Anyways, Christmas in Norway is very different than Christmas in America! First, it runs a whole lot longer, but they don't get ready for it as early as we do. Christmas here really starts after Christmas Eve and runs into January, so you can really celebrate it through your break. Through Christmas beak many people meet up with family, have people over for coffee and there are a lot of party's and things like that. People also usually get very dressed up when they go to any of these gatherings and especially on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so that was really special and I definitely got a good wear out of my one dress I brought here, haha! Luckily though, my host sister and I are about the same size ;)
This year I also got to tree hunt for our own tree for the first time! My family owns a uncultivated property close to where we live and after about a half an hour of searching with my host brother for just the right tree we finally found a little crooked, but perfect in just its own way tree. It was a bit tall, so much so we actually had to buy a few extra Christmas ornaments for it! But it turned out really beautiful and to me it was one of the prettiest, and simple Christmas trees I had ever seen. Honestly, I would prefer the Norwegian Christmas tree over the American one any day. The trees themselves are not as full as the American trees and not so full of ornaments, the lights are light bulbs that look like candles and at least in my home we had a really simple star as the topper. Maybe its just my host moms way of doing things, but I was really impressed with our pretty Norwegian tree.
The timing for the tree is different than what I was used to before as well. With my US family we put up our tree in early/ middle of December and take it down almost the day after Christmas, my family here put up their tree only a few days before and we had it up just until the second week in January.
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day up at my family's cabin so we actually had a white Christmas! Believe it or not it was completely green where I live in Norway the entire season and I think actually warmer here than it was in The States! I had a great time celebrating Christmas, I even got to try true Norwegian cross country skiing! After spending the majority of the time on my "rompe" ,I quickly realized that I am much better at slalom, but I had fun anyways and would definitely go again!
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Alrighty, I could go on because even with all of that there are so many things I have missed, but now looking at the length of this blog I think I will have to end this here. If that was too long to read and you just ended up skimming through, I'll sum it up, I had a wonderful Christmas in Norway all because of my wonderful host family and friends, one I will definitely always remember it for the rest of my life. Thank you everyone. :)
This year I also got to tree hunt for our own tree for the first time! My family owns a uncultivated property close to where we live and after about a half an hour of searching with my host brother for just the right tree we finally found a little crooked, but perfect in just its own way tree. It was a bit tall, so much so we actually had to buy a few extra Christmas ornaments for it! But it turned out really beautiful and to me it was one of the prettiest, and simple Christmas trees I had ever seen. Honestly, I would prefer the Norwegian Christmas tree over the American one any day. The trees themselves are not as full as the American trees and not so full of ornaments, the lights are light bulbs that look like candles and at least in my home we had a really simple star as the topper. Maybe its just my host moms way of doing things, but I was really impressed with our pretty Norwegian tree.
The timing for the tree is different than what I was used to before as well. With my US family we put up our tree in early/ middle of December and take it down almost the day after Christmas, my family here put up their tree only a few days before and we had it up just until the second week in January.
My host brother standing with our tree, I think he's almost 7 ft so you can imagine how tall our tree was!
Really beautiful hand knitted Christmas ornaments that were being sold at a Christmas fair near where I live. I actually got one from my host aunt that she knitted for Christmas in black and white :)
My family also had an advent calender starting December first and going until Christmas Eve. Myself and my host brother and sister all took turns getting calender gifts every three days. I got some candy, socks for skiing and a full sample set of Burts Bees products. Yep, felt super spoiled :)
Our Advent Calender
We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day up at my family's cabin so we actually had a white Christmas! Believe it or not it was completely green where I live in Norway the entire season and I think actually warmer here than it was in The States! I had a great time celebrating Christmas, I even got to try true Norwegian cross country skiing! After spending the majority of the time on my "rompe" ,I quickly realized that I am much better at slalom, but I had fun anyways and would definitely go again!
Skis hanging outside our cabin
One of the buildings on my host family's property sits and the outhouse behind it (yes yes, of course I had to include a picture of the bathroom!)
Christmas Eve myself and 11 other of our family all got dressed up, ate a really great dinner and afterwards opened up our Christmas presents! I think I probably got more presents this year than I have ever gotten before, so thank you everyone for that! Felt very special :) The next day we had a special breakfast and spent the day in the cabin watching Christmas specials and visiting before sitting down for another special Christmas dinner, I haven't weighed myself quite yet but I'm pretty sure I gained at least five pounds through Christmas... at least...
Christmas Eve Dinner
Ok so I think I'll end this on what to me is one of the best things through Christmas, FOOD. :) The Christmas food here is very special and most of it is only sold, made and eaten at this time of the year. I think we have a few similar things in the US, but I don't think we have so much. I definitely can imagine how great having these kind of traditions may be to help it really to feel like Christmas and to look forward to every year.
Lutefisk
Honestly, after eating Lutefisk about three times now I can conclude that I really like it! Not a strong fishy flavor at all, the consistency is at first a little weird, but paired with bacon, potatoes and peas I really like it! Honestly that is something I never thought I would say, but I was really happily surprised and look forward to hopefully making it in The States next year (To my American family reading this: Yes, you all have to eat it, no choice).
Not my picture, but what we eat looks exactly the same!
Jule Brus
This is super sweet soda is bubbly and yummy and is a favorite with kids!
Side note: See the white line around the top and bottom? Norway recycles their bottles after being cleaned and sterilized, so that's the reminisce of the soda it was used for before!
Rib
Pork cooked in the oven with a crunchy layer of bacon on top! Yumm... My past vegetarian self would kill me for this one...
Pine Kjøtt
Cured lamb ribs that are very salty and are made just how they did when there was no refrigerators(this isn't my picture because I forgot to take one...).
Jule Kake
For Christmas my host mom made 12 different kinds of cookies. All were so amazing... The thing I really like about Norwegian cookies and cake is that none of them are too sweet. Of course this means you can just eat more and more of them, which ends up not being so great for your waist line, but hey I'm only here for a year, so I figure I can afford it. ;)
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