Afternoon Tea in Peacock Alley at the Willard

The Venerable Willard Hotel
(President Ulysses S. Grant held meetings in the lobby of this hotel with people seeking favors and thus the new verb "to lobby" entered the English lexicon.)

The Lobby of the Willard decked out for the holidays

The DCDC Group: Jodi, Synthia, Christine
Jodi and Synthia are enjoying a cup of Ginger Twist
Christine opted for the Willard Blend

Afternoon Tea began with fruit in a chocolate sleigh
(Secret: We all greedily ate the sleighs when we finished the fruit!)

A delightful array of delectable sandwiches, tasty scones, and scrumptious mini-desserts

Having afternoon tea was an exquisite experience! Our sitting began at 2. We sipped, we nibbled, we talked. Then Synthia at a certain point looked at her watch. "My goodness," she exclaimed. "It's 4:30!" As they say, "Time flies when you are having fun!"

Carol's Birthday: Proof and Hide/Seek

Sons of Norway Christmas Party

Breakfast with St. Nicholas

Norwegian Party in Class

Our engaging Norwegian teacher Knut and his son at our end-of-class party

Norwegian cheeses and flatbread

Norwegian almond cake, lefse with butter and cinnamon, rice pudding, and other delicious food.

Nicole, Andres, and George

Jennifer looks over the delicious spread

George enjoys Solo, a Norwegian orange soda

Thanksgiving #3

We celebrated Thanksgiving a third time with our dear friends George and Dal. They treated us to a fabulous meal at Finemondo in the District.

I had ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and Amaretto crumbs with sage and butter sauce. Yum!

Andrea and I shared a slice of torta di ricotta. It was definitely not the torta di ricotta that we enjoyed in Italy.

Thanksgiving #2

We celebrated Thanksgiving a second time with our dear friend Dona. We had a delightful lunch at the Italian restaurant in Shirlington Village, Extra Virgin. Sorry but no photos of the food. I remembered to take my camera, of course, but I left the chip on my computer at home.

Chris and Dona

Dona and Andrea
(Oh, Dorothy!!)

Thanksgiving at the Melonis

We began with a dazzling array of appetizers. My favorites? the apricot cheese and the cranberry goat cheese. Christian, as usual, went for the salami and prosciutto.

Christian is a take-charge kind of guy. He organized three contests.

First Contest: The Best Pumpkin Pie

I won the pumpkin pie contest. My mother would be proud! Christian was the wise judge.

Second Contest: The Paper Airplane That Traveled the Farthest

Christian won the paper airplane contest.

Third Contest: The Winner of the Wii Bowling Contest

[insert photo of Colin]

There were two teams: Andrea and Marcello bowled against Christian and Colin. The victory of Christian and Colin was decisive. Christian threw almost all strikes. Colin threw mostly strikes and spares. (Have they been practicing?) Marcello was pretty good but not as good as his sons. Andrea threw no strikes, no spares, and numerous gutter balls, to the delight of everyone.

[add photos of food]

Sons of Norway Christmas Bazaar

The Sons of Norway bazaar is always a very special event. It was held again this year at the Elks Club in Fairfax. I worked there on Friday and took my grandsons on Saturday.

They each had a certain sum to spend so they did their shopping first.

They are looking at the display of beautiful rosemaling.

Christian then chose this ugly troll who is apparently kidnapping a lovely princess.

Then the boys relaxed with Norwegian waffles, one of their very favorite foods. This year the jam was raspberry instead of strawberry. They decided that they prefer strawberry while I prefer raspberry.

Most everyone wears a Norwegian sweater. Some lucky women show off their elaborate bunads. Here is SON lodge member Melanie.

Amici Italiani di Fairfax Meet Up

Carlo and Betsy hosted a potluck at their home. It was a fun evening of Italian food and Italian conversation.

We began by enjoying delicious appetizers from a table in the living room.

Linda

John and Armanda

Christine

Carlo and Betsy

Carlo and Andrea

We then went to the kitchen where an attractive Italian buffet met our eyes.

John and Linda

Armanda and Andrea

The piece de resistance was the polenta with mushrooms prepared by Armanda.

The evening concluded with an interesting slide show by Carlo and Betsy of their recent trip to Italy.

One Small Step for Man

Christian and I attended a marvelous performance at the Kennedy Center. to be continued

Norwegian Almond Cake

Christian and Colin love to bake in our kitchen. Their latest triumph was a Norwegian almond cake. I bought an almond cake pan from Ingebretsen's in Minneapolis. Another tradition was born. The boys are becoming more Norwegian all the time! (That's Christian in the background.)

For Colin the best part of this cooking experience was sniffing the almond extract. He found it intoxicating.

Oksana's Birthday at Aroma

We feted Oskana on her birthday. This was our second annual Oksana birthday celebration. Those present were, from left to right, George, Susan, Jack, Christine, the Birthday Girl, and Andrea.

Wonderful Indian food at the Aroma restaurant near GW! I always choose the Vegetarian platter with its delightful assortment of my favorite dishes (seen above).

Oksana's choice

Norwegian Waffles at the Melonis

I bought a Norwegian waffle iron and a new tradition was born at our house. Christian and Colin adore these waffles and always demand them for breakfast when they sleep over.

Andrea prepares the waffle batter.

Andrea pours the batter on the waffle iron.

The Norwegian waffle is made up of five hearts.

You can eat them with your hands or with a knife and fork.

Christian is ready to spread strawberry jam on his waffle.

Colin is ready to dig in. "Hurry up! Take the photo! I'm starving!"

Private Tour of the Munch Exhibit

Members of the Washington Lodge of the Sons of Norway with the tour guide Sally Epstein

Tormod's Visit: Day Two

Tormod's Visit: Day One

We were very happy to have two Norwegian visitors with us for the week-end. We enjoyed showing them the important places in our nation's capital.

First Stop: The 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon
My cousin Tormod with his friend Elin

Second Stop: The National Museum of the American Indian

Third Stop: The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Lord of the Rings 3: Wolf Trap

A fantastic evening!

View from our table at the restaurant

First a pleasant dinner at Wolf Trap's Ovations

Portobello mushroom and watercress on top of mashed potatoes and eggplant

Then a spectacular performance - the showing of the third film of the LOTR trilogy with a live orchestra and choir. Exceptional!!!