This Christmas traditions has been on my mind. For the majority of Christmases for the past 15 years we’ve gathered our small family at our winter cabin to celebrate the season with Christmas cod, sweet rice porridge, herring, oysters, candy-filled stockings, turkey, mulled wine, Christmas ham and something bubbly to drink. Yes, Christmas for me is all about the food, or at least mostly about the food.
But next year we’re selling the winter cabin and moving the Christmas celebrations abroad, and thus a lot of what I’ve taken for granted the past years will suddenly be hard or impossible to transplant into our new Christmas home. The winter cabin for one, which fills me with instant peace whenever we run from the car and inside to duck away from the winter storms. The fresh cod from the Northern Sea, combined with cooked potatoes, mashed carrots, melted butter, mustard, liver, roe and parsley, which has been a Christmas Eve staple since before I was born.
Then again, growing up means changing traditions, adding new ones and sometimes letting go of the ones that are not practical or attainable anymore. Next year, I’m voting to keep the candy-filled stockings, a beautiful Christmas tree, sweet rice porridge on the 23rd (with an almond in it for the winner), mulled wine, and most importantly (although we drive each other nuts) the family. And as for the cod; while I’ll miss it on the 24th, I can accept turkey as a replacement. As long as I get plenty of cooked apples and walnuts, and mashed sweet potatoes. Yum!
