Dec 24
If only in my dreams
Since I had just arrived in Norway, I wasn't able to return home for Christmas. Fortunately, my good friend Øystein and his family were kind enough to welcome me into their home in Bergen for the holidays. He was there, along with his sister Åshild, and his parents, Magnar and Vigdis. His brother, Vidar, stopped in to visit just after I had left.
In many ways this was a special opportunity, because future Christmases will be spent with my own family, where we will no doubt continue many of our American Christmas traditions. But this was a chance to see how Norwegians celebrate Christmas. Magnar and Vigdis have a great little guest apartment attached to the garage where one or two people can stay. I like how Norwegian interiors often leave the natural wood exposed. While I was in Bergen, I also had a chance to visit Svein, the guy I met on the plane to Norway. I got to meet his wonderful wife, Zuzana, as well as his son and grandson. Norway has a national broadcasting company (NRK) that manages the programming for three TV stations and quite a few radio stations. Until about 20 years ago, all they had was a single TV channel. New channels have been added in recent years, but NRK still has a strong influence on what Norwegians see and hear. One example of this is a show that always plays every year on Christmas Eve Eve (lille julaften), called Dinner for One. Legend has it that one year they put this on and ever since then it has been demanded by viewers. The famous line in the show, "same procedure as last year," has become a common phrase that people say here (in English) when making a joke about anything that is an annual tradition, especially the tradition of watching this program. It's a jolly little skit. Take a look. Most of the celebration takes place on Christmas eve (julaften) which is the day that people usually trim the tree, dress up, go to church, sing songs and open presents. Families with younger children often receive a visit from Julenissen (Father Christmas), who usually looks suspiciously like Dad. We went to their local Church of Norway congregation, which has quite an interesting interior design, as you can see in the photo. It was also interesting to see the organist playing from a high loft, which is something I'm not used to seeing in our own chapels. I enjoyed what little of the sermon I could understand. If memory serves, it was about a little girl dreaming of what Christmas night might be like for other children less fortunate than her. Overall, even though I missed Kami and the kids, I was really cheered by Øystein's family and felt right at home with them. They also fed me very well, sharing some traditional Norwegian dishes with me, like Lutefisk, which was actually pretty good.
