Merry Christmas everyone! I’m spending the Christmas
holidays with some of my distant relatives in a town called Skarnes, about an
hour train ride outside of Oslo. I’ll be staying with Karsten (my mom’s second
cousin- or something like that), his wife Hilde Kristin, and their sons Halvor
(20), Bjarne (18) and Gjermond (16). I’ve decided to make it easier on myself
and I’ll be writing something each night I’m here (or at least try to). So
enjoy my Christmas experience…
Day 1- Dec. 22nd: I left this morning at about
11.15 and arrived in Skarnes at about 3 o’clock. I was greeted at the train station
by Karsten, Hilde Kristin, Halvor, Gjermund and Carolina- a cousin to the boys.
After some introductions we went straight to their grandmother’s house, Ruth
(my Grandma’s cousin- right Grandma?). We had a midday lunch of open face
sandwiches and some tea. Soon Bjarne joined us from work. We stayed and talked,
well I mostly listened and tried to figure out what they were saying, until
about 5.30. After that I went with all of the boys and Carolina to visit her
Grandfather in his nursing home. We were there for about 30 minutes and then
came back to their farm house. I get the pleasure of staying in a beautiful,
huge farm house which was built in the 1870’s. So incredible! Karsten showed me
a photo album of my Uncle Kirk’s trip to Norway when he was around my age and
then of his own trip to Wisconsin to see my grandparents, Uncle and Mom. I
enjoyed laughing at how different they looked. After that I helped Hilde Kristin
make a salad and then we enjoyed a delicious fish supper. After supper, I went
with the boys next door to the elementary school where they are helping build/
maintain and ice rink. So we scraped off the snow and then used water from the
school to put a fresh layer down. Halvor and Gjermund showed me around the
school and then we headed back home. The rest of the night was spent chatting
and then it was off to bed!
Day 2- Dec. 23rd: This morning Henning, a
relative whom I’ve heard a lot about, and his friend, Hanna, came to have
breakfast and meet me. Henning doesn’t speak any English so we relied on others
to translate for us and I realized I really don’t know that much Norwegian. It
was really nice to meet him though and put a face to a name I’ve heard so much
about and he was a very sweet man. After that, Karsten, Hilde Kristin, and
Bjarne took me to a fortress in a neighboring town. The fortress was built in
the 1680’s. After looking around there, we went into some of the local shops.
There were very interesting because most of the things inside were made from
local artists. We came back home then and Karsten showed me the goats that live
here on the farm- there are about 11 of them and then we had a quick snack.
Afterwards, Halvor, Gjermund, his friend Andreas and I dressed up as ‘nisse’ to
go and scare their cousins. Nisse are similar to our Santa and they bring the
gifts on Christmas Eve. They are little fat men that wear lots of wool, have
white beards, high red socks and a Santa hat on. It’s tradition in their family
(started by their Aunt Marit) for ‘nisse’ to knock on the windows of the house
the night before Christmas Eve to check and see if the kids are behaving. One
other difference is that the nisse or Santa brings the presents during the day
of Christmas Eve. So after supper the presents have already been delivered. In
so to please the nisse, they leave out some of their rice porridge at lunch
time. After playing ‘nisse’ for two houses we went back to Marit’s house and I
was able to meet her and her husband, as well as some friends that were
visiting them. After a nice little visit, we traveled to some other neighbors’
houses to deliver some Christmas gifts. We then had some nice moose meat for
supper and I helped decorate the Christmas tree a little. We finished the night
by watching a Christmas special that was on TV with lots of singing and cooking
on the show. Happy Christmas Eve eve!
Day 3, 4 & 5- Dec. 24th, 25th
& 26th: So I’ve been pretty busy with so many wonderful things!
I’ll start with Christmas Eve. It was nice to be able to sleep in pretty late.
The main festivities didn’t start until the night, but some traditions started
early- like their lunch meal. On Christmas Eve for lunch, they always a special
meal of rice porridge. They also hide an almond sliver one of the bowls of
porridge and whoever gets it, gets a present, which is usually a marzipan
pig, but this time it was a box of
chocolates. Hilde Kristin got it this time around. It is also tradition to put
a bowl of the porridge out for the ‘nisse’ in the barn. So after lunch Bjarne
took me out and showed me around all of their different buildings and we put
the porridge out. Afterwards, he gave me a ride in the tractor and even taught
me how to drive a little! We then went and visited their neighbors/cousins for
a little bit. After coming back we got dressed up and ready for our big
Christmas Eve dinner. Gulbrand (Karsten’s brother) and his girlfriend- Devi-
and their new baby- Christian (only 1 ½ months old!), Ruth (Karsten’s mother
and my Grandma’s cousin), Marit (Karsten’s sister) and her husband Helge all
came for dinner. We had their traditional dinner called ‘ribe’ which is pork
ribs cooked in a very special way. There were also sausages, moose meatballs,
sauerkraut, and potatoes. For dessert we had rice cream, which is made from the
leftover rice porridge and you add cream to it and then some raspberry sauce.
Everything was so delicious! To drink we had some homemade Christmas beer-
which is pretty common, because every house I went to served us homemade
Christmas beer. After supper, it is an old traditional Norwegian costume to
sing a few Christmas songs around the Christmas tree. We then opened up our
gifts. I was so lucky and my parents had sent me a package, so I was able to
open up some presents from my parents, but I was even more lucky because my
Norwegian family had gotten me some gifts as well- some jewelry, a Norwegian
cookbook and some wonderful wool slippers, along with some other things. After
presents we finished the night with some coffee/tea and some Christmas cookies.
