Glædelig Jul!

I know I've mentioned it before, multiple times probably, but I must stress the extent to which "Hygge" is a priority in Denmark in a way you don't typically see in North America, and there may not be a better example of quality Danish hygge than during the holiday season.

My first and foremost wish for Christmas in Denmark was snow! Seeing as how in the past century they had something like 9 White Christmases, I was legitimately worried for myself.  As I anticipated the holidays to be the hardest time to be away from home, having a grey, rainy Christmas would just be the missed bus on a bad day.  HOWEVER, luckily for me, this year we had (as you may have heard new reports about Europe on) one of the highest early snowfalls on record, so that starting around mid-November the snow came and just kept coming. Perrrfect.
Now, despite growing up in Canada and living in my igloo and what not, I must admit that I actually didn't know snow, at least not on a first name basis.  Here in Denmark, without the luxury of a car, I am walking, biking, bussing and taking the train in order to get where I will and so nowI think you could say I have become MUCH more familiar with the snow, ...and the wind, ...and the cold.  Sometimes standing on a platform waiting for a train that had an indefinite arrival time for almost two hours, I would just about reconsider my opinion on snow, but no - at Christmas time, it's all worth it.

Backyard

One of the things about Denmark is that all of the popular shopping destinations are outside, on charming cobble-stone pedestrian streets.  While they do have malls, the concept has never faired so well because such monstrous buildings can never quite capture the character of the street shops.  This scene, I'm sure you can imagine, is especially quaint in the December month - when all such lanes are lined with festive lights and bustling with Christmas (or maybe I should say Jul?) shoppers.  Add the smell of roasting almonds, the sound of an old church bell ringing, and a light snowfall dusting the ground, and you've got yourself one hyggelig experience!

Strøget - Copenhagen's Famous Pedestrian Street and My Favourite Place to Shop

The seasonal celebrations started early when on the first of the month I attended a Jultræfest (Christmas Party) at my host sister's children's club. It was pretty much the entire celebration of Jul in an evening, but also some of the girls performed a Santa Lucia (which I guess is more of a Swedish tradition) and it was really neat to see them all in white, holding their candles and singing. The sweetest thing was dancing around the tree with all the excited little kids!

The next day I attended a Crazy Christmas Cabaret performance with my Rotary Club.  This is an annual show written and put on by an English actress who long ago moved to Denmark, and while I thought it was kind of crude, it seems to be somewhat of a tradition for a lot of people! The funniest thing was the lady as a recurring character of hers, a little Danish doctor, who plays up on some of the stereotypes and throws in some Danglish for the amusement of the audience.

Speaking of which there's this funny little TV show on during the holidays, it is an old Julkalendar - which is an advent calendar of daily TV episodes (these are usually on every year for kids,) but I guess this one is just The Classic. The whole show is done by the same three guys and all of the jokes play off of
 a.) the accent/dialect of people from the section of Denmark called Jutland
 b.) The demeanor of a Copenhagener in comparison and
c.) The nissemænd who speak a mixture of English and Danish,
needless to say C was the most entertaining aspect for me, here's a little clip that most of you will probably find weird because it is too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXcPrbgPH1s

During the second weekend I went to visit Erin in Odense, where she hosted a Christmas baking party for like ten exchange students. It's always so nice to hang out with other exchange students, but especially my gal pal Erin who is also from Kamloops and from my Rotary District back home. This little baking party idea however was not so relaxing because there were ten of us, only a few of which actually did much of the work, and after a longggg day we had made about, I don't know, 300 COOKIES?! Literally. That's how many we made. So after we were completely exhausted and malnourished (did I mention we baked for 8 hours while running on four hours sleep?) it was safe to say it'd be a while before the next baking extravaganza..

Besides my White Christmas, I also had another holiday wish come true this season and that was to see a real live boys choir in a church! My Rotary Counsellor (who is basically taking me anywhere I wish to go, I am so thankful to him!) took me to see the Copenhagen Boy's Choir at a smaller church, where they sung a medley of seasonal songs.. including some english ones! Some of the boys were also very good, but mainly it was the whole movie vibe I enjoyed. :)

Up Next: Boys Choir

The next night was my Rotary Club's Jule Middag (dinner) which actually began in the local church with a traditional "Nine Readings" (apparently this is an English tradition).  Either way it was very charming because of the church itself - [shown below, thanks to google images ;)] and outside spotlights shone on the building, making it very lovely indeed. Afterwards was a traditional dinner (First course: dark bread with pickled herring, schnapps to drink. Second course: MEAT MEAT MEAT .. all sorts of strange meats, with some red beet salad, and Dessert: Risalamande.) I was not such a big fan of the schnapps or the BLOOD PUDDING, but I do like pickled herring, especially in curry sauce.  We also had the usual speeches/toasts, where I got a book of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales and some Danish folk CDs, and then there was an incredibly awkward singing of Silent Night, done for my sake which was so sweet, but painful nonetheless..

