Celebrating Christmas

This year I've celebrated a highly traditional Christmas together with Vidar and his family.

On December 23rd we went to his mother's house and had the traditional Christmas rice porridge for lunch - consumed with a healthy sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, a big dollop of butter in the middle and a glass of 'husholdningssaft', also known as "household juice" (only to google translate, and not the rest of the world, of course).

According to tradition, hidden inside the big pot of porridge is one single blanched almond, and the one who finds the almond inside the porridge on their plate receives a prize, usually marzipan in the shape of a pig.

Marzipan-pig

Butter-crisis?

What butter crisis?

It was so embarrassing 

being approached by foreign friends

when still in China

who had heard about the

"big butter crisis in Norway"

Forget about world hunger

and war

Norway has no butter!

The entire house had been painstakingly

decorated in years worth of

accumulated Christmas decoration,

including decoration 

made by Vidar and his brother

when they were kids

Thanks to my x-ray vision,

I found the almond

But since Vidar and I are living together now,

I have to share my marzipan-pig,

hmpf

Cuddling with Linus

Decorating the traditional, 

and picture perfect,

spruce tree

'Rebel'

Old Christmas decoration

Lotte and her man Thomas stopped by

Jolin sniffing the finished tree

- maybe getting a whiff of the heart-shaped

gingerbread 

Inger-Lise pouring the traditional 

Scandinavian booze,

aquavit 

I had made "delfiakake"!

Delfiakake is a traditional Christmas confectionary cake

made of coconut fat and chocolate, 

beaten egg and sugar, sweet biscuit, marzipan,

walnuts and, ehr, 'geletopper'

Very unhealthy and very tasty!

On the morning of December 24th, Vidar and I got up early and watched all of the traditional Christmas shows on TV. And I got to open a present!

Body butter from the Body Shop,

hallelujah!

Then it was time to get ready and look presentable before meeting up with Vidar's mom at the cemetery to say 'hello' to some relatives.

Family reunion

Ready for Christmas dinner!

Traditional roasted Christmas pork ribs

Vidar's dad 

and Christmas dinner..

.. roasted pork ribs, medister sausage, pork patties,

sauerkraut and lingonberry jam

Vidar's brother Lars

Cloudberries with whipped cream

for dessert

"Coffee and cakes"

Then we opened a bunch of Christmas presents and went home.

Seeing Mom and Getting My Junk Back

 Snowball,

the 14-year-old

Vidar and I went to my godforsaken hometown today, to see my mom and kid sister, and to get some of my stuff that I've kept stored at my mom's house while living in China.

 

  

Veronika,

the 17-year-old

together with

Snowball,

the grumpy 14-year-old 

 Me, sister, mom, cat

Mom has a lot of stuff growing in the living room window

Chili, mint and aloe vera - oh my!

 

 

Snowball,

taking a breather from all the crazy women 

 

Godforsaken. 

 

Mom-food

 

Mom-Christmas rice cream with 

strawberry/currant sauce

 

My sister's hair is so long

I can't help but wanting to comb

and braid it 

 

Enormous persimmon

 

Cheezy self-playing-music-Christmas-lighting 

 

.. wanting to come back in,

but doesn't get any attention

 .. starts yelling

 

 

Kid sister on the phone with boyfriend,

mother a little bit too clingy 

 

Getting some of my stuff back was like going shopping! And like seeing old friends, especially my makeup and nail polishes.

 

75 bottles of nail polish on the ground..

Vidar's best friend Jakob,

 tempted to nick one of the sparkly ones