Happy New Year!

December 2009. Not New Years Eve. And not midnight. #picturefail

New Year in Norway is one hour before New Year in England, logically enough. Anyway: Happy New Year, everyone. Here's a big, sentimental end of year hug to all of my friends, wherever you are. Tromsø, Nesodden, Copenhagen, Jo'burg, Falmouth, London, anywhere else in the UK - I love you all.

And I'll try to take some good New Year's Eve-type photos tonight so I have something to put on my blog next year.

Christmas Table

 Ida explains something Very Important which we've all forgotten what was.

 Viktoria looks more and more elegant every time I see her.

 This is the nice photo of Christine and Karoline, let's not talk of the other shots.

Serious drinking photos were taken. Also: some sneaky advertising for Mack, our local brewery.

About the title: English people have Christmas parties, the Norwegian equivalent is called julebord, which is literally Christmas Table - because we usually sit down to eat before we drink and dance and act silly in front of our colleagues. My group of girl friends usually go out sometime around Christmas for our own julebord - I just found it silly to call it a Christmas party when it's not a party at all. We went out for dinner at Lotus, and then later went out to a few bars, before Viktoria (good, sober person) drove us (me, at least) home.

We're all completely different. If we'd met outside of school, I'm not sure whether we'd all have become friends. Now we are, though, and I really appreciate them.

Peppercakes and cakemen

 Last Thursday, my paternal, Northern grandmother and I met up for serious Christmas baking

 We made tons and tons of kakemainna, translates directly as cakemen - originally they're supposed to be the shape of men/women, we chose stars and hearts and angels and Christmas trees.

 Then: gingerbread. Which we call pepperkaker = peppercakes.
No one knows why, since there are two teaspoons of ginger and 1/4th of a teaspoon of pepper, or something like that.

Holly leaves or Christmas trees, not sure, I'm only here to make, then eat them.

My Northern grandmother has recipes and a recipe book from about seventy years ago, I'd say. This year, we were being fantastically experimental by using a new recipe for kakemainna, although it was from Eide Handel, an old grocery shop in the middle of nowhere, that my grandmother helped start back in the early fifties or thereabouts. We knew we could trust them. It went very well, we speed-baked for three hours, and ended up with way too many cakes/biscuits/what to call them. Om nom, Christmas all the way through January.

Oh, and Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve Morning (makes no sense in Norwegian either)

Enjoying it while it lasts: Dina jump-hugging me, following me to the bathroom, taking my hand, and playing "Aunt Sunniva": pretending to write something on the laptop and answering phones (the day before she was sat on my lap as I was on Facebook/skyping/phoning my grandmother, her great grandmother).

She knows how to charm her way into my heart, that little one.

Family values

 The Johansen siblings and the Haug Freitag siblings all together, most of us looking intelligent (?)

 Mats, Helena and Elisa, my half German cousins

 Mats and his dad

 Onkel Klaus and Tante Mette (my mum's sister)

 One pre-teen...

...and one emo-teen. Not really. Helena will be 15 in January, and I will be at Nesodden for her birthday.

While we were all together in Germany, the grownups thought we'd better take another photo of the grandchildren. The last time we had an opportunity to do this was three years ago, and the time before that... I was 15, so I'm guessing seven years ago (I'm excellent at maths, you see). The previous photo has my brother wearing black eye-makeup and a massive black emo-fringe at the age of fourteen, I think he was happy to get another chance this time.

Just to clear up if anyone is a little confused: My grandparents grew up in Trondheim, in the middle of Norway. They then moved around a bit before they settled at Nesodden, just outside Oslo, where my mum and her sister grew up. My mum married a Northerner and moved up here (although we did live at Nesodden from I was 9 to 13). My aunt studied in Germany, married a German and moved down there. The past ten years or so, my grandparents have lived just across the road from my aunt in Margetshöchheim, Bavaria, in winter, which is why we were there now. In January we are going to Nesodden to the Norwegian memorial service for my late granddad.

