Christmas Eve Smörgåbord

We had our meal at 3:30 this year. As the family changes there is a need to accommodate. We were between naps and before a too late bedtime! The first course is the Herring/Fish Buffet. that includes salmon/cucumber sauce, sardines, smoked oysters, wine and creamed herring, buttered fingerling potatoes/dill, Jansson's Temptation(potatoes, onions, cream and anchovies..like a rich scalloped potatoes with anchovies..delish), stuffed herring rolls, cheeses, hardtack, lefse, limpa and cardamon bread.

The second course is the Cold Buffet. That consists of egg mold/caviar, spiced ham, potato salad(yogurt/mayo dressing/green olives, capers/curry), liver pâté, deviled eggs, pickled beets, relishes, raspberry jello, Swedish cuks(white vinegar, sugar and parsley).

Next comes the Hot Buffet. A clean plate is taken at each buffet. Everyone knows not to take too much at each buffet and not everyone takes everything. And some go back to a previous table to get something they really like. Here we have pork ribs, meatballs, swedish brown beans(cooked with cinnamon, brown sugar and vinegar) and red cabbage(vinnegar and spices).

Potato sausage and rotmos(mashed potatoes and rutabagas.

Hassekback potatoes, baked carrot mold and last but certainly not least is the lutefisk/cream sauce. The young folks all eat it. Soren and Anja even had seconds!

These courses take quite a while to eat. It is a time to eat and enjoy each other. We had a table in the dining room and one in the family room. After the dishes are clean and all the food put away it is time to open gifts. I wonder how many years it will be before the 3 little ones realize how it used to be with their parents....."hurry, hurry, do you have to do the dishes?"


It was great fun watching them open their gifts. Soren was the dispatcher and they did the delivering. As Marcos brought each package to his Mom to hold (that was his) he'd say," another one!" with such awe. He couldn't believe so many were for him. There were no fights over another kids gift with anyone and everyone waited their turn. It was wonderful! Marcos and Linnea got this hooded towels from Anja and wore them the rest of the evening.

And now to the last Buffet. We need sweets to balance all that spiced, pickled and fishy stuff!!

This is the Crown cake...the centerpiece at the dessert table.

I got photos of most of the cookies but missed the dishes to the right....ostkaka/lingonberries, créme caramel. fruit soup, and Michael made a favorite dessert of his Dutch G'ma.

All the furniture that Michael and Stephen moved for us the 23rd was returned to it's upstairs or downstairs regular spot. The dishes were washed and I've been sloooooooooly getting the dishes back where they belong and the toys in their rightful place. I don't have to cook for a few days, plenty of leftovers. Everyone gets to take home some of the food they brought plus some of the other food.

I can't believe that I'm going to be able to hit "publish". We're having internet problems again. It suddenly goes off and will be off a number of hours or overnight and then come back on and be just fine. Yesterday aft. while talking to Linda in AZ suddenly both our faces froze....oh, no there it goes again. About 2 this morning I got the photo of the creshe posted but it went off as I was going to post these.