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Showing posts from December, 2019

How to celebrate Christmas like a Norwegian (in other words, everything we didn't do)

How to celebrate Christmas like a Norwegian: https://www.thelocal.no/20191220/how-to-celebrate-christmas-like-a-norwegian I think we missed all of these steps except for the drinking of akvavit (Swedish spelling). I don't recommend reading this if you are vegetarian.  1. Wake up and smell the Christmas stocking On the morning of December 24th, the big Christmas day in Norway, most Norwegian children get a sock filled with edible goodies that they devour in front of the telly before breakfast. As you may know Norwegians tend to be relatively obsessed with healthy breakfasts (sugary toppings are frowned upon), so for a kid, getting to stuff your face full of chocolate as soon as you wake up renders the the 24th even more magical. 2. Watch a poorly dubbed Czech film While you eat your chocolate, remember to switch on national broadcaster NRK in time to watch the ultimate Christmas movie, Tre nøtter til Askepott (‘Three nuts for Cinderella’). Believe it or not, watching a Cze

Julafton & God Jul: Christmas Eve & Merry Christmas

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We're in Lillehammer, Norway to celebrate Christmas with Chris' parents, Linda and Steve. I'll catch up on Denmark at a later date... time is still moving quickly. We left Stockholm on Sunday, Dec. 22nd, having rented a 9 passenger van (late rental = limited options for something large enough to haul our skis around). Good news is that a 9 passenger van + all our stuff = plenty of room to stuff the Christmas tree in as well- so we did! 8 hour drive from Stockholm to Lillehammer- no snow until we hit the border with Norway. Beautiful to come up along the lake and into Lillehamer- snow banks galore. Linda & Steve rented a lovely airbnb an easy walk to town. They flew into Oslo and took the train up, staying Sat. night to get over their jetlag.  Happy to be out of the car, the kids could hardly resist not sharing the surprise we'd hauled with us... so we pulled out the tree and soon had it set up again, ornaments homemade in Sweden with the help of my mom earl