Swedish Christmas

On Saturday night, the Swedish family that has adopted us had us over for a Swedish julebord. The mom and dad, Burt and Kerstin, and their two daughters along with husbands and children were all there. Magnus and Christine (one of the daughters) own the house we have moved into. We started with glögg. It is warm, spiced wine that you add almonds and raisins to.

After this we headed down stairs to the entertaining room. The julebord was all set to go! We sat around the table across from our spouses in boy-girl order.

It was explained to us how it all works. The cold food first, then the hot food. The cold food included cold cuts, pickled herring, baby shrimp, smoked salmon, and salmon pâté. There were three kinds of herring and two of them were homemade by Kerstin. They were delish! One was fried then pickled, the other had dill as a main ingredient. Also the salmon pâté was her special recipe and it was an Everett favorite! There were sauces, bread, and hard boiled eggs to accompany the cold food.

That was Chris' plate, first plate that is. Here's mine.

A big part of the meal is snaps. It's an herbal alcohol, a digestive. It serves two purposes, alcohol breaks down fat, so you can eat more, and it helps getting the pickled herring down (if you need that). There are snaps holders and snaps glasses. Burt had the job of serving the snaps.

There are also snaps drinking songs, unfortunately we haven't learned any yet, so we sat and smiled.

The hot food was just as tasty as the cold. Magnus had spent 4 hours making 2 kg of his famous meatballs. We had Swedish meatballs, made in Sweden, by a Swede!! They were fantastic!

Then came the cheese, then the sweets, then the candy. Can you believe we kept eating?!?

We are really terrible at taking pictures and regret not getting more of our first Swedish Christmas. It was such a great night with good food and even better company. We really owe a lot to this family. They have been so unbelievably helpful and generous.