Every year we can be pretty guilty of saying "the nights are so long" or "I just can't belive its getting so dark so early" as if it's something new....but surely this year we can be forgiven!
It's been a few weeks now since the sun last rose and we're fast approaching the shortest day.
We are still low enough in Latitude that while we don't get any sun we still get a very usable twilight around 4 hours a day. It's quite a difficult light to explain, the camera manages to over compensate and gives an idea of full brightness, but particularly on cloudier days the light is fairly dull though. It kind of gives the feeling the sun will be rising soon, that bluey very early morning appearance which just never comes to a head, instead the next you know it's gone again and the long black darkness starts over again.
Its a complete mind mangle sometimes, We've seen us going in a shop and coming out shortly after to total darkness and its barely 3pm. Without a watch to look at we could easily see us heading to bed by 4pm thinking it must be midnight.
For us, its all quite exciting really, though we can understand that year after year some people really struggle with it, it nearly puts you in a state of hibernation! 💤
All in all if we were given the chance of spending another winter above the Arctic Circle it certainly wouldn't put us off, that's not to say we haven't caught ourselves looking a little longingly at some of our summer photos and being drawn to the shadows, the Orange bathed hills and the little yellow ball in the sky! 🌞
Summer and sun can wait though, we have other things happening! Christmas is just around the corner now and it's going to be an unusual Christmas for us, we've tried to keep in the Christmas Spirit though and have a little tree, lights and tinsel aboard. 🎄
Unlike the UK where turkey sales skyrocket the traditional Norwegian Christmas dish is either Pork Ribs or dried mutton, from what we have heard slightly more households opt for Pork Ribs. Gløgg is a mulled wine type drink and is popular for kids and adults with non alcoholic versions sold in shops everywhere (remember the rules meaning supermarkets can't sell anything over 5% alc). Of course, no Norwegian Christmas would be complete with out aquavit, the national potato based spirit...which is highly potent! Norway is great for homebakes and biscuits too so it comes as little surprise that on Christmas seven different types of homemade biscuits are served, most popular being pepperkakes, which are gingerbread biscuits. 🍪
Afraid with the set up aboard we won't be able to serve up anything as exciting! We have noticed that brussel sprouts are in the shops though, so Daniel has no excuse!! 😏
Another tradition in Norway is that Christmas presents are opened on Christmas eve, how we wish we'd had the foresight to try that excuse as a eager kids waiting for Christmas!! Again, we're afraid it is a different kind of Christmas for us so presents will be limited, we guess we could always leave a stocking out for Santa!! 🎁
Do you want to build a snowman?
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