. she wore head phones. i wanted it see if i could understand. and i could. it was fast and testimony meeting and i understood everyone. i think the time at the temple really changed things for me with understanding norwegian. like flipped a switch. i even understood the bishop's wife who had a strong drammen accent. then we had relief society in the same room. the teacher used a power point with really cute art by lisa aisato. her lesson was on a talk by president eyring. church was nice. oh, during sacrament we were sitting behind this family with 3 or so kids. the dad was sitting there busily knitting a sweater. that's normal here. i love scandinavia. i just had this moment in church when i was feeling just immersed in that intangible feeling. immersed in this place, these people. i love these people so much and this culture. it was like i was remembering. it was like "oh yeah, i used to live here (not norway but you know what i mean) and i used to have joy in these people. and love them and their ways....and i still do." and i felt so grateful to be back. what a gift. a good gift. my heart was bursting with the goodness of it. after church i talked a bit with the bishop. he's from sweden and was from handen my fist ward. he told me that per nilsson, a man who used to enjoy my sarcasim, passed away a few years ago. i remember calling him and telling him that so and so, who we were teaching, seemed to like him, and adding " i don't know why..." and then feeling shocked that i actually said that, and he belting out a laugh. and i remember seeing him in malmö at the big conference when president monson was there to make it a stake and syster lawrence and i were companions again. we were in a huge auditorium and i remember nudging her, "hey there's bro nilsson!" and he swooped up to us arms wide "flickor!" (girls!) and enfolded us in an embrace. ... anyways here are some lisa aisato art that was used in the lesson. i really like her work. the last one wasn't in the lesson but barb and i saw it in an art gallery shop the next day and i feel like it's me.
after church we walked home and it was still a lovely walk. somehow we started talking about the budgets you get in your different callings and barb was talking over me and i was like "barb you have to let me talk. this is not a conversation!" and then she let me talk and i forgot what i was going to say. haha.
back at home we got jiggy with our thanksgiving dinner. baking the pie, doing the roasted roots, baking the stuffing, making the gravy, baking the apple crisp, mashing the potatoes, and sweet potatoes. the pumpkin pie was a real wild card. we weren't sure if it would turn out and it was using up oven time. but in the end it all worked out. the husband of barb mr. tall t himself carved the turkey. and we piled all of our bounty on the coffee table and all the special drinks were put out. we were just waiting for jessica who hadn't showed up yet.
sarah sent me a comment on this photo that i was a cutie bird.
turned out she was just late. had thought the time was an hour later. we started without her. barb asked us all to say what we were thankful for. she started us off and got teary. tallt was like this is not what norwegians do, but he and hovard his son, both did it however uncomfy it was and i did too and then we ate and ate and ate. \and jessica showed up and ate a teensy tiny bit but gratifyingly said she like my roasted roots. t was surprised that he like the stuffing which was also nice for me since barb had sassed me about it. :)
after dinner we played games. i taught them unstable unicorns, we played headbandz/20 questions, and jessica taught us this crazy game which involved matching patterns and grabbing a squeezie thing in the middle of the table. it was fun, but i lost. then jessica showed us celine dion on james cordon's car karaoke. she thinks she's hilarious. the way jessica laughs is very infectious. t wandered off to bed and jessica left and barb managed to get most of the food in the fridge somehow. we left the chaos of the kitchen to another day.
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