Holiday Ramblings: Or An Adult Man in Footie Pajamas, Stupid Traditions, Meat Wrapped in Other Kinds of Meat, and a Very Long Drive to a Neighboring State

Well, I haven't had time to blog since before Christmas, so naturally I have a lot of pent up blogging ready to burst out of me. I'd like to start with this.

A full grown adult man in footie pajamas.

You can't un-see that. Anyhow, let's get straight to business. I had a pretty great Christmas. As expected, upon arriving at Gramma Eda's on the 24th, my senses were bombarded with all things Norwegian. Not in a bad way. I happen to be one who delights in all manifestations of the term "Scandinavian." To my surprise at dinner, I was offered wine, which I guess implies that 20 is the age that my family begins the slow descent into alcoholism. Haha, just kidding. We aren't alcoholics. That I know of. But I got wine!

I was, however, not offered the annual serving of Norwegian aquavit. For all of my 20 years, I have sat at the table every year at Christmas and watched the adults reluctantly raise their tiny aquavit glasses, say "Skoal," and then drink. What follows can best be described by pained facial expressions, heavy breathing, and clutching of throats and stomachs. Which really begs the question, if it is such a bad experience, why drink it? Well I will tell you why. It is tradition. And some traditions, no matter how stupid, must be upheld.

Sweet, burning tradition.

In fact, the very creation of aquavit carries with it a very stupid tradition. First of all, you should know that it is an 83 proof alcoholic beverage. It is distilled and fermented in oak casks that are placed on "Linje" ships. These ships then go out onto the ocean and cross the Earth's equator twice. Why? Because apparently it is necessary for the aquavit to experience the rocking of the ocean waves and the particular temperature changes. This causes the spirit to extract more flavour from the casks.

See what I mean? Ridiculous traditions. And this segues nicely into yet another tradition. That of lutefisk. Legend has it that lutefisk originated when some Norwegian guy accidentally dropped his cod into a bucket of lye. I don't know if there is any truth to that legend, but the concept is there. Lutefisk is cod that has been soaked in lye. Which is essentially dangerous to humans. Anyhow, in the lye it loses 50 percent of it's protein, which results in it's jelly like consistency. Above all things, most people dislike lutefisk because of its consistency. 

Mmmm. Appetizing, no?

In all seriousness, I do enjoy lutefisk personally. :) Just add a little melted butter and throw in a meatball or two. Maybe some lefse... Yum.

Following dinner, the family took part in another tradition. Gift giving on a massive scale. The economy may have us all cutting corners, but one thing that the Logelands will NEVER cut is Christmas gift-giving. We certainly do our part for commercialism.

No shame.

I got all kinds of interesting things. Among the usual gift cards, I received a 2011 calendar (or two), a book by David Sedaris (my favorite), a new sweatervest (how appropriate), adult footie pajamas (comfortable, I don't care what you think), and more of my favorite pens!! I got other stuff too, but I will spare the reader.

My sister and I spent the morning of the 25th at Mama Mary's house (our other gramma). We had a big brunch and I was able to visit with family for awhile before heading back home to St. Cloud. I had to work the afternoon shift. Kind of sucks to work on Christmas, but someone had to do it and I got paid well.

Gavle Christmas Goat 2006,  Sweden

I also have to take a moment to describe a new tradition this year. I was invited to go to my first ever "Julbocken" celebration. There is a lot of history behind this. In Sweden, around Christmas time, it has long been the tradition to create yule goat figures out of straw. In 1966, some badass guy decided to build a giant Swedish yule goat and put it in the square. So he did. However, at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve, somebody lit the thing on fire and it went down in flames. Every year since then, a giant goat has been constructed in Sweden, and every year (as tradition mandates) it has been torched by vandals on or before New Years. 

So anyways, some friends of mine in St. Cloud had an annual Julbocken get together on the 28th. The city wouldn't grant them permission to build and burn down a straw goat, so they did the next best thing. Cooked a whole bunch of meat and got drunk.

Take a good hard look.

What you see before you is a pork tenderloin stuffed with italian sausage, which was then wrapped in bacon, then covered in steak surrounded with more bacon. :D Here's a bigger picture. Enjoy.

Heart attack.

Altogether, it was a great party. I loved it. I had a few beers, and a few slabs of awesome, epic meat. 

So I was feeling a little tipsy when my girlfriend came to me with a proposition. She wanted us to leave right then and there to drive all the way to South Dakota to pick up her sister and bring her back to St. Cloud. I was feeling a little adventurous and a tad spontaneous, so I said yes.

We went to Vermillion. Not pictured, but it is in the southern tip.

So guess what. We effing drove to South Dakota. We got there in 4 hours. It was like 2:30 am. I had a great time. Lots of fun.

But then came the ride back... Because morning traffic was starting up, the drive was 5 and a half hours. And I took it upon myself to drive the whole way without switching out. I let the girls sleep. I was SO on edge when we finally got home. It was 8:30am and I couldn't handle life at that point. So while it was a good experience, it sort of brought some trouble my way.

I have some personal problems (who doesn't) that I had been sort of ignoring and they were all brought to the surface. I had some big fights with the girlfriend, but now that I've acknowledged the issues I can start working on them. And as usual, she is nothing but helpful. I'm pretty lucky, you know.

So that's the update. Hopefully in the future, I won't wait so long to blog about important issues and they won't pile up as they so clearly did.

Cody M. Logeland