Glanza 2010

The Glänza, unadorned, before the guests (mostly those 

under the age of 6) covered it with ornaments.

The Hoisting of the Glänza 2010 went off without a hitch last Saturday.  From 5:30 until after midnight, as many as 50 people celebrated the hoisting.  We served ham, Swedish meatballs, fishballs, herring, gravlax, salmon, some surprisingly tasty pickled-herring taquitos, a mung bean casserole for vegetarians, cabbage salad, excellent Swedish cheeses and Gjetoste, lefse, and a heavy rye bread -- not to mention mozzarella sticks, fish sticks, pizza and tater tots for the kids. (The kids food, eaten by adults and children alike, went first.)

For desserts, we had a marvelous Swedish Apple Cake (made by the Texan), a pullman of gingerbread and almond cake from local bakeries, homemade Knäcks (a Swedish toffee), and Hawaiian pineapple shortcake with chocolate. (There was more, but I've forgotten bits.)

For drinks, we of course served Moose Milk (equal parts bourbon, French Vanilla ice cream and ginger ale, a Glänza favorite), wine, beer and Aqua Vit.  In the morning, we estimated we had 20 wine bottles empty in the recycling bin.

Tasha helping set the table before the party started. 

(Note the mural on the top edge of the photo.)

For fun, the children (about 10 of them, ages 2 to 15) watched movies (teenaged-boy movies upstairs -- Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, followed by Serenity and Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog -- and pre-teen/girl movies downstairs -- Toy Story 3). One could complain that the kids were "plugged in" but they seemed to have games and fights that tumbled out of the movie rooms, and there was food and general boisterousness to keep them occupied.

The adults talked, and talked, and talked. HemKarl pulled out his old "vinyl tuner" (aka. a record player before the invention of CDs), and guests brought old favored albums. Music blared loudly -- from the 70's and 80's, mostly, dating us, but some from the 90's (since the 90's, little music has been released on vinyl).  Lots of Talking Heads, and Stevie Nicks, and Fleetwood Mac. Even some Abba, the requisite Swedish band.

 The Glänza, fully decorated, in the light of day.

The Glänza, fully decorated, glowing from its own light.

There is a freedom gained by having 4 hosts (and two Junior Hosts) at a party, and we, children of Rodney (whether by blood or spirit) take hosting very seriously.  When you realize you've been talking to one person just a little bit too long, and it crosses your mind that you have to get back to working the room, you remember there are 3 others out there, doing the same thing. It doesn't mean you don't have to close off and move on, but the urgency is gone. You have just a little longer to chat with those special friends; a little more lingering over those promises to meet for lunch next month (that you know you'll never fulfill); a little less glad-handing and looking out who needs to be brought out of their shell next.

Mile-High Technology

So, I am typing this blog entry at some 39,000 feet in the air, flying between Minneapolis and Portland.  Not so unusual, except that the airplane has Wi-Fi (free for the holidays) so I am live on the famed "intertubes" -- this entry won't be uploaded later, after I've landed, but is going out to the world at this very moment.

This is so cool, at least to us later adopters. You still can't make a call from a plane, but you can Facetime!

The photos below are not intentionally artsy -- they are simply my laptop camera's interpretation of the light and surroundings on an almost packed plane with conventional turbulence.

I am flying to Portland for our annual Glänza party (after a skipped year in 2009) -- the household is reconvening today from Idaho, Minnesota and Oregon for two days of cleaning, an evening of festivities, and then another day of cleaning afterwards.  And yet, every moment of preparation and clean-up will be worth it.  This is likely to be the last Hoisting of the Glänsa, at least in this house, but we aren't talking about it.

Miss T's 2nd Birthday

We had a small birthday party for Miss T today. She will be two on Tuesday.  Miss T is my great-niece.

Second birthday parties are marvelous. The child is old enough to appreciate the spectacle, without demanding anything like friends or massive presents or pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey style party games.  We decorated (streamers, balloons and roses) in yellow, her favorite color; I made a yellow pound cake with apple cider sauce in a yellow pitcher; those of us with yellow in our wardrobe wore yellow.

She received a mug, a yellow cougar stuffed doll (mascot of University of Minnesota, Morris), and a harmonica, but the best gift of all was the discovery of Reddi-Whip, which can be delivered directly to the hand, thence to face.  Or, in fact, licked off the plate.

The other bestest gift of the day was the balloons, as her cousin Girl-Child could have told her.  The balloons were a big hit.