 

After I had started my Christmas Countdown with something like 60 days to go, (SPEAKING OF WHICH I HAVE BEEN IN DENMARK 183 DAYS, AND I HAVE 153 DAYS LEFT,wow.)
it was finally the big day! Typically on the 23rd or close to Jul, families eat a dinner of "risengrød," which is a very sweet rice dish, however not quite rice pudding, and this is eaten with butter, sugar, and cinnamon with a drink of Jul Øl - a mix between pop and beer, without alcohol and popular for the kids. If they're feeling traditional, the risengrød is cooked first on the stove and is finished cooking in the bed, wrapped in a duvet. My last host family did it this way, and it's seriously practical!  I guess the idea behind having risengrød on the 23rd is to make a lot so it can then be turned into tomorrow night's dessert - Risalamande! This night being...
JUL AFTEN!

In Denmark they celebrate Jul on the 24th, while the 25th and 26th are called First and Second Christmas Day (I only learned this year that boxing day is not in the US also?!)
So all in all, it was rather strange to have a shift in the order of things for Christmas. We spent the first half of the day sleeping late, eating breakfast and relaxing, and then moved into preparing for dinner, always a substantial task.
(Also! Normally in Denmark the Christmas tree is put up on the 23rd, sometimes decorated by say, the dad, as a surprise for the rest of the family, and almost always a real tree, lit by real fire burning candles. I guess because I kept asking when they planned on putting the tree up, my host family took it as a hint and so on the 14th when my counsellor came by he thought it was pretty weird like, "Why do you have your tree up already?.." so I realized it was basically for my sake, no complaints!)

After a lot of hard work we sat down to a lovely jul middag of turkey and stuffing (the tradition is actually to eat duck or sometimes pork roast, but my family prefers turkey, thankfully for me.) butter roasted potatoes, brown sugar potatoes, and a waldorf salad of apples, grapes, pecans and whipped cream.  Overall it felt rather short on vegetables  but also delicious.  Next on the agenda was one of the cutest parts of the evening: where we held hands and sang danish songs, dancing around the christmas tree.  The fact that we barely knew the words or could sing the songs just added to the charm and it was really sweet. I should also mention that Christmas consisted of my host mom and dad, their two daughters - a 25 year old living in London, and a 22 year old in the area, and my host dad's father who is quite literally a reincarnation of the old man in the beginning of The Aristocats, if you can recall.
After this we sat down to open presents, a process which went much quicker than at home because everyone opened a gift at once and it was much more casual.  I was really lucky to receive a hair straightener, slippers, pajamas, lotions, etc.! As well I was overjoyed to get so many Christmas cards from home, thanks to everyone! And some nice care packages from home and my Rotary club in Kelowna! Talk about spoiled.

Finally after our gifts were opened (The gifts I bought for my host family members were all hits!) we sat down to dessert, Risalamande (French: ris à la mande, or rice pudding with hacked almonds eaten with cherry sauce, yummm.) The fun part about this tradition is that whoever finds the full almond in theirs gets a gift! However in our house everyone just so happened to find an almond in theirs, that's what my host mom is like.  Completely stuffed, we settled down to watch 101 Dalmations, and called it a night. [Actually, we may have played trivial pursuit at some point in there, the days just blend together ;)]

Of course just before dinner I skyped in to my family Christmas in Kelowna, which I guess you could say was a little strange.  I had thought Christmas would be the most likely time for homesickness, but I can't say that I was. I mean, I would have loved to be there, but I could easily accept the fact that I was not, and I went into Christmas in Denmark with no expectations, so it was very nice.  That being said, I really love Christmas at home, I think holding it from the morning on is more exciting, and I just love the way my family does things! So the holidays next year are going to be that much more special. :)

We went for a walk on the 25th.

OH, and if I thought I had eaten a lot on the 24th, it was simply not so. Because the next day we had plenty of leftovers, but most notably on the 26th we attended a traditional Julefrokost (Christmas Lunch) with about 15 relatives in a big old house, where they decided not to turn the heat on, leaving it a TOUCH chilly, but that was compensated for by the tendency of overindulgent feasting to cause your heart to beat and your temperature to rise.  This was essentially the menu:
First Course: Dark bread, french bread, tuna salad, pickled herring, salmon (they always eat it basically raw,) prawn salad
Second Course: Dark bread, french bread, meatballs, roast beef, liverpaste with bacon, porkroast, rolled spiced pork, a bit of pickles and beet salad
Third Course: French bread, cheese, grapes
Tea, Coffee, Cookies
Basically, it's a good thing I stopped being a vegetarian for the year.
We ended the day with a gift exchange game where every time you roll a six you get to take or steal a gift, so sometimes people end up with 4 gifts when the time runs out, but I'm guessing it's custom to deal them out so everyone gets one anyway.

Post jul I enjoyed my vacation, did a little sales shopping, hung out with my friend before he returned to Australia, and celebrated New Years with some friends, getting sushi and watching the fireworks in the city square of Copenhagen!

I was so excited when it occurred to me the other day: last year in the months of January, February, March I was in Canada, Los Angeles, and Hawaii. And this year I am in Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. I have such a wonderful life! And I am so thankful for the chance to do all of this.

Now I'm going to take a wild guess that only my parents actually read this whole thing, love you guys! I honestly have no idea how I can ramble on so long. I think it's because I don't have to do homework or something..