Monthly Archives: December 2013
Norwegian Christmas: Part 3
We spent about 24 hours in Oslo this week. We had numerous meetings with local friends/partners. And we enjoyed seeing the city all decked out for Jul!
You never know what you might see near Oslo S! |
We visited Tim Wendelboe coffee with our friend Sæbjørn |
Lunch at Mathallen |
Beautiful street decorations |
Love this window display! |
Karl Johans Gate and the Palace |
Sentrum with Bente |
See the horse’s antlers? 🙂 |
Norwegian Christmas: Part 2
Pepperkake… of course, our American friends will know it better as gingerbread. And it is a big part of Norwegian Christmas tradition.
We were excited that our friends invited us to bake pepperkake with them this past week. We had so much fun! After we made lots and LOTS of cookies, the kids worked together and made a cool gingerbread house.
Homemade
Little Dude
6 Years
Norwegian Christmas: Part 1
God Jul! (Merry Christmas!)
This month we will be dedicating several blog posts to Christmas – and specifically Christmas in Norway.
We had our first official Christmas celebration on Saturday evening, as we were invited to dinner with two local couples. It was a great evening of traditional (and delicious!) Christmas food and good conversation.
Pinnekjøtt is a very traditional meat (lamb) eaten at Christmas in Norway. It starts with a curing process (salting and drying). The next step varies by region, but our hosts steamed it. Zack and I were honestly a bit nervous, but we both really liked it!
We are so thankful for friends that introduce us to the customs and traditions of this country. It’s fun to learn and experience everything!
sausages and pinnekjøtt |
Post-turkey Wrap-up
Last week was exhausting but great. We worked hard, setting up tables, creating centerpieces, translating food descriptions, and making enough food for a LOT of people.
Thursday turned out well. We got to dine with 42 of our friends. We introduced them to all of our families’ traditional Thanksgiving foods. While some weren’t that different, I have a feeling a few may have seemed odd. In particular, we saw interesting reactions from the sweet potato soufflé, cornbread dressing, heavenly hash (mandarin oranges, pineapple, coconut, marshmallows, and sour cream – yeah, that does seem weird!), and green bean casserole.
But overall, a lot of food was consumed, and it seemed that everyone enjoyed themselves. Looking forward to next year… after we rest up!
Zack preparing turkeys |
Daniel was amazed at the amount of dressing we prepared! |
Cooking, cooking, and more cooking! We were thankful to have access to a large kitchen all week. |
Zack prepared homemade cranberry sauce. All I can say is – yum! |
Macaroni and cheese – the boys both requested this |
So much food! |
My friend Hege prepared one of the turkeys – and her presentation put ours to shame! |