Some good things in Germany

 Sitting on the train at 4 in the afternoon, seeing the sunset. Sun. Setting at 4.
Amazing for someone living above the Arctic Circle.

 Cake. Pudding. Pie. Croissant. Bread Roll. Crumble. Cookie. Biscuit. German Bäckerei/Konditorei = hello.

 Glühwein (mulled wine/gløgg) at Weihnachtsmarkt Würzburg. Weihnachtsmarkt Würzburg itself.

 Adorable old houses, clearly decorated to look more adorable.

Lots of time with my family, here: dad and sister.

Norwegian Christmas Films and Other Oddities

Today is Little Christmas Eve in Norway. There's a show on the national broadcaster called Kvelden før kvelden, The Evening Before the Evening (sounds much better in Norwegian), where they talk and make Christmas food and show little snippets of this and that and everything is very cosy. Noone ever really watches the entire thing - it's made to be on in the background, as all Norwegian families will be decorating their Christmas trees, packing their last presents, etc. At 9 pm, however, the entire nation (or at least 25% of it) sits down to watch an old, English sketch, that hardly anyone in England has heard about (although, it is made in Germany, so you're excused, I guess):

Except for the poor souls who lived with me and Maja last year, of course.

The Norwegian tv-Christmas is probably the most rigidly controlled tradition we have. Everything must be shown at the same time every year, at least on Little and proper Christmas Eve.

At 11 am on Christmas Eve, we all watch this beautiful Czech version of Cinderella:

I could only find a French trailer, sorry.

And there are heaps of other films. Snekker Andersen, Reisen til Julestjernen, lots of Disney shorts. The last film I'll show you though, is the most adorable Swedish animation, called Karl Bertil Jonsson's Julafton, which airs at 5:35 pm (told you we were strict):

I haven't actually shown any Christmas films of Norwegian origin, because I prefer these three. Snekker Andersen and Reisen til Julestjernen are also very sweet films, that mean a lot to people (I think SA airs at 9 in the morning and RJ at 1 pm).

All this just to show you that Norwegians can be incredibly traditional when we want to - they tried removing the Cinderella film (which is badly dubbed, by one Norwegian man, and you can hear the Czech voices in the background) from Christmas Eve one year, and there were so many protests they had to put it right back into the program.

In December, I'm not buying

Sorry about the lateness of this post, about three weeks late, I'd say...

In December, I'm not buying presents for any of my friends, especially not if they live far away. The three exceptions are Ida, Ingrid and Cecille, because, well. They are some of my closest friends, and except for Cecille, they live here and I can just hand them their presents.

I am buying: Three calendars from the Red Cross Troms, at 50 kr each, and in addition to this, I've donated to Kirkens Bymisjon. Kirkens Bymisjon is a charity connected to the Church of Norway, which offers a Christmas meal for people who are alone at Christmas, or who can't afford a Christmas dinner. They do meals all through the year, but right now their slogan is "Gled en som gruer seg til jul", which doesn't translate well, but basically to please or give happiness to someone who's dreading Christmas.

Hei morfar

 My sister and our grandfather in May 2011 (we'd had some wine)

 Mormor og morfar in May 2011

 Morfar at Tenerife, showing me around the island, December 2008

 My favourite photo of morfar, summer 2010

50 years ago, when Eva and Torstein became Mr and Mrs Haug, look at the handsome young couple they make.

As you might or might not know, I've just been to Germany to see my family. My maternal grandfather, Torstein Haug, passed away (although I prefer to say died) on Sunday, December 11th. My brother wrote some very well chosen words about it. Every time I've tried, it's just come out as rambling nothings. So, here are some photos instead. My morfar (=mother's father) was such a strong, big man, it seems impossible that he could be weakened by cancer. When I was a little girl, with a little girly voice, and he was a big strong man with a strong, deep manly voice, neither of us could understand the other. As I got older, I would casually drop words like "EU membership", "nuclear power industry", or anything to do with politics, into a conversation, and just listen to him discuss the issues with himself.

He died the day after we got to Germany this time. He was in a coma the day we came, but I put on a nice dress for him anyway, because I know my morfar likes girls in pretty dresses. A few days after, my family went out for a meal, and I couldn't finish what was on my plate, and I felt bad, because my morfar would give me a talk about not wasting food, and make me finish it. He hasn't seen me drive yet. I haven't told him that I got an A on my last exam.

And even now, I am constantly rediscovering that he is gone. And I have fought and fought with myself to write this. Just to let you know what's been going on, and to get a chance to say something, if not as eloquently as my brother. But also to say, hei morfar. Jeg er glad i deg.

First Christmas Card arrived today

Keep'em coming, English folk! Norwegians don't do cards as well as you guys.

Now I'm off to the airport, off to Germany, which I will tell you about later. Family stuff.

For Emma

To the left: normal size pesto jar. To the right: fantastic size pesto jar.

That's a lot of pesto. Om nom nom.

December, happiness

 Sunday at Dixie's: Look at her Russian doll Christmas figures.

Today: writing Christmas cards...

Sunday, just after arriving from Oslo, I went to Dixie's house for a little bit of English Christmas feeling. We had mulled wine, mince pies and ginger bread, and watched Love Actually. Perfect. Then Monday I went to Ingrid to watch Princess Mononoke, and we had cookies and gingerbread and the Norwegian version of mulled wine, which contains no wine at all and is rather sweet and you put almonds in it. Nom nom.

December is full of Christmas already, just as it ought to be.

Three portraits, quickly

 Me, taken by Mats (but with my camera and my settings, so according to my tutors = taken by me)

 Alexa (who had several gorgeous dresses from her grandmother, jealous = me)

Mats from the West Country, with one of the most amazing accents ever.

Just came home from the communication course in Oslo, these photos were the ones I picked from our photography course on the Saturday, the only ones I've edited so I could put them up at the moment.

Bedtime now, tell you all about it tomorrow, or when I have time, we shall see.

Evil Santa Claus

"I am an evil Santa Claus. I will hide presents where noone can see them"

Please click on that photo to enlarge it. I've got two of these, which makes them even more frightening (according to Freud/the Uncanny, anyway).

Last year we celebrated Christmas at Tenerife, and my mum and I went to this fantastically cheap-looking shop to find Christmas decorations. It was all glitter and extravaganza, awesome. After we picked out the least garish decorations, and as we were paying, the man behind the counter leant down and fetched something. Here, this is for you, he seemed to say, with a friendly smile, as he plonked it into our shopping bag. Completely free of charge. When we came out of the shop and had a look, we saw these evil Santa Clauses.

I think we left all the other decorations behind... But I wanted these. They're the only decoration I have in my new flat. Evil Santa Claus can sit on the North Pole of my globe and be evil.

Ah, but wait

Posing in my post uniform, yes, it's that early. I had to hide my tired face.

I forgot to say, I've actually got two more calendars. That is, I forgot them until yesterday morning. One, with little nisser on it, is the Red Cross calendar, where you support the Red Cross with £5 and every day there's a prize draw. My hope is to win the £700 travel gift card.

The other one is, as you might have noticed, this book: The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. It's a children's book, with one chapter for every day of advent, with lots of references to the Bible, to Norwegian folklore and European Christmas traditions. I'll read one chapter every day at breakfast, like when I was little, absolutely love it.

Best advent calendar. Ever.

 An old one we've had for ages and ages, this year with something different hanging on it:

Tea. I get one teabag every day of December.

When I was little, my sister and I would get tiny tiny presents every day in our advent calendar. We'd get two stickers, or a hairband, or a notepad, and the next day a pen, on Saturdays we'd get chocolate, on Sundays, we'd get chewing gum to make up for the chocolate's effect on our teeth.

The past few years I've had a mixture of random chocolate calendars and random gift calendars, like last year, when my lovely housemate Maja made little gifts for everyone in our house, every day until we left for the holiday.

I don't really care what I get. I just like having some kind of calendar to remind me that Christmas is coming, and get one tiny thing to make me happy every day. Tea calendar is perfect.