people put their trees on their balconies until a couple days before Christmas. After observing advent, Christmas is then celebrated for 12 days, to some extent. For me, this has meant that I have been eating many norwegian and other sorts of foods and many different homes. It has been great to celebrate Christmas with so many people and to eat so many foods!On Christmas eve, after the service, we hosted at church a sort-of potluck Christmas Eve dinner. There were about 80 people with food to spare. We thought we might run low on food, since one of the turkey's didn't cook right, but we were all full by the end. We even had an Indian rice dish that had been colored - I think - with little parts of green and red! How festive.
On Christmas, we had a Christmas morning service, at which I preached (in addition to preaching just 2 days earlier on the 4th Sunday in advent. Yes, sermon writing was also part of my Christmas this year.) I had never in my life, or that I can remember, been to a Christmas day service. But, it was nice to get up and have a service with less people, a bit more intimate. I preached about missing Jesus becasue we were looking in the wrong places. WE were expecting a party, a banquet, a parade, but God came where we weren't looking - in the darkness (John 1), in a barn to social outcasts, to the lonely, to the pained. and to celebrate Christmas, we too are to go into the darkness, bearing God's light. Was a different sort of Christmas sermon!
Then got to open presents and spent the evening with one of the church families - she is actually from Wisconsin!! And he cooked a wonderful meal. AND, I got to play 'guitar hero', which the daughter had received for Christmas. That game is harder than it looks!!My second authentic norwegian meal came the next day at another congregation member's house. He prepared Pinnekjøtt (Lamb Ribs). I had heard mixed reviews on this food, but I was game to try something new. They pretty good.
Pretty much your traditional food that gets prepared once a year. Not good enough to prepare all the time and not bad enough to never prepare. The lamb ribs are steamed / smoked - in the pot, they are cooked on top of special wood chips in which water is boiling. As a result, the meat is tender and has a smoky taste. With pinnekjott, we also ate (as is traditional) the purple cabbage, sweet (kohlrabi), potatos, and parsnips.That's enough for now - now that I have your mouth watering for our interesting norwegian food! I have also learned how to cook some Indian food and today I made rommegrot - a norwegian sort of porridge. But, more on that later!
God jul og god nytt ar!
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