Farewell Party

Last weekend, The Texan hosted a farewell party for HomoDommi, FemmeDommi and the children, although the move itself will not officially take place for another two weeks. Fifty of their nearest and dearest friends showed up to wish them the best (you build quite a few friendships after 21 years in a town, 35 years for HomoDommi, and whole lifetimes if you ask the children).

It was potluck, although we had covered the bases, providing grilled meat of many kinds (and veggie burgers, which we forgot about until the next day, but no vegetarians complained), condiments, two salads, two desserts, liquid refreshments, and a couple of appetizers. HomoDommi decorated the back yard splendidly and the weather cooperated by being cool and sunny.

The party went very well -- everybody stayed for as long as they could, departing on schedule according to the age of their children (those with no children stayed very late, which was good, too). There were guests from all aspects of the family's life in Oregon -- law school friends (since the 1980s), soccer friends (since perhaps earlier in the 1980s), graduate school friends (since the 1990s), and more recent friends with children corresponding in age with Boy- and Girl-child (since the 2000s).

The children as it happened were all boys (except for one baby girl). Ten boys, aged 7 - 13. Their entertainment was a protracted watergun fight, unintendedly mimicking the history of war by evolving from face-to-face duels, to semi-organized sides (with snipers), to guerilla ambushes involving buckets of water rather than squirt guns. Girl-Child (whose best friend couldn't make it) bonded with a long-lost boy-friend from babyhood, and then happily played with the rest, dainty enough to avoid even getting damp. When night fell, all of the children were cocooned in blankets and pillows spread across the floor of the studio, and watched a movie (The Triplets of Belleville).

We entirely forgot to take photos. We left up all the decorations, and the photo is from Sunday morning. The paper lanterns gave off a marvelous festive light after dark.

Hoisting the Glänsa 2008

This year's Glänsa party went off without a hitch. (For those of you who don't know about the Glänsa tradition, this was the Third Annual Excuse For A Secular Holiday Party Based Upon Ikea Products And Faux Scandanavian Tradition. Last year's account is here, with a description of the preparations here.) We had 48 guests, aged from 19 months to sprightly senior citizen. The party ran strong, without a break in the constant flow of guests, from 5 in the afternoon until midnight.

Our Jülebord almost literally groaned: we served a ham, gravlax, Swedish meatballs, a Swedish chilled veggie salad with herring, a shrimp salad plate, dark rye bread, lingonberry bread, banana bread, muffins, apple cake, chocolate pie, and sesame crackers (all of this was homemade). Also a cheese plate, hotdogs wrapped in crescent roll dough (for the kids), and cruditês. Guests brought an assortment of other things -- usually desserts of homemade cookies or candy, but also a large, delicious salad, and another batch of Swedish meatballs. Amazingly, there were virtually no leftovers.

We also served the traditional Moose Milk (and as usual, ran out about half way through the evening), Akvavit and wine. The liqueurs I've been making were a big hit -- as much for the conversations around them as for the flavor themselves (so far, only two people have liked the Italian Green Walnut Nocino, which tastes more like a digestif -- bitters -- than an aperitif or a cordial).

The real preparation for the party was the house. HemKarl (aka HomoDommi when not fake Swedish) had intended his dining room mural to be finished. It wasn't, but it is still quite beautiful, and impressive, and mostly, really fun to watch evolve. I took on the kitchen -- not a remodel, but just sprucing it up. When the rest of the household went to visit friends in another state for Thanksgiving, I stayed behind and cleaned out kitchen cupboards, rearranged, made curtains for the window, and updated the utility shelving unit we've been using for an island with a butcherblock countertop and curtains around the base. I did this as a surprise, and after they got home, HemKarl kept the momentum going by quickly painting all the walls in the room with some leftover paint from another project -- beige, not a color any of us like in the kitchen, but it's still a vast improvement.

Also, HemKarl made a new swag for the living room walls, something that goes with the mural a bit better, of found-pinecones and little red beads. That, with our new furniture in the living room, makes us actually look "grown-up" in the words of HemKvinna.

Report on the Hoisting of the Glänsa

This photo of the glänsa, hoisted, was actually taken this morning -- since then we've secured it and rearranged to more evenly distribute the baubles. The custom (which we invented last night) is that each guest, as they enter, chooses an ornament and puts it on the light ring. And then at the end of the evening, we hoist it from its lowