Christmas Weekend

        This year, we're having an extended Christmas break instead of having both fall and winter vacations in order to minimize travel in these crazy times. That means that we are leaving on the 11th of December, and coming back the 4th of January. The school has decided to celebrate as much Christmas as it can before we go, so a few weeks ago, in mid November, we declared it December 1st. The stipps have been raffling off presents at morning assembly, we each were assigned a Secret Santa, and we've been watching an insane amount of Christmas movies. We even have a gorgeous tree in the peisestue! 

        This past weekend, the Student Council organized a bunch of Christmas activities for the students. Friday night we had an ugly sweater contest, and a little holiday show. Elise and I played a few Xmas songs together, her on the piano and me with the clarinet. We played Silent Night and The First Noel, and while it was kind of scary getting up there with just the two of us, it ended up being pretty fun and I'm glad I did it.


        After that I was ready for anything, so when they announced a mystery competition, I was in. It turned out to be an accordion contest. They paired people against each other, and the winners played until there was only one left. I beat Sol in the first round, when we both had to play our national anthems. It was really crazy, but super fun! Maybe I'll add the accordion to my list of whacky instruments. Oh, and did I mention that I won?!

        Saturday included a ton of hot cocoa and a Norwegian holiday drink called gløgg. All day the Student Council was marathoning holiday movies like Elf, The Polar Express, and Mean Girls. The movie selections weren't great in the afternoon, so my friends and I went down to the NLC classroom and watched some of my favorite Christmas specials. We saw Frosty the Snowman, The Year Without Santa Claus, and were five minutes into Rudolph when they all asked "why is Santa called Kris Kringle?" In answer, we watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town instead, where the first scene is a mailman listing all the questions Santa gets each year, including that one! 

        The Norwegian Christmas is quite different than what I'm personally used to, as everybody gets advent calendars/gifts, they celebrate on the evening of the 24th, and instead of random Christmas specials on TV, they watch a Christmas Calendar every year. Every day, a new 15-20 minute episode comes out and everyone watches it. The only movie that everybody loves is the Grinch, but the super creepy on with Jim Carrey. I always watch the original, but most people don't even know that one exists. Watching some of the specials yesterday was interning, because both the Germans and Norwegians didn't realize that some of their favorite Christmas songs had stories attached. Here's a picture from the ugly sweater contest--the guy on the end won. 

        Sunday, there were more movies and activities all day, but we all slept in and had lazy mornings. My friends and I worked out before dinner, which was good because it was Christmas ham, and it was absolutely delicious! We spent the afternoon knitting and working on gifts, and figuring out our vacation plans. Rather than participate in the activities downstairs, a few of us spent the evening baking cookies to cheer up a friend of ours who gets down around the holidays. We had a fun night, and it was a nice end to our Christmas Weekend. 

For some reason this is the only pic I have of the cookies :)



Comments

  1. This post makes me want to turn on some Christmas music!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! You are so far ahead of me on Christmas movies! Burgermeister Meisterburger!

    ReplyDelete

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