yesterday, christmas eve, after we got home, was all about sugar cookies and dinner preparation...
not necessarily in that order, because here, henry has remnants of dessert on his face while working on his sugar cookie decorations...
and even still we're out of order, because first we took our train trip through part of northern germany to get home. and it was very much like watching the midwest pass by out the window...
except that beyond the fence at the edge of this farm there is a sea...
and because of that, we also took a ferry... again, with our train tagging along below deck...
onto the food preparation...
our menu for christmas eve dinner was at least a partial attempt to incorporate 'traditional danish' into the day...
flæskesteg... a danish pork roast (flesk-uh-sty)
applesauce... pretty american i'd say
carrots... a root in each culture... with a yogurt dip... american
cheese and crackers... the cheese was made here, but it was not 'danish' cheese, so i'll call it american.
pickled herring on dark rye bread... danish
leverpostej... a liver paste made from pork... danish
apples... kind of like the carrots
glogg... mulled wine... danish (though the brand we got was swedish)
shrimp salad... the kind we got was danish (it's in a cream sauce)
schnapps... very danish. very strong. i had very little.
for dessert... risalamande.. a rice pudding with whipped cream, vanilla, and slivered almonds mixed in, topped with a cherry sauce... danish
i think most of the danish dishes i listed are eaten by danes on christmas eve, though certainly there is a fair amount of variety from family to family. but christmas eve is the main day for celebrating christmas in denmark (christmas day is reserved for lunches with family you didn't see the day before). some families, at least, will dance around their christmas tree, which they may have put up only the day before. they will open their gifts on christmas eve. perhaps my own family (at least on my mother's side) has a little scandinavian in them as we also did it this way, but greg's family, which definitely does have a good amount of scandinavian in them, does it like most american families and waits until christmas morning. some danes will go to church on christmas eve, and it is at this part, when running back inside just to make sure the oven's turned off, or maybe while dancing around the tree, that julemanden (santa claus-ish) comes to town and drops off the presents.
santa came to our place as well, but only after everyone was asleep. i did manage to snap these pictures though, before anyone was up...
and then, a little after six, when it was still as dark as can be, someone was up, examining what santa had brought for him, by the light of the christmas tree...
once the lights were turned on, i was able to take this photo, of our ragtag bunch of presents, wrapped in any variety of wrapping paper, newspaper, bag, cardboard, and egg carton...
unwrapping went from early morning until mid-afternoon. we went at william and henry's pace, which was open, play, play, play, open, play, play, play... four of henry's gifts got held back for his birthday in a month and half. next year, i think, we take it down one or two notches.
some scenes from the day... beginning in early morning...
henry loved his bike. he woke up not knowing what any of this santa business was about, and without caring... just walked over to it and hopped right on.
and then dinner...
for which greg gets all the credit. again, we tried to incorporate a little danish into our meal, and so this was our menu...
duck... very danish. and i have to say, this being my first time eating duck, that it does not taste just like chicken... rather, it tastes so very, very much like turkey. would you agree?
stuffing... i don't think this is danish, but greg made it with the dark rye bread, so there's a little nod to our adopted home.
broccoli... i don't think they eat this on christmas, but i can't be sure.
a cooked red cabbage... sort of pickled with vinegar... a danish dish.
brown potatoes... danish... they're peeled, boiled, carmelized.
cranberry sauce... american.
red wine... kind of like the carrots and apples.
our attempt to get a group christmas picture, with one wiggly little boy, one guy in the bathroom, and one person holding the camera...
oh well. you get the idea, that it was a lovely dinner and a very merry christmas.
and to all a good night!
4 comments:
Just found your blog , wonderful positive reading,hope you and your family keep having a good time in DK.
PS.
Typically danish duck stuffing would be a mix of apples and prunes ;)
http://www.almanak.dk/jul/mad/andesteg.htm
I recently read that the French list duck breast as their very favorite food to eat (followed by a close second -- mussels and fries). I would imagine Americans would say hamburgers or steak (or pizza?) as number one. And for Danes? What do you think? Maybe herring?
What a beautiful holiday you had!
I know what you mean about presents: when you're buying, you imagine the joy of playing with a toy (or wearing that sweater when they're girls and older) and then on Christmas Day it seems like too much -- but it's really to be enjoyed for many many months or even years. Only the giving part is on Christmas. And that's, I think, a good thing, because it makes the child realize that it's special to get a treat -- it's not something that happens freely, randomly.
Anyway, now onto the New Year! And longer days!
Fun pictures!
To answer your question about gifts under the tree, Lou wasn't really interested. She was interested in the ornaments before the presents appeared, so we spent a lot of time saying, "no touching, just looking" and that seemed to work. So I'm guessing that the whole tree fell under that rule in Louisa's head. BUT, she also hasn't opened presents since her first birthday (April) so maybe she just didn't realize that they can contain fun things?
Anonymous-- so we weren't too far off then with the stuffing-- ours had apples. No prunes though. Thanks for the nice comment.
Nina-- we were speculating tonight about why (the collective) we don't eat more duck in the U.S. Because they fly away? Any thoughts? As for a 'most popular' Danish food-- it seems like they have very set traditional food items, but as to which would be their favorite... I will have to ask around! What if it's pizza?!
That's a good point about the gifts. And I think, if we were to compare how many toys they have, with how many toys the average American child has, they probably don't come close-- this is at least partly because they gave up so many of their toys to move over here. So, a few extra this first Christmas doesn't hurt, I suppose.
Longer days-- yes!
Alicia-- how did she take the gift opening? Was she into it or did she mainly enjoy playing with the wrapping paper?
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