A couple of years ago I had a little lightbulb go off and decided to have a "very Danish Christmas" Eve dinner, and it has become tradish. I have a lot of Danish blood in me and Jon should have been born in a Scandinavian country as much as he loves the food. We have Frikadeller (meat patties), Rod Khrol (sweet and sour red cabbage), potatoes etc.
The Bybees have a tradition of having a White Elephant game on Christmas Eve. BUT they do it with food treats, which I think makes it even better.
Jon volunteered (I think) to be in charge of the gifts this year so in keeping with the Scandinavian theme, he stocked up at IKEA. Juice, sweets and other goodies. Yum.
I grew up having Ris Ala Mande on Christmas Eve and after Christmas dinner. It is a traditional Danish rice pudding dessert. But we make it, as my little sister described the other day, with "whipped cream . . . with some rice in it." There is a blanched almond hidden in there and the person who gets the almond wins a prize. If you get the almond, you are suppose to hide it until it is all gone and then you guess who has it. It tastes great, but mentally, I have a hard time eating it because I usually am stuffed when we start and the more you take, the more chance you have of getting the almond. So I always felt SO gross after AND I never got the almond (Yes, I admit I have issues).
Like I said, I grew up having this twice a year. So, I figure I have had it at LEAST 50 times, which is a conservative estimate. And I am still 0 for 50. I have never in my life gotten the almond. The last 3 years, I have even had a 1 in 4 chance of getting it. This year Midge had the luck and was so surprised when she got it after the 3rd bite that she started jumping up and down. I went to the Polish store up the road the other day and got some goodies, so we had a Polish prize for a Danish tradition.
When I was growing up we spent Christmas Eve at Ree's house (my Grandma, but watch out if you called her Grandma to her face!), and every year she made all the grandkids pillowcases and inside was a new nightgown she had made that we could wear to bed on Christmas Eve. In Jons family they woke up to new pajamas at the foot of their beds. We combined the traditions so the kids open their "jaminas" on Christmas Eve. I think this might be Graces favorite part. She is a jamina junkie.
Cutie Patooties!!!
We end the day by settling down with our White Elephant treats to watch The Nativity Story. Lot's more pictures to come!
2 comments:
what fun traditions! Thanks for sharing.
Ooooo, it looks like your very Danish Christmas was a wee bit more Danish than ours! Wish we could have been there!!
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