HAPPY EASTER (god påske!)

This is my last day at work before Easter vacation. Actually, the kids have the whole week off from school. A large part of Norwegians take vacation up in the mountains at their cabin (most Norwegians have a cabin somewhere), where they whisk their families away, taking only skis, food, chocolate and detective novels... For those of you that are not familiar with Norwegian culture, Norway is a religious state, and Lutheran is the national religion... which means that all Lutheran holy days are official holidays. So, officially, all businesses and stores are closed from thursday to monday, opening again on tuesday... Read an excerpt from a website about Norwegian Easter traditions:

NORWEGIAN EASTER TRADITIONS:To a Norwegian Easter signifies days in the mountains, staying in the cabins that so many own, reading detective novels. It also means ski trips with oranges in one's rucksack and chocolate eaten by a sunny wall. These traditions are strongly linked to Easter despite the official statistics which say that that today only ten to fifteen per cent of the population go away at Easter. The colour of Easter is yellow and its symbols are tulips and daffodils, chicks and coloured eggs. Easter eggs are made of cardboard and filled with goodies for both children and adults.

But we're not going away to a cabin to go skiing, however, we're leaving thursday morning and taking a little roadtrip to Molde to visit Arnt-Einar's cousin and their new baby, then a little trip through Kristiansund, then back home though Oppdal to visit some friends of Arnt-Einar's parents. Monday I plan to do a little baking with my neighbor's daughter, Maja. Last night, she and I went to the movies to see Robots, and then to the youth center for pizza, ping pong and board games.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!