God tur!

When I first left for Norway, I was resolved to spend the entire year there, no breaks. But I soon learned it's a lot harder to move to a country than just to study there temporarily. And I was homesick, which surprised me a little. I don't really remember being homesick, really, when I started college, for instance. But I was homesick probably until the middle of October (blech), which was plenty of time to schedule a trip home for Christmas. In spite of this, I was in Norway long enough before Christmas to get a few ideas to improve my own celebrations. First of all, I think Norwegians do incredible things with light and darkness. (See, for example, my pictures from the river festival.) They have these outdoor candles that look more like torches when you light them, and many stores and cafes set them out in the afternoons by their doors or in front of their outdoor specials signs or what have you. I brought some of these home to share with my family. See?



I also decorated our tree with Norwegian flags. Bet we were the only house on the block with those!


Finally, I've been waiting and waiting for it to snow, so I could re-enact a little ritual I first saw in a Swedish cartoon called Gubben og katten og nissemaskinen (The Old Man and the Cat and the Christmas Elf Machine). The cat wishes for the Julenisse to visit them on Christmas, so the old man and the cat build a little igloo out of snowballs. But before they put the top snowball on, they light a candle inside the igloo. Then they put their letter to the Julenisse inside the snowball and use it as the roof for the little igloo. During the night, the snowballs melt and cave in, and the letter either burns up or blows away, so the old man can tell the cat that the Julenisse has come for his letter. The ritual itself is kind of lovely, and the effect of the candle shining through the cracks in the igloo is definitely so ...



Of course, now I'm a little worried that I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning with the Julenisse standing at the foot of my bed, tapping his little foot and looking very disgruntled, because it's after Christmas after all, so what am I doing interrupting the first few days of peace he's had in over a month now, by building a completely non-utilitarian snow igloo in such an out-of-the-way location? (I don't think the Julenisse usually visits Nebraska. And I'm pretty sure he only speaks Scandinavian, so it will probably take me a long time to pacify him in my sub-standard Norwegian.) Whatever, it was pretty. And I may not be super athletic, but, personally, I'm pretty sure I can take the Julenisse.