It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

It has been a crazily busy two weeks since my last blog.

I have received numerous packages and letters from back home prior to Christmas. A thanks goes out to all of you who sent them.

There has been no hockey for me for most of December. Practices continued while I still had school but I have not had them since my vacation has started. Both the practices and games will most likely start up again until the second week of January.

On the 17th of December, my friend Madelen turned 16. She had a small get together at her house. There was music, movies and pizza. Maren and I got her a gift card and a copy of the Eclipse novel ( though we mistakenly bought her the English version).

The Sunday of that same weekend consisted of baking in preparation for Christmas. We first made krumkaker. The dough for was relatively simple but the equipment used to made them was entirely unique. You put a portion of the dough into the contraption that is somewhat similar to a waffle iron. You shut the lid and after maybe 30 seconds, you open the lid, take out the cookie and quickly roll it around the cone shaped rolling pin before it cools. The finished product is similar to a ice cream cone or a canolli shell. (Cole, you would definitely love these.) We also made chocolate covered marzipan. They contained pistachios and rum-soaked raisins. They were more my creation. It took us forever to get the chocolate to the right consistency but it was worth it.

I did my presentation for my Rotary club at their meeting last Tuesday. The presentation was in Norwegian and I answered most of the questions in English. The members seemed content with my presentation. They were somewhat surprised at how small the population of Tilbury is. (People are always asking me if I think that Gjøvik is a small town. The population of Gjøvik is almost 30000.)

School here lasted until the Wednesday before Christmas. We didn't do much in most of my classes though one teacher did have the nerve to give us an essay. The last day of school was completely different then anything I have every experienced at school. They had candles lining the path to the front doors of the school (it was still very dark at 8 in the morning). THey had a choir singing in the cafeteria and enough gingerbread and gløgg (a warm berry flavoured drink usually with almonds and raisins) for the entire student body (thats about 1300). Then each class went back to their classrooms because each class was given money to go but food. Representatives from my class went out and bought bread and pålegg (stuff to put on the bread). The day was finished at 10am. (I personally think that they should of not even made us go to school that day because we were at school for only a shot period of time.)

Devin ( a fellow exchangee from the US (for those of you who didn't know)) was in Gjøvik for a few days. We met up for coffee on the Wednesday. We grabbed cafe mochas and chatted for a little while. We then headed to CC (the local shopping center) because Devin had to buy some minutes for his phone. We went to a convenience store to buy the minutes (Devin speaking only Norwegian in the process, in order to trick the cashier into thinking that we are Norwegian). After buying the minutes, he attempted to put the minutes onto to his phone but he was unable to. We then went to Expert (an electronics store) to see if some one could assist us. The guy noticed the issue right away. Devin had bought Telenor (a phone company) minutes but he had a Netcom (another phone company) phone. He had to go back to the shop and see if he could exchange the minutes (totally blowing his cover). It was basically the highlight of my day.

That same day, two of Britt's daughters arrived. Hilde was first, accompanied by her dog, Alfa. Stine came a few hours later, with her husband (Øystein) and 3 children (Magnus, Alva, Maja). There was not enough room i the house (we only have 3 bedrooms), so Hilde had to sleep out in Britt's workshop. (Which by the way, IS heated, has a pullout couch and has a bathroom with a shower.)

Since it was Christmas, I have decided to write about almost everyday (which is something I don't normally do.)

The 23rd of December was a relatively relaxed day. I spent a great deal of the afternoon playing with Alva and Maja (who are 4 & 2 and can only speak Norwegian, though Alva can count to 10 in English). Britt's youngest daughter, Ida along with her husband (Ola), her 7 month old son (Petter) and their dog (Fenrik) arrived after supper, due to the fact that they were visiting Ola's family in Raufoss (a neighbouring community). (Our house was full of animals. I normally have one cat and one dog that live with me. For 5 days we had 2 extra dogs. There was always barking.) The serious gingerbread-house making commenced shortly afterwards (all of the little kids were banished from the kitchen). Stine, who is an architect, designed, cut, baked and made the gingerbread house the previous night. (She designed it after a portion of our hospital. The regular dough was from Ikea. And she cut it to her liking. I think she used a burnt sugar/molasses combination to hold it all together.) We began with sorting out the Smarties by colour. It took us 3 hours and 7 tubes of icing to finish the house. They deemed me old enough, so I was able to have a wall of my own to create. Hilde even managed to put a little bell in the bell tower. We also had a gingerbread tree from Harrod's in London (Hilde returned from there last week): The tree was also put up this night. The decorations were different then what I am used to. (Back home none of our decorations match, they are mainly gifts that we have acquired over the years.) Here, we had these folded paper thingies, material fruit, flags, etc...I moved out of the house that night as well, to make room for Ida and company. I stayed in a room  which is under Britt's mother's house. 

