Clear Cold Days / Northern Lights (Nordlys)

We had quite a bit of snow this month and the temperature had been hovering around freezing during all of the snowing, haling and sleeting. Then, about a week ago, the weather cleared and the temperature dropped into the mid-20's. Clear skies day and night. Last Sunday I took a walk in the middle of the day. These photos were all taken between 12:30 P.M. and 2:00 P.M. You can see that the sun is still very low.




Leading from our condo up toward the forest




The forest trail to the "parkland" where we usually walk




I turned left from the forest trail to take a look at one of the nearby neighborhoods




The 1PM sun!




Nearby Neighborhood




Big new houses, small yards.




The neighborhood has a view of the ski jump -- see it?





Looking toward Trondheim and the fjord.  2PM. 


That night had we bothered to look we could have seen the aurora borealis (northern lights or nordlys in Norwegian). 



But we were unaware that there would be conditions for the lights.  Apparently solar flares/eruptions have occurred and they are the biggest in years.  So last night around 10:30 PM, Tove and I went out to see if I could capture the lights with my camera:

New Year's Eve



Directly above our condo community.


In this land where police officers do not carry guns, and universal medical coverage is provided to all residents, including me, it is odd to me that the country has such a laissez-faire attitude toward fireworks.  The entire population, it seems, turns into a bunch of 13 year-old boy-pyromaniacs.  Anyone can buy any kind of imaginable firework.  Skyrockets, Roman candles, if it explodes in the sky, you can buy it.  The fun starts well before midnight and lasts well-beyond.  I'm not sure how the dogs make it through the night.

These were shot from our condo community.  Note all of the activity in the far distance in this and the other photos.



Directly overhead



Tove and I had a quiet dinner.  I roasted a turkey (locally raised) and it was delicious.  

Norwegian Christmas: Christmas Day

Christmas Day was very relaxing.  Tove and I took a walk in the forest behind our house.  We started around 1:30PM and didn't get back until about 3:30.  I took this picture of the horse farm around 3PM.



Dark, huh? 

 After we got back from our walk, we began preparations for Christmas Day dinner.  After all of the meat we had consumed on Christmas Eve, the halibut we fixed for Christmas Day was a refreshing change.

After dinner the adults joined Mari in dancing and singing around the Christmas tree. 

And of course there were cookies, coffee and ...

The "nut cake" with berries is my favorite

Mari brushes Barbie's hair

Mother and daughter enjoying Christmas





Norwegian Christmas: Christmas Eve

The tradition in Norway is to celebrate the Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  The traditional Christmas Eve fare varies according to region.  Many in Trondheim eat roasted pork ribs on Christmas Eve.  In other parts of Norway lutefisk is popular, but less and less popular over time, in my opinion.  Others eat cured lamb chops that are soaked to remove the salt, then steam-cooked (traditionally over sticks of birch to keep the lamb above the boiling water).  Some, recently, are roasting turkeys. 

At our home we follow a food tradition from the Western coast of Norway near Aalesund:  we salt and dry the slabs of ribs then we soak the ribs along with the lamb.  Then we steam them both.  One hour before the lamb is ready, we remove the ribs and roast them in the oven to "crisp" them up a bit.  At the same time, we place home-made lean sausages in the steam-pot to warm them up along with the lamb.  Side dishes include potatoes, carrots, mashed rutabagas, lingonberry jam, stewed dried prunes and red cabbage.  We drink Christmas beer and aquavit.  The food is hearty, filling and delicious.  It has an earthy simplicity that hearkens back to a time in Norway before the stores were stocked with exotic foods from around the world.

One of the traditions that I like is "dressing up" for Christmas.  All the men wear ties and jackets; the ladies dresses.  It makes the occasion very special.

Enjoying Christmas Eve Dinner

After dinner we ate the traditional dessert called "rice cream" (riskrem) in Norwegian.  It is akin to rice pudding.  It is traditionally made from the leftover rice porridge served mid-day on Christmas Eve.  Unn, in fact, made rice porridge and rice cream, but we missed the porridge as we were at the cemetery.  According to tradition, an almond is slipped into one of the bowls of porridge (supposedly random, but it seems the youngest kid always gets the almond) and whoever gets the almond wins a prize.  The prize:  a marzipan pig!

Rice Cream 

After dinner, we opened gifts.  3 yr old Mari was the gift deliverer with help from her mom with the heavier gifts.

Mari in action

Mom helps

A gift to Mari from Great Aunt Gerd

Cute

And, of course, there were cookies, cakes, coffee and cognac later.

The Meukow Vanilla Cognac liquer was delish.  Note Piper in the background.

Norwegian Christmas: The Christmas tree

The tradition here is to buy the Christmas tree just a few days before Christmas, and not to decorate it before "Little Christmas Eve" (Dec 23).  It used to be common to wait until the children had gone to bed before decorating the tree, so that the children could awake to see the beautiful tree on Dec 24.  I remember fondly the tree-decorating parties that my mom and dad held in the 50s and early 60s.  It was a cocktail party for adults.  My brother and I had to go to bed before the party started, but we always sneaked a peak while the "adults" drank, smoked, danced, and now and then tossed an ornament onto the tree.  By morning there was so much tinsel (the old, heavy, metallic kind) and spray-on snow on the tree that it looked like it had been plucked from Donner's Pass in the middle of a blizzard.

Our Christmas trees in the 50s looked "kinda" like this.

We bought our tree on Dec 22 and decorated it on December 23 (Actually, the ladies, Tove, Ingvild, Unn and Mari, decorated it.

No blizzards here!

Our Christmas tree.