Goodbye 2013 ~ Hello 2014

Wow, what a year 2013 was for our family.  For some reason odd numbered years are always big for our family…Jan & I met in 2001, moved into together in 2003, we were married in 2005, I finished my degree finally in 2007, Rebecca was born in 2009, Marcus in 2011, and now we moved to Norway in 2013.  Don't get me wrong, our even years aren't boring but there is something about the odd numbered years.

We had a quiet New Year's eve day.  I had a little time to myself, so I went into the city center and walked around.  I had asked the question to my Facebook expat group if anyone knew where I could get some black eyed peas.  For those of you, who aren't from the Southern United States, its a tradition to eat black eye peas, cabbage, and pork, I'm sure I am missing something.  I was told to try an Asian market in town, thanks to the trusty google maps for getting me to the street I needed to find.  Then when I walk into a store, I found cornmeal, I was one happy person.  I did find the black eyed peas as well, but I was super excited about the cornmeal.

I made it to a fireworks stand and picked up some sparklers for the kids to twirl around.  I would love to set off some of the big ones but Rebecca is sensitive to the loud noises the fireworks make.  So we have fun with the sparklers.

We had a quiet evening just the four of us at our new home.  As soon as the sun set, we started hearing fireworks around the neighborhood.  Then we went out about 8:30, typically the kids bedtime but tonight was special so we put on our warm clothes and headed out the door.  we walked up to a hill behind our neighborhood but we couldn't see very much.  Then lit our sparklers.  Rebecca was a little reserved but Marcus as soon as he knew what to do he wanted to twirl them around in big circles.  The three packs of sparklers were finished pretty quick but they had fun.  One safety note, the fireworks stand worker asked if I wanted any safety glasses I said sure, he asked how many children and adults.  I said two of each, yes they have child size safety glasses.  Do you really think anyone wore them?  Yes, our safety child, wore hers but no-one else did.  She kept them on until we asked her to take them off so we could take a family photo.  The best one was with her safety glasses on ;-)

sorry for the blur but it was raining. 

Jan showing Marcus how to do the sparker...

our safety girl…she loved wearing the safety glasses ;-)

We headed back towards the house but took a little detour.  Someone was lighting some fireworks, we stopped and waited then…they started shooting in the air. BANG BANG, not good, Rebecca didn't like it at all and was holding her little ears.  The kids were in the double BOB strollers so Jan took off running, he said if that box tips over this way we will be right in the blasting zone, not a good thing.  We get back home, Rebecca is determined to stay up later and later.  I think she was scared of all the fireworks going off.  Marcus finally passed out around 10pm and Rebecca was running from window to window looking at the fireworks.  Poor girl, she fell asleep about 15minutes before 2014 and missed the midnight fireworks.

About a few minutes before midnight, bang bang bang bang, the sky was lit up everywhere.  We are close to the top of a hill in the neighborhood so we could see all the way down to the fjord and the North Sea.  It was amazing, here in Norway private citizens can purchase and set off the type of fireworks typically only allowed by "professionals" in the USA… I stood up on a concrete wall on the patio and could see for miles, fireworks all over the area.  I went up to the balcony on the upper floor and it was absolutely amazing and beautiful.  This went on for about 20 minutes.  We were worried it would wake up the kids…but for some reason tonight they slept through all the fireworks.   I'm glad they didn't wake, maybe next year they can see the midnight fireworks.  Sorry none of the photos turned out to share…cloudy and raining don't mix well with cameras.

New Year's Day 2014.  We took the kids out for a short walk to the neighborhood playground to play for a while.   The playground looked like it was a base camp for fireworks…they were everywhere on the ground.   Later, we had our black eyed peas, cabbage, pork chops and cornbread for lunch.  Then we go over to Bestemor's house for a light dinner.  It was a great start to 2014.