December 22, 2022
Narration
This week, my grandma shares a couple of memories of wintertime in Norway, including a memory of Christmas.
In winter, Bjorg and her friends would skate on the fjord when it froze over.
Bessa: Oh – and skating on the fjord and watch Papa sit on a little stool on the ice, on a tiny little fire and ice fish. He had a hole in the ice and his hook was down there and he’s sitting there and all the kids were skating around having all kinds of games. And we would skate over to him to see if he got anything. And the fish would be in the bucket.
When I think about that – and we would go over and say, (asked in Norwegian if he had any fish). And look in the bucket – we knew we knew we were gonna get fresh fish. And it was beautiful. Especially if the moon was up, you could see everything.
Narration
On Christmas Eve, Bjorg and her family would go over to their Bestemor and Bestefar’s house – her grandmother and grandfather.
Bessa: I remember Mama saying, Okay, it’s time to go over now.
And we would walk over the bridge over to Bestemor and Bestefar and have dinner there. And he would read the Christmas – from the Bible, you know. He always did that before we ate and we had lutefisk and potatoes and carrots with melted butter. It’s delicious. And rice grod after. And they had a Christmas tree and we got no gifts – one orange – that was steady every Christmas.
And it was always nice and cozy with Bestemor and Bestefar. I do remember the Christmas tree. Standing right in that corner and Mama had real candles on it that you had to use a match to light them. It was so nice.