Christmas Eve for Norwegians is the big day (not Christmas Eve). We ate risgrøt for lunch ( a tradional Christmas food). Its basically a cooked rice and milk combo (almost like oatmeal). You eat it with sugar, cinnamon and butter. There is an almond hidden in it and the person who finds it gets a marzipan pig. Alva found the almond. At about 4 pm, Stine, Britt, Ida, Hilde, Johs and I went to Britt's husband's grave to place a candle. There were many other people doing the same thing. The dinner preparations started shortly after our return. All of Stine's family wore bunads (the traditional Norwegian dress) to dinner. Ida laid out a beautiful table for 14 people (Britt's 90 year old mother and her care giver joined us). The meal consisted of potatoes, cooked red cabbage, a variety of sausages, and svineribbe ( the rib of a pig, they then cut cubes into the rind which ends up being crunchy). Aquavitt of course accompanied this. For dessert, we had ice cream, krumkaker, and cloud-berries ( an artic berry that can only be picked in the wild). After we tidied up dinner, we all circled around the Christmas tree and sang 3 Norwegian Christmas songs (it is a tradition of my host family). The gift opening began shortly afterwards. There must have been maybe 80 gifts under the tree (gifts were gathered from everyone's relatives, so that they open their gifts on the same day). Julenissen (the Norwegian Santa Claus) came at 8pm. (He is not the same as the one back home. He is more like a delivery service, he brings gifts from other people.) The little girls went to bed at about 10pm. The goodies (cookies, chocolates) were then taken out and the gift opening recommenced. In total it took 5 hours, finishing at midnight. The gifts that I received were pajamas/ lip balm, a "lamb" pajama set, cosmetics bag, running shoes/ski camp (from Mom & Dad), Elizabeth Arden cream, a sheepskin pillow, a glass swan ( from my Rotary Club, it was made by the glass-work in town, the swan is the symbol of Gjøvik) and a gift-card for H&M.

Christmas Day was not really anything special. We had a big brunch, though it was not the same as a brunch back home. At home brunch would typically consist of eggs, pancakes, bacon, etc...Here we had bread/lompes (a wrap made from potatoes) with a variety of meats and cheeses (i.e. head cheese, edamer, sausages, etc). It was good though I would have liked some fruit. Øystein is from the west coast, so he made their traditional Christmas food for us. He made us pinnkjøtt (smoked & salted lamb ribs), potatoes and mashed rutabaga. Some of us played a game called Grumble after supper. It is similar to Scategories. My answers were a combo of Norwegian and English.

The Sunday was the 2.juledag (Christmas Day is the first, I am not really sure what it means though). The day mainly consisted of watching Agatha Christie movies. We ate riskrem for dessert (it is made from the leftover risgrøt, by adding cream). There is a sauce that you eat with it. It was accidentally over-cooked, so it was very thick. I could not stop laughing which caused the entire table to laugh as well. My mom got my Oma a webcam for Christmas, so I was able to talk to the entire Sanders family. It was crazy there.

The 27th was the date of departure for Stine's family and Hilde. Ida and family stayed on for 3 more days (and are actually still here). The house now seems ridiculously quite.

Romjul is the period between Christmas and New Years where a lot of visiting takes place. We played hosts to Britt's brother and family. The afternoon was spent drinking coffee (whenever you visit someone in Norway, you are offered a cup of coffee). Smoked salmon was served for supper.

The weather here has been pretty consistent the last little while. Though the temperature has been jumping around. One day it could be -23 and the next -7.

I have no school until the Tuesday, so the rest of the week for me will be quiet. Thats all for now!!

Maren, Madelen and I at Madelen's birthday

our front door

Maja and Alva out in the snow, wearing their elf hats

our finished gingerbread house

the one side of my sheep skin pillow

Christmas Eve dinner

the massive pile of gifts under the tree

Maja and Alva in their bunads

The krumkaker press

My lovely marzipan

Julenissen!!!