On Christmas Day, I discovered I must have been a very good girl this year,
because I woke up to a stocking on my door! Santa even found me way over here
in Norway! Thanks Santa! We all headed to church later that morning. I was
surprised at how empty the church was, but it was still nice to be able to go
to church on Christmas. Afterwards I went with the boys and Carolina to visit
their cousin, Torstien, his wife and their children. They have 2 boys- Olav is
5 and is Halvor’s godson and Martin is 1 ½ and is Bjarne’s godson. Olav was
teaching us how to play his new Mario game on Wii and it was so funny how
concentrated he was. When we came home, we had a quick lunch and then went over
to the school and the boys taught me how to skate/play hockey. Let’s just say
I’m not planning on joining the NHL anytime soon. But it was so nice because
the boys were so patient with me and invited me to play in their game, but to
save myself from much embarrassment, I let them play against each other.
Andreas, one of their neighbors, had come so the teams were even. And after
watching them play, I definitely made the right decision of sitting out- they
were way too good. After a couple games we came back home for dinner, which was
rokfisk. It’s raw trout fish that you put on lefse with some vegetables and
sour cream. After supper I had the opportunity to skype with my family back
home. I was able to introduce my mom, my dad (I still can’t believe you have a
beard!!), Grandma, Papa, Kevin and Erik to all of Karsten’s family. It was
really nice to be able to see them on Christmas. The boys, Andreas, and I
finished the night with a game of Monopoly- European edition, and I was
declared the winner, or at least that was what I was told when we decided to
stop (because who really can sit that long to finish an entire game of
monopoly?). On the 26th, I got up early and they taught me how to
cross country ski. Before this I had only been skiing once before (When Angela
came to visit me in Olso), so let’s just say I was not nearly as coordinated as
they were. And after falling twice, I learned I cannot talk and ski at the same
time. I started the trip with Hilde Krisin, Gjermund, and their family dog-
Sara, and about half way through we ran into Halvor and a teammate from his ski
team and Bjarne and his friend. We had a short break with some nice snacks and
a hot drink. Then Gjermund joined the rest of the boys and I finished with
Hilde Kristin. The boys have a ski competition tomorrow, so they had to train
up a little bit and I was going way too slow for Gjermund! We came back home
and had a small snack and then showered up and got changed. At around 2 o’clock
we headed over to Marit and Helge’s house for dinner. There I met Ragnhild and
two of her daughters- Cecelia and Kristine and we were also joined by Carolina
and her brother Christopher and their parents, Ruth and all of us. For supper
we had so many different types of fish salads to put on top of bread along with
many different types of potatoes and other things. For dessert we had some more
cookies, another type of rice cream and a caramel pudding/ crème brule type
thing. Again I ate way too much. It was really nice to talk with Cecilia and Kristin,
Cecilia is 21 and Kristin is 14 (I think). I was able to stay at Marit’s most
of the night and talk with them and we watched Alice in Wonderland on TV, while
the boys went home to prepare their skis for their competition. At around
11.30, they dropped me off back at the house and then I headed to bed! Here’s a
picture of some of the people who were there tonight!
Day 6- Dec. 27th (My birthday!): Today I was
awoken with a wonderful surprise- breakfast in bed! My first time ever being
woken up with breakfast in bed and it was wonderful. At around 8.30 there was a
knock on my bedroom door and in came Karsten, Hilde Kristin, Bjarne and
Gjermund all singing happy birthday to me, with a nice tray of breakfast food
and a few more presents for me from my parents and from them. Halvor had
already left for their competition, so I was not able to say goodbye to him,
but he was nice enough to call me later to say goodbye. Karsten was taking
Bjarne and Germund to their ski competition, so I had to say goodbye to them at
that time. I then spent the rest of the morning packing up and relaxing. At
around noon Hilde Kristin and I took their dog Sara for a walk down to the lake
right in their back yard. The sun was shining and there was frost all on the
trees, so it looked so beautiful outside. We then headed back over to Marit and
Helge’s for a nice lunch. We were joined by Ragnhild, Cecelia and Krisitn,
Ruth, Per, Gulbrand and Devi and their baby Christian and Gulbrand’s sons
Julian (8), as well as Kristine (a cousin to the boys) and her daughter Isabel
(9) and son William (6). Before we ate, they all sung happy birthday to me in
Norwegian and Swedish, even gave me a couple of presents, which was so sweet.
We then spend the next couple of hours eating and talking. Too soon it was time
for me Hilde Kristin to take me to the train station and I had to say goodbye
to everyone. It was hard to leave Skarnes because they were all so wonderful to
me and took such good care of me. I felt like I was back at home, especially
because the 3 boys reminded me of being with my own brothers, but it was also
easy because I know when my mom comes to visit in the spring, we’ll be back to
see them all again!
So now, I’m on the train back to Bø for the night to unpack and repack because I leave
for next adventure to Sweden and Finland tomorrow afternoon. Not a very
exciting way to celebrate my 21st birthday, but I figured I’d leave
that celebration for when I’m back home in the States when it is a bigger deal
that I am 21. Here, it doesn’t really matter. I hope you all had a wonderful
and safe Christmas and holidays with your family. And since I won’t be back in
Bø until very late
on the 6th (actually very early on the 7th) I hope your
New Years is also safe and happy!
As always, I’m sending all my love back home to you all!
Thank you for helping us see little bits of your exciting life...! And a very Happy Birthday!!
ReplyDelete-Uncle John in Seattle