Food and More Food

Christmas in Norway lasts forever, especially if you are working in the restaurant business. Since the middle of November I have been cooking Christmas dinner for hundreds of guests. Just look at all this food, and this is just the cold food. There are desserts and warm food as well. This has been a busy month for me, so sorry if I have been absent. The Christmas Buffet at the hotel where I work is a popular destination for businesses, families and friends. By the time Christmas is here I will have had my fill of food!

Not everything has been about food. If you remember from my last post, my daughter was expecting the birth of her first child. Guess what I did this Thanksgiving? I met my grand-daughter for the first time. Introducing Victoria, I think I will call her Tory. Both mother and child are doing well. Enjoy the rest of your week! I hope to get around to visiting my blogging friends soon.

The Christmas Party

Christmas celebrations in Norway have already started. The whole month of December is full of parties and the most renowned is the “Julebord,” The Christmas Table, which is a company party thrown for employees or other groups to eat drink and be merry. Long tables are set for a giant sit down dinner, almost like a wedding and they are not reserved for just week-ends. Since I have been working backstage for many years during these events, this has always been a time for me to make an insane amount of food, fold hundreds of napkins, pour drinks, carry heavy plates and smile a lot! The kitchen dance is an amazing dance. If you have ever worked in the food industry then you know what I mean. After a hard day or night on that dance floor it is difficult to go home and do a repeat performance but sometimes I surprise even myself.

There are no week-ends in December, here in Norway every day is a holiday. You can imagine what Norwegians are like at the end of this month…LOL… tired, hung-over and fat comes to mind. The other night this happy husband enjoyed a meal of filet mignon of deer, oven baked shallot onions and carrots, bacon seared brussel sprouts, sea salt damped baby potatoes, lingberries, and a wild mushroom/wine sauce.  I was going to bake some cookies today but I am still full from last night.      

Have you been to any christmas parties, if so what are they like? Have you ever been ""Backstage" during one of these events?" Enjoy your celebrations where ever they may find you. 

                                                                                                           

My Crismas Calendar

What are your favorite Christmas Movies? My calendar today opens this one...Enjoy!

Advent Calendar Day Three

The Christmas decorations are still stuck in the hole. I keep meaning to dig them out but the inspiration to do so eludes me. Disenchantment comes to mind, so what do you do when that sets in? Well…If you are like me you sit in your pajama pants and download a bunch of Christmas movies because you do not have to go to work today. Eventually I will have to get dressed, maybe comb my hair. I might even have to go outside and drive in that stinking snow to the store. 

It is Monday after all and since the stores have been closed a whole day…we do need food and I really should mail my Christmas gifts to the states so they get there in time. Also I thought about buying some Christmas cards. Does anyone do that anymore or is it just me? 

I guess barbeque season is over, how depressing is that?

Advents Calendar Day Two

First Sunday in Advent and I suppose I should be hanging up the Christmas curtains, taking out the advent candles and putting some decorations around the house. Truth be told, after a long night with too much festivity in that bottle of wine, or maybe it was the aquavit…I am too lazy to do anything. Just the thought of digging in that hole (where we keep a thousand things,) to find anything having to do with Christmas wears me out. Last night my youngest son came over for Mom’s pot roast and Dad’s newly acquired Christmas Aquavit. Just so you know that is a Norwegian tradition not to be messed with!

So what am I doing today? NOTHING! and more of the same. It is already dark outside and the time is 4pm so what I feel like doing the most is crawling back into bed with a good book. So how are you spending this first sunday of advent? Have you already started celebrating christmas too?

Christmas in Norway with Minnie

Dec.1, 2012    9am, just getting light outside. Yeah! Sun!

The first of December and as promised, even though advent begins tomorrow, my calendar opens the first window today with some christmas shopping. The days are short so before I get started, let's see what Minnie and her friends have been up to!

