Family Time

July 10th

Sunday afternoon the clan descended on Froland.  A meeting house was reserved for what became a pretty large party.  Those places are a Norwegian tradition.  They are a community center available to whoever wants to use them, at little or no charge.  It had a kitchen, large dining room, and plenty of parking.  Norwegians must be a punctual group.  Everybody rolled in right on schedule at 4:00 pm.  Some of the cars were relatively unique.

The Lauvraks today are a far flung family.  We visited during Norway's vacation season.  Laila estimated half the people who could have come were gallivanting around Europe and not available.  Some that did drove from far away.  While Gail and I provided an excuse to rally, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to see each other.  They all don't come together very often.  It turned into a fun reunion.  These are the cousins!

A hundred years ago Norwegians had large families.  Over time the age variations grew increasingly wide.  Laila is 15 years younger than me.  My father was 31 years older.  They were direct cousins.  During the party I had to keep scratching my head, trying to fathom which generation was which.  I gave up after a while.  (More cousins.)

We had another fine feast.  This time Gunnar's daughter Ingunn did the honors, orchestrating the dinner.  I should have snapped a picture of all the guys taking these pictures.  That was another group in itself.  The family appears to be in good hands.  The next generation -- Ida, Isabel, Jenny, and Natalie -- all wore their party dresses!

Laila and Per Gunnar entertained us before the party.  Their children Eline and Thomas were polite to join.  They offered a look into what it's like to grow up in Norway today.  Thomas joined the armed forces after graduating from high school.  He served for a year.  Thomas plans to become a professional engineer like his father.  He starts graduate school in the fall.  Eline declined to follow the military route.  She will be studying music next year before going off to college in 2017.  Espsen (middle), who we were unable to meet, is up north in Ulsteinvik.  He is out of school, working on the refugee situation.