Julaften

I am in the middle of my second Christmas celebrated in Norway. Christmas Eve has passed, and now begins a new day of eating, being with the family, eating, playing the new family game together, eating, drinking coffee, and more eating!But, now is the time to reflect on yesterday.
In the afternoon we went to Church - the state church, actually - a more traditional and liturgical service than I am used to. This year I was not struck quite so hard with the fact that they were singing the Christmas songs in the "wrong" language. I do, however, tend to prefer them in English - for sentimental reasons and because I don't have to think so hard about how to pronounce things.

I was prepared for a handful of things this year, since it is not ALL new... but there are a few differences. I am staying with a different family, who speak a different dialect (but thankfully not a really hard one) and who have some slightly different ways of doing things. Suddenly I wonder how weird my family seems to someone coming in from the outside! And I always thought we were normal! Anyhoo... We had Pinnekjøtt (salted and dried ribs of mutton/sheep) and Kålrabi and potatoes for dinner. I have been trying with Sharon, the American cook at our base, to figure out just what Kålrabi is in English. last night I had a breakthrough - I looked in a dictionary. It is Rutabaga (Swedish/yellow turnip) - Mystery solved.
After dinner there was a short time of painful grunts and stretching out of stomachs, but it was worth it! I guess that is one thing that is universal across cultures - overeating!
A thing unique to Annette's family is that they numbered all the presents under the tree, mixed them up under and we had to draw numbers and search for the gifts! Now, when there are 68 gifts... this can take a bit of time. I think it took around 3 hours! It got easier as there were less and less gifts.

Ok... I have to go eat now! Merry Christmas! God Jul!