Jul

I feel like my Christmas writing is never going to end. This is a really long season in Denmark! The kitchen had been planning on going to see the Royal Danish Ballet and we thought, what better show to see than The Nutcracker. The day finally came and it was a busy one. The night before had been a pretty extreme night out (probably back to the dorm around 5am?) and we had an early wake up call to make the show in time. We slowly gathered ourselves and finally headed out for our Royal adventure, dressed for the part.

All dressed up

After a quick hot dog snack we made our way into the quite old, extravagantly decorated Royal Theater. A little background, the theater was built in 1874 and was originally a theater for the king. It later became the country’s theater and although a new, spiffy and modern theater was recently built nearby, it still houses the Danish ballet, orchestra, and other cultural events.

The show was beautiful. Although the story differed slightly from the American version, Clara still receives a toy nutcracker for Christmas that comes alive in her dreams, saves her from the evil army of mice and leads her to the sugar plum fairy. The costumes were especially colorful and helped bring the story to life. We were even able to see one of the ballerinas up close during intermission where she was taking pictures and signing autographs. Everyone kept commenting on how tiny she was!

All the amazing costumes

After the show, we continued our cultured day by walking to the new Royal Playhouse to enjoy a cup of coffee before heading back. We discussed our favorite scenes, dance moves and costumes and pretended to be ballet snobs. Then it was back to business. Our kitchen Christmas dinner was that night so we had to run to the store and start cooking! In fact, we were late anyway and got in a bit of trouble. Oops! 

Trio all glam in the Playhouse

Walking back through the decorated Nyhavn

It’s not always common to have vegetables in the traditional Danish Christmas dinner (unless you count potatoes), but we wanted to make it a bit healthier. Pernille and I were in charge of two different cabbage salads. Unique, but delicious. And that was only the beginning. Everyone was in charge of a different part of the meal so we ended up with awesome potatoes with peppers and feta, pork roast, homemade rugbrod and white bread, baked fish, laks, curry herring, frikadellers and Danish snaps.

All the meat and bread

The fish and "vegetables"

Snaps, which is very different from the peach schnapps I think of in the US, is a Danish alcohol (arguably the best is made in nearby Aalborg) that is typically served during Danish holidays. It is very strong and definitely not tasty so Pernille made a honey version for the ladies. One of my favorite parts of the night was that at random times, someone would just scream “snaps time!” and the whole table would take a thimble size shot of snaps.  Then the song followed – haps, haps, haps, nu skal vi have snaps, creatively translated to snaps, snaps, snaps, now we have the snaps. As you can see, this usually makes all holiday get togethers quite interesting.

Love this picture! Notice all the Christmas beer and snaps

Now that everyone was fat and happy, they announce it’s time for dessert, ris ala mande. It’s warm rice porridge with chopped almonds and cherry sauce. In the entire pot of porridge is one whole almond. Whoever gets the almond in their bowl has to hide it in their mouth until everyone has finished their helping and then receives a prize! A fun little traditional that has everyone trying to keep a straight face.

Pernille digging into the porridge

After the extensive meal, we cleared the kitchen and opened up the floor for some dancing. Nicholas and I practiced swing, Pernille played her favorite 50’s playlist on Spotify and everyone continued the merriment throughout the eve. I also forgot to mention this really awesome game we played where everyone has a different fruit name and you're not allowed to show your teeth, whether smiling or talking. Go ahead, try it. It's harder than you think.

Epic game