Happy BDay to Me!

Yesterday was my "first birthday". Ed bought little Norwegian flags on toothpicks to decorate the salmon, baked potato and asparagus dinner he cooked. He declared it my first Norwegian birthday. What fun!

He gave me (us) a print of Nikolai Astrup's Kari as well. We fell in love with that painting on our summer vacation to Jølster. Astrup lived at the turn of the 1900's and painted local scenes, adding imaginative hidden images in many of them - not Kari, though. You can see his work from the link on his name, if you want. Look at Bird on a rock or Daybreak in March for hidden pictures.

My year started out pretty good - I didn't break any laws during my second driving lesson! Harald's knuckles were still flesh-colored instead of white at the end, too.

Ed and I had so much fun last weekend. Anastasia came to visit. Here's us showing off our new hats. We spent about a half an hour trying on all sorts of hats at a tourist joint. We picked the ones covered with Norwegian flags and braided tassles. Anastasia brought pie pans and really tough weather with her, so Sunday we stayed inside in the afternoon and baked a banana cream pie. We all took turns hand-whipping the egg whites for the meringue. Guess what my second birthday present was? An electric beater! Is that a hint to make more?

The bright things on our arms are "refleksors", which everyone is supposed to wear so that you are visible to drivers in the dark. They work, as you can see!