Christmas Eve continued:
People began to arrive, still much work to do. The happy kind of work, with children playing, adults chattering and welcoming each other. The kitchen was a buzz of activity, with everyone scurrying around to get the Julbord ready. First, little snacks of homemade gingerbread, cheese and apricot preserves was made ready, to go with the traditional glögg.
Everyone gathered in the front room to watch the traditional Swedish show, "Wonderful World of Disney". They assured us that everyone in Sweden was watching Donald Duck, just like they had since it was first aired. There was a silent reverence in the room, mixed with laughter. It was funny to hear Donald speak Swedish.
Then it was time to get down to real business, the Julbord....
We had a napkin folding session in the dining room....
Torsten wanted to see our pictures of the Ice Hotel. It's fun to try to communicate with each other. His English is much better than my Svenska, but we still have quite a struggle sometimes, and have to call in one of the kids to translate.
Carin is showing off the mac and cheese, and the Jiffy mix corn bread we brought for the girls. Everyone had a pretty good laugh about it.
Beau is slicing up some gravad älgg, a young elk tenderloin, cured in Aquavit, with salt, sugar, herbs, and spices. Melt in your mouth tender, and oh so delicious.
Swedish specialty, eel. It is kind of fatty, and really delicious if you make sure to do two things; do not eat the skin, and do not forget to drink schnapps with it. Slicing it makes people silly, though.
And so the feast begins!
With plenty of schnapps and singing, of course.
Then Tomte (Santa) came! Everyone made a big fuss over getting the "old man" seated and comfortable, then he started joking and handing out gifts. This one was actually a woman, a friend of Carin's, who did a great job. One of our party, Hakan, went next door to be the Tomte there. There is always a "live" Tomte on Christmas Eve.
After some goodies were bagged up to send with Santa, Josefine took over the job of handing out the rest of the gifts under the tree.
Then, just like home, everyone started to open their loot! It was a much smaller pile than we are used to, and it was perfect! Not too much junk.
the family looking through the photo book of Josefine's exchange year. Julie was so happy that she seemed to love it.
Then we gathered for the Christmas game, the secret gifts. Instead of "stealing" and trading, this game was literally hinged on a roll of the die. A secret timer was set, then we starting rolling. Depending on the number you rolled, you either took from the right, left, free choice, or came up bust. When the timer went off, everyone who had gifts opened them.
At first, Josefine was the big winner,
Torsten was finally able to get one...
Oskar got the retro cell phone headset, so of course everyone started calling him.
After the game, everyone settled down for the night. All the rooms were stuffed full of family and friends sleeping over. It was a good night.
Lutfisk and "normal" fish getting ready for cooking! Meanwhile, the annual Christmas hugging broke out. Then we sat down to dinner. Lutfisk is delicious! Both Scott and I liked it.
