We Do Solemnly Swear

To review:

1. We joined the local lodge of the Sons of Norway in 2008 (remember?).


2. As a family, we attended a Sons of Norway language and cultural camp last summer (remember?). There, Susan and Suzanna learned the basics of a new-to-them craft: knitting.


3. Afterwards they both started attending weekly cultural skills nights here in Dickinson hosted by our local lodge, meeting with other knitters, learning new stitches, getting ideas for new projects, etc.


4. Eventually Susan met the requirements for earning a Level 1 pin in the category of Hand Knitting in the Sons of Norway's Cultural Skills Program, and she was awarded that pin at one of our monthly lodge meetings last fall (remember?).

Well, there is a Youth Cultural Skills Program, too, and Suzanna completed the Hand Knitting unit for that, earning herself a recognition pin, too. That was awarded to her at our local lodge meeting today. Congratulations, Suzanna! Here's the proud Norske knitter and her pin:

A part of today's meeting was the installation of lodge officers for the year, so there was a little ceremony "transferring power" to us new officers. We had to pledge to uphold the constitution or its by-laws or some such thing and to carry out our duties with honor or some other virtue--I'm not really sure. But I solemnly swore to do so. I'm the vice president now; Susan is both the youth director and the newsletter editor; and Suzanna is the musician. A lodge member donated money for a keyboard to be purchased for use by the musician at lodge activities (remember?), so a couple members did some shopping and got one on loan from a music store to try out before deciding whether to purchase it. That keyboard is now at our house for Suzanna to practice on.

The newsletter archives are at our house now, too, in the form of a ginormous plastic tub full of papers. That will make for some entertaining reading for Susan, I'm sure, as she prepares to assemble her first lodge newsletter for next month. I have already suggested a new column: "Kevin's Kjøkken" [kjøkken = "kitchen"], in which I would share recipes from my weekly exploration of Scandinavian cuisine. Maybe she has too many ideas of her own to fit mine into the newsletter . . . we'll see.

Bonus: After the meeting ended, we gave a ride home to our friend Monica, the girls' "foster grandmother" (also, incidently, the keyboard-donating lodge member mentioned above), who invited us in for soda, treats, and visiting. She sent us home each with a juicy honeybell (a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit--delicious but in season only in January) and all with an appointment to return in a couple weeks for supper. How great is that?