Black Friday

With unpolished old shoes Black Friday crossed the parking lot. Her handbag full of worn out plastic hung from her tattered jacket as she took out the keys to the back door of her favorite store and sneaked inside, where waiting for her was one of Santa's elves. He demanded to know why the earmuffs and bar soaps were not half price. When she tried to explain she didn't work there, he placed a red elf cap on her head and handed her a pricing gadget. "Fix all the prices in the store to half price."

Minnie's mouth fell open, and her cigarette landed on the floor.

"What are you standing there for?" Santa said. "Get your Kringle-jingle on, girl."

Minnie scratched at her red dress and headed straight for the beer/wine cooler! Once inside away from view of all customers, managers and Santa, Black Friday proceeded to sit down.
Right there on the shelf before her was her favorite wine, Wild Irish Rose, and just as she reached for a bottle, she heard a creaking sound.

Looking below the shelf she saw a little door, just big enough for a bony gal to crawl through...she got on all fours and crawled toward it.

Light poured out from around the little doors ill-fitting frame. She opened the door and peered in. A funny little man dressed in a green smock sat on a wonky three legged stool slurping from a bottle of beer.

"What yer lookin at?" he grinned exposing a set of broken teeth.

Black Friday knocked the little man out with his bottle of beer, stuck a sale sticker over his mouth and pushed him through the door with her unpolished old shoes. Throwing him into an empty cart she wheeled him straight out of the store. Free today only, said the sticker. Black Friday was very pleased with herself because now she had a matching pair of little green men, not to mention a red elf cap.

Patriots of standard word abuse(in order) this month are the following gibberlinguitics:

Minnie

 Alex J. Cavanaugh

Shelly 

 Magical Mystical MiMi 

 Pearson Report

Suzanne Furness 

and finally Minnie wraps everything up with a bow :) Feel free to take this banner or Minnie on the side bar. Thanks guys for playing!

Time for me to go do some real christmas shopping.

Today you can pick up your free copy of Fractured Fairy Tales HERE..Don't forget the book fair this week-end. Details on my previous post.

How are you spending your day?

 

You Inspire Me

Today Alex Cavanaugh, Matthew McNish, and Andrew Leon have put together a special blogfest. The Oh, how I miss you blogfest features the bloggers we really miss and the ones we would! I believe all three of these hosts would be missed if they should disappear from the blogging world. Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished? Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!

Here are the rules: List one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on those blogs. Time to let your blogger friends know that they are special! Make sure you join the party and visit other posts as well!

Since I started blogging almost two years ago I have not seen many bloggers disappear but I have seen some cut back. When I first started blogging I was unprepared for the friendships I would form and the extended family it would bring me. The first one that comes to mind is a dear woman that has become a good friend. Melynda Fluery and her blog Crazy World has been a part of my daily life since I first connected to this cyberspace. I have followed her and her family through small tragedies and victories, each one faced head on with passion, bravery and her never ending sense of humor. Her reflections on this crazy world we all live in always bring a smile to my face. Melynda has had to cut back on blogging because she has lost her eyesight, but there is no stopping this woman, even blindness cannot stop her from writing down her words and sharing them. A true friend, a giving humanitarian, a brilliant humorist and author of Just Nonsense, More Nonsense, and True Nonsense, please check out her blog and say hi. I know that my life is and always be richer with her in it.

There are so many of my blogging friends that I would love to mention today but there are two more that I have to mention because I cannot imagine my life without them. They are my two soul brothers Michael Di Gesu and Roland Yeomans. Both of these men inspire me on a daily basis to do better and to give more. Their passion for writing is never ending and their talent for prose never seizes to amaze me or touch my heart. I love them both and OH how I would miss them if they were to disappear.

So there you have it. Three amazing people who inspire me and who I truly appreciate every single day. Who inspires you and who would you miss? 

On another note I would like to invite you to spend part of your Christmas in Norway. Everyday through the month of December until Christmas I will be opening up a window on my Advents calendar, sharing the Norwegian holiday season with you. Ever want to spend Christmas in Norway, here is your chance. Hope you stop by and visit.

Have a wonderful week-end!