Christmas

All of my Grandparents are from Norway and we love to keep some of the Norwegian traditions alive in our family.  This is most apparent during Christmas time. We celebrate on Christmas Eve. I'm going to describe our night. 

This was our tiny Christmas tree!!  It's "living" so we can plant it afterward and watch it grow.

We had a progressive dinner, starting at our house.  We served lefse (looks like tortillas made out of potatoes), julekake (a Christmas bread), zucchini bread, crackers and cheese, veggies and dips, fruit and salad.  Then we gave our gifts to the family. 







 Then we went next door to my brother's house for the main dinner:

We had Norwegian meatballs served with Mashed potatoes.  Karen and Tim made their Traditional meal too of ham and Kumla (a Norwegian potato dumpling), and we also had Lutefisk (fish...and an acquired taste necessary to enjoy it.. Ha ha, I don't really like it). 

We opened presents at this house too!

Then we went over to my parents' house for dessert. 

We always have a special pudding called "Spanish Cream" served with warmed berry sauce.  We had plate of cookies and fudges and bars. (This picture doesn't even show everything). We had eggnog and cider to drink.  Some of the goodies we make are traditional Norwegian treats particularly Krumkake and Berlinekranzer.  We opened gifts here too! 
Then we read the Christmas story and sang some carols together. 


We excitedly went to bed that night, and the kids woke up the next morning to open their gifts from us.

Then we packed up and went to have Christmas with Wes' family (they are my family too! ) 

We had a fantastic meal together of roast, potatoes, the traditional Pineapple casserole, salads, jellos, and all the fixings.  We had Grandma's fantastic carrot cake for dessert, along with other goodies.  We opened gifts again!! Our kids were having the best time ever. (ha ha !:) )

What a great time, as we celebrated Jesus' birth and shared love with our families.  I hope your Christmases were wonderful too!