Christmas Eve Eve

The 23rd of December is rice pudding day in Ida's family. "Risengrod" is served warm with a chunk of butter in the centre and brown sugar sprinkled over the top. Traditionally eaten around Christmas, risengrod comes with its own song, which we sang around the table. We met at Anne and Klaus' (Ida's parents) house and we joined by Lisbeth & Jorgen (aunty and uncle) and Matthis and Emilie (cousins). We started off by 'helping' make marzipan and chocolate sweets for the next couple of days. We molded and rolled and fashioned australian animals out of almond cookie dough stuff. Then we ate risengrod for dinner and played a game where you write names of famous people on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. Then you split into teams and take turns to identify the people by using related words. Kind of like Hot Streak for those in the know. There is also a miming round. I'm sad to say that Timon's team beat my team, despite a valiant effort. The game, normally in Danish, was turned international for our benefit and some examples of the famous people included Steve Irwin, Princess Mary, Nicole Kidman, Kylie, HC Anderson and someone/something called Kilroy. Hands up who knows what that is?

Oh! I forgot to say that Ida picked us up in the car, and while trying to park she hit a mad snow bank and wedged the car in very firmly, so much so that she couldn't get out her door and Jacob spent an hour the next day digging it out!

Now Christmas Eve (24th) is the real party here in Denmark. It is a celebration of the returning of the light (the shortest day corresponds with Christmas) and this is the day we finally! put up the Christmas tree. There are many photos of this process on Facebook so make sure you check them out, just to see what a Danish tree looks like. The day was shared with Ida's aunty Birgit and grandma, as well as Anne, Klaus and Jacob. There was lots of cooking and lots of Christmas beer while we watched the Disney Christmas special at 4pm. Shown ever year, this special shows musical clips from old old Disney movies and then screens a teaser from an upcoming film. This year was Tangled and Cars 2. Some of the old clips were in English, as we suspect there might be rules about Mickey and Donald's voices being preserved. But others, like Cinderella, Snow White and Pinocchio were all Danish. As expected the snow was deep on the ground. Now the food:

We had a most spectacular dinner of roast pork with gravy, roast duck with duck gravy, red cabbage, apple sauce, caramelised potatoes, white potatoes and an orange and pomegranate salad. Each round was re-heated and I must confess to three servings. I'm pretty sure Timon was in heaven. For dessert we had 'risalamande' which is the leftover risengrod. It is served cold, mixed with cream, almonds and cherry sauce. It was delicious. However, there is catch. Tucked inside the risalamande, along with all the chopped up almonds, is a whole almond. As the dessert is being served, someone turns around and allocates a plate to each person. Then as you eat, you must be careful not to swallow the lucky almond, and hide it in your mouth until everyone is finished. Whoever scores the almond and successfully hides it receives a special prize. Timon was very nervous that he would eat it accidentally and ruin Christmas. Luckily, Klaus won and we all enjoyed his prize of lego motorbikes!


After dinner we lit the candles on the Christmas tree (yes real candles! fire hazard!) and had a dance. Klaus had printed off the lyrics to some Danish Christmas carols so T and I held them in one hand while forming a human circle around the tree. We sang (in perfect Danish) and danced until we were dizzy. We also provided everyone with the lyrics to Aussie Jingle Bells and had a go at that. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it goes something like 'oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty holden ute'. THEN came the presents. Now unlike our traditional free-for-all present bonanza, we sat around the table and handed presents out one by one. It was great to be able to see everyone's reactions to the presents they received, and even Timon and I were lucky - we were given a guidebook on Iceland from Birgit and a novel set in Copenhagen's snow by Anne and Klaus! It was a very special evening and it was made all the more awesome by the epic snow outside.