Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Lillejulaften, Little Christmas Eve. Through the Day. December 23rd

text and images britt-arnhild

Finally. The Day is here. Lillejulaften, Little Christmas Eve. The Day before the Big Day. The Day when we decorate the Christmas Tree. The Day when we have out annual lutefisk party.

Our family got a new member late last night. Pat Scraper from Iceland, travelling to The House in the Woods from Iceland via Mo´a in USA.

Together with him I plan to let you follow the activities in The House in the Woods today. So come back, there will be updates all through the day...........

::::::::::::::::::::::

1st update at 09.25am. Lemon Mousse

Dinner on Christmas Eve is the most important meal of the year. Filled with traditions. "What will we have for dessert on Christmas Eve", Marta asked some time ago. "Why,moltekrem of course, as we have every year" I replied. "Oh mamma, can´t we have karamellpudding this year".........Of course I could not resist the pleading eyes. Yesterday I made karamellpudding.

"What will we have for dessert on Christmas Eve" Ingrid asked when she came home from Bali. "Why, moltekrem of course, as we have every year" I replied, and continued "and this year we will also have karamellpudding". "Oh mamma, can´t we have sitronfromasje (lemon mousse) this year".......Of course I could not resist the pleading eyes and the pleading voice. Today I have made sitronfromasje

  

Today Torgeir is coming home for the holidays, tomorrow Øystein will be home as well and The Lucky Four will be complete.

Please don´t tell the boys that there might be a dessert option......Three different homemade dessert for a family of six should really be enough!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

2nd update at 10.03am

This jolasvein knows more than scraping pots. A good gift wrapping helper he is :-)

::::::::::::::::::::

3rd update, delfiakake

Not only desserts, but also cakes have special traditions.

Like the very rich chocolate cake.

Delfiakake

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

4th update at 12.26. The Christmas tree

Finally!!!! The Christmas tree!!!!

Terje is back home from a traditional lillejulaftens - breakfast at his old work, and from pivking up the lutefisk at the fish market. The girls are both awake, making fun of their mother and her camera.

::::::::::::::::::::::

5th update at 02.30pm. Doing the table

Guests will arrive at 6pm for the annual lutefisk party.

Table is ready.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 6th update, 4.15pm. Preparing the fish

Lutefisk needs a lot of salt. Now it must rest for one hour before I bake it in the oven.

Potatoes, carrots, peas, beacon, white sauce.........

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Last minute update.

Guests will soon be here. Remember to refill salt and pepper.

::::::::::::::::::

Chaos update.......

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Last update.

Party is over, so is lillejulaften, almost.........and tomorrow Christmas is here.

Thanks for your visits through the day. It has been a pleasure to have you here.

Good days like beads on a silver string. December 22nd

text and images britt-arnhild

Every day now is a favorite day. No stress, though a long list of things to do......if time is there. I make krumkake using Guri´s recipe (my dear friend who passed away last August). I dust the livingroom. I set up yet another nativity scene.....this one in olive wood from Betlehem, bought there last week by a friend. I open the letters which came in the mail today. I listen to a Christmas cd. I write some letters at work, I make coffee for work meetings and place a box of delicate chocolate on the table before my colleages arrive. I take a break to go out to buy a few extra Christmas presents (the favorite ones for the stockings). I pass a coffee house and stop for a caffe latte and I smile broadly when a colleage comes to join me. I read a chapter from Jostein Gaarder´s The Christmas Mystery. I have afternoon coffee and a taste of the Christmas cookies with Terje......why is it that the cookies always taste best before Christmas? I look forward to a Christmas party. I open the door for a flower delivery. I cherish a beautiful handmade ornament which comes in the mail from a blog reader in Holland. I share a smile with Terje when we hear laughter from the kitchen where the girls are baking.

I lift my eyes to see the towers of Vår Frue Kirke (Our Lady´s Church) and The Cathedral and share a smile with the moon. Can you see the . moon smile?

Good days like beads on a silver string

Playing teenage memories. December 21st

text and image britt-arnhild

 

When I was 15 I got my own guitar. I sat in my room in the evenings, on my bed, teaching myself to play. I was in love with a guitar player, the most charming boy in town. I sang love songs. I dreamed.

The boy left my life. So did the guitar. 

Yesterday we had a Christmas lunch with my colleague, and all of a sudden I found myself playing a guitar again. Singing. With the other women. A song we had made specially for our male colleagues. My fingers were stiff, it must be more than 30 years since they have touched a guitar. But they followed the tune. And as we sang, as we played, my mind wandered back to my 15 year old self. Her beautiful, rose coloured, in love - life.

I knew nothing of the 53 year old Britt-Arnhild then. 

Or did I?

 

Christmas gifts from The Blue Café. December 20th.

text and image britt-arnhild

Christmas gifts from The Blue Café. Herring in sweet&sour sauce. Come over if you want a taste.

There is nothing like home made food for Christmas.

What is your favorite Christmas food?

Farfar´s havrekjeks (Outmeal Biscuits). December 19th

text and images britt-arnhild

One of many best things about preparing for Christmas is the smell which fills the house. Cookies, cakes, bread, different types of herring, Terje´s Christmas lemonade, cinnamon, anise, ginger........melting together, creating the advent of my childhood, of my first years as a mother, of today.

In our family we are all bakers, though in December Marta and Terje are the champions, with Ingrid coming fast up now when she is back home from Bali. One of the first things Marta baked in preparation of the holidays, were havrekjeks, outmeal biscuits, using farfar´s recipe. Always a winner. My father in law have these biscuits on the breakfast table, all year round, here in The House in the Woods we mostly use the biscuits for Christmas.

With butter, well, margarine these days in this countru of No Butter, and brown cheese...........yum! That´s the best word I can find, or namnam as I say it in Norwegian.

Farfar´s havrekjeks

250gr outmeal, 250gr white flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of sour milk (which we call kulturmelk), 3-4 teaspoon of hartshorn(??????) (hjortetakksalt in Norwegian, google translate gave me the word hartshorn which I have never heard before), 250gr butter, read BUTTER......and yes, one day we found 250gr organic butter at our grocery store.

Stir sugar and butter well, and while you do that send a special thought to the poor people of Norway who walks towards Christmas with no butter (irony of course!!!!!).

Bake at 200Celsius till finished.

Ha, as you can see this is not a recipe from a printed coffee table cook book, but one which has been handed down for generations......with a lot of you already know how to do it-stuff.

Visit from Iceland. December 18th

For several years I have followed Mo´a and especially her blog around Christmas about the Icelandic tradition with the visiting Jolasveinar. In 2008 she let me use a couple of her photos in one of my posts, and now I have asked Mo´a to be a guestblogger here at The House in the Woods. To my delight she said yes :-). So today I have the pleasure to introduce..........

Guest blogger Mo´a

Thank you Britt-Arnhild, for the opportunity you have given me to share the story of the Icelandic  Jólasveinar, here on your blog.
I have been counting down to Christmas for several seasons on my blogs. First on Leikur and List http://moaromigboyles.blogspot.com/ and now on my current blog,http://www.moaromigboyles.com/  telling the story of the 13 Jólasveinar and the adventures they have along the way.

Their story starts on December 12th, as that is the day the first of the 13 Jólasveinar,( variously called Yule Goblins, Christmas Men, Christmas Elves or Christmas Lads in English) , arrives down from the mountains.

The first to arrive is Stekkjastaur …Stiff-legs, followed by his brothers, the last one Kertasníkir … Candle- beggar arriving on the 24th, Christmas Eve. Then they leave for the mountains one by one, in the order of their arrival, the last one leaving on 12th night, January 6th.

These charmers were first mentioned in print in the 17th century and were known by various names, which differ from region to region, with up to 80 names recorded. 
Most of the names reflect the tricks they played. The Jólasveinar coveted things people found hardest to do without during the lean times and the blackest Arctic nights, food and light.

Their parents were real charmers, their names are Grýla (Ugly) and Leppalúði (one who wears tattered clothes). It was said that Grýla and Leppalúði liked to feast on misbehaving children and were used as bogeymen to terrify children into obedience. 
The family pet was an enormous Black Cat who had the same culinary habits as Grýla and Leppalúði.
Today’s generation of Icelandic children, do not have to worry about Grýla, Leppalúði and the Cat's former culinary habits, as now they probably prefer a Pizza or a Hamburger with a Coke

In the 20th century the 13 Jólasveinar have mellowed and evolved from bogeymen into benevolent beings. They are now entertainment for, and friends to children. Each night when the children go to bed they leave their shoe on the window sill. If they have been good, they will receive a gift from each of the Jólasveinar, as they arrive from their mountain home. If they have been bad, they will find a potato in their shoe.

The Christmas Trees are here. December 17th

text and image britt-arnhild

Only one week till Christmas Eve, and the Christmas trees are here. Sellers are around the city. We usually buy our tree close to where we live, but I love walking around, watching the hundreds of trees at the Christmas market.

There are still several days left till we put up the tree, till we fill it with lights and ornaments, but we might buy it this weekend.

I went back to the Christmas market again yesterday. First together with Ingrid at lunch time, then a few hours later with Marta when she came downtown.

And as I know that many of you would love a visit of your own, I shot photos for you:

 

 

I might go back downtown to the Christmas Market again today. There are a few gifts I would love to buy from the Farmer´s Market section.

Do you want to come along?

 

The Christmas Market. December 16th

text and images britt-arnhild

Terje had a meeting in town at the end of his day, and we decided to drive home together. I had some extra time after I finished my work, and visited the Christmas market. Over the years the market has developed wonderfully, and it was a pleasure to stroll along the booths. Gifts ideas, handmade pieces of art, glass, candles, carved wood, handmade soaps.

I walked from booth to booth. A list of Christmas gifts yet to buy in my pocket.

The only thing missing was my shopping mood. Why buy more as long as we all have houses filled with stuff already?

After a while my feet took me to the bookstore where I bought myself a new book (books don't count as shopping, do they?), and then further on to a coffee house. There I sat down with a caffee latte, and before I opened my new book I made a new Christmas gift list - food from The Blue Café kitchen.

The Felted Workshop. December 15th

text and images britt-arnhild

It was a very pleasant surprise when I got the phone call a couple of weeks ago, "I am gathering a few ladies for a Christmas workshop and I want you to come. I hope you can?"

Of course I could. I have been looking forward to it for days now.

7 ladies gathered. We were all asked to bring at least one craft idea and the materials needed. Then we spread it all on the huge table, busied our fingers, ate Christmas cookies, laughed about the lack of butter in Norway and created Christmas ornaments.

I had planned to shot a lot of photos, but was too busy making felted items.

Stories told, laughter shared, ideas floated in the air, and suddenly we had to clean the busy table. Dinner was ready.

::::::::::::::

House cleaning, window washing and all that stuff can wait till another year. At least till after Christmas. Making new friends and felted ornaments is a lot more fun.

Thank you Tora for a fantastic evening.

:::::::::

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Do you make the ornaments yourself? Do you have a favorite item, a favorite heirloom?

 

This and that and No Butter. December 14th

text and images britt-arnhild

Tøvær outdoors, which means "melting snow weather". I am not sure how long my green house ice wreath will last, but I have shot photos of it :-)

The world is still beautiful white, the advent party yesterday was a success, the dinner a highlight with Ingrid home from Bali, and in Norway people are despairing because of........

...........lack of butter! Yes, you hear me correct, WE LACK BUTTER. For several weeks now there has been empty shelves in the grocery stores where you usually find butter, and a whole nation is in despair. How can we make our Christmas cookies without butter???????

To make this clear - the stored are filled with margarine, more types than you can count on your fiongers and toes together, there are dozens of different types of oil, but this oldfashioned real butter, salted.......well, as soon as it comes to the store people get crazy and buy as much as they can carry, afraid that it will be nothing left the next day.

The butter crisis has many explanations, I am not going deeper into this, but I have one request to the world:

Please, help us Norwegian to see that it is possible to live a full life WITHOUT REAL BUTTER. Year after year Norway is on top of the list of best countries to live in. Please people of the world, help us to see the beauty of every day life, help us to lift our eyes, bake our cokkies with margarine......and along our butterless path stop and share some of our abundance with our neighbours in countries where there is real need, butter or not!

 

 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Norway's Butter Shortage
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

 We can laugh, we can make fun of the whole situation. But honestly, most of all I want to cry. We are so spoiled. I want to say with one of our poets "we have everything, and thast is everything/all we have" (a bit difficult to translate from Norwegian)

   Happy Christmas, with or withour butter.