We had a good time, met allot of family and ate allot of food (safe to say I was pretty stuffed several times during the weekend) :)
The rite of passage was nice, although they could probably have spared some of the performances, the ones that were nice, were really nice. There was two girls playing guitar in the beginning, and this one girl had a voice JUST like Jolie Holland, which is an artist i really admire. Oh yeah, and Anders (my little brother) didn’t get his rite of passage in church, but rather a humane society rite of passage.

On our way back we had some problems and got pretty stressed out. See I (Johnny) did the clever thing of forgetting to write down the reference number for our trip back, because I thought I could just show them my VISA card at the desk, and they’d give it to us. Alas, at Skien there is no desk of course, only a silly machine, so when we got on the train, we had to get a number to the support phone for the train company, get a referance number from them and pick up the tickets 2 stations after Skien. Luckily everything went smooth and we got our tickets. Otherwise we’d have to pay allot extra… :]

Today I got up at around one, had a good long shower and fixed myself up for the evening to come. Mom had made rice porridge which is custom in our family and of course the almond was in place in a random bowl of porridge (well it was really a peanut, seeing as mom didn’t have any almonds, but who’s picky). And of course, after just two bites, it was mine! All mine :D And the reward, a marzipan pig and a scratch ticket. Sadly I didn’t win, but it was fun non the less.
After watching the obligatory Christmas movies, like the Disney Christmas, Tante Pose and of course the butler and the countess which is also a tradition to watch here in Norway., my grandfather shows up and it’s time for dinner.
As is tradition in our family, we have rib for Christmas, and rice pudding. However this year the rib wasn’t particularly good. It was way too much fat on it and was just sickening if you ate too much. The meaty parts were ok though, but I’d really wish it had been a bit better. Still, I ate until I couldn’t eat any more, so I guess it wasn’t that bad :p

After relaxing a bit, trying to get the rib to settle, it was of course time for the coffee and cakes. Man we eat allot on Christmas…..Anyway, after a few sips, my brother can’t stop nagging about opening presents, so my mom gives the go. He runs for the presents and starts throwing them to everyone as fast as possible.

I got quite allot of stuff actually, especially seeing as my age kind of makes people stop buying presents for me. Being old sucks…

Anyway, this is what I got for Christmas:
- 3000kr.
- A warm wool sweater.
- wool underwear.
- 007 – On her majesty’s secret service.
- A book called “Drageløperen” or “The Kite runner” in English.
- A couple of dvds my brother made with various shows on them.
- And the best present of the year in my opinion:

A very snazzy teapot with glasses :D

I also got a tea called “Høstflørt” (Fall flirt) with them. I’m sure Alina will love them as well, as she’s just as much a tea drinker as I am.

Now I’d just like to post a few pictures I’ve taken in order to properly give that Christmas feel.

This is our Christmas tree, for being the first time ever where I wasn’t the one cordinating the decorations on the Christmas tree, I think it turned out pretty good.

This is a bowl of nuts, go figure :p

And last, but not least, a crackling fire (all tough taken with a very slow shutter speed, so it looks kind of fancy and purple-like)

Tomorrow is the big drinking day here in Skien, so I’m going over to a friends house with around 13-14 people and will no doubt drink until I can’t see straight, then of course head out on town and drink some more. I am however not looking forward to walking home afterwards, but I’ll probably manage.
Hopefully I’ll have enough to drink on though, I’m getting some beers from my stepdad, but that’s it really. I’ll probably mooch a bit of my friends though, some vodka or something, so there will no doubt be enough intoxication ;)

Well, it’s due time for some sleeping now. Even though it’s just as late as it was yesterday. Man I sure hope I get my sleeping patterns adjusted by the time I’m heading back to Trondheim, otherwise I’ll have a hard time getting to work.

Good night, and Merry Christmas to you all!

Yeah! I realized a couple of days ago that i really wanted to go to Storåsfestivalen ,so i just bought some tickets on pure impulse, and tomorrow I’m heading up there. I’m really looking forward to it ^^. We’re even having a band camp with banners and the lot! I’ll see if i can do some blogging trough my cellphone from there so i can do a live updated on what I’m up to there :)

In other news, it seems i might have caught myself a bit of a girlfriend….And i love it! She’s a great girl, 19 years from Ålesund and she’s going to study IT on the university this fall. More to come, i presume :]

Here’s a coarse rundown to how my day was, for those that might be interested.
I woke up around 12 and had a shower. Trimmed my beard a bit, and had breakfast (4 slices of bread if you must know). Next up, checking time and noticing that it’s 25 minutes until the citizen march is starting, so i throw on some warm clothing (seeing as it was about 6 degrees when i was heading) and head off. Go into town and finally manage to fight my way trough the crows to get a good spot up front. During the 20 minutes i stand there watching i notice a few familiar faces: Marit, Berit and Ingvill. Unfortunately i fail to take any pictures because my stupid digital camera decides to crash and spew out annoying E30 error messages, so i didn’t get to take any pictures.

After wandering around for a while, once the march was done, trying to figure out what to do and where to go (i really didn’t want to go back home, seeing as it was only about 15:00), another familiar face jump out in front of me and gives me a hug, Maja. She decides for me that i should hang with her posse for a while, and seeing as i didn’t have anywhere else to go, i figure what the hell. Walking around for a while, more or less aimlessly, suddenly everyone runs off, and me and Maja is left standing, so we wander around a bit, just laughing at people and their strange outfits, and talking about random stuff.
After Maja gets back in touch with her gang, we head to visit their flat, which ends up being one of the top apartments dead center of town, in one of those new buildings they built. It’s a gigantic apartment with a private porch and the lot, really classy stuff. Ended up hanging around there for a while, then figuring it was about time to head home for dinner, Maja was about to go as well, so i didn’t want to stay behind, i felt i was intruding enough as it was.

Heading back home, and having just awesome weather, i meet with Elin just above solsiden. We have a quick chat, i give her a hug and wish her a happy day (like we do during our celebrations), even though I’m not that much of a nationalist, who am i to decline the opportunity to get a hug from a pretty lady? ;)

After heading home, i made some quick dinner, watched the latest episode of lost, and that’s it. Now I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to do the rest of the day. Weather is still fine, but there’s not much to do outside, so I’ll probably be spending the rest of the afternoon inside. I was thinking maybe i should get some work done on my web page, but who knows, time will tell. All in all though, it was a nice day, and i enjoyed it. Tomorrow, it’s back to “work” a.k.a wandering around town delivering applications to various stores hoping i might get something to do this summer.

This weekend I’m not really sure what’s going down. I’ve got no money, so drinking is out of the question (even though i really really want to). I might invite some people over for a movie though, that would probably be nice, we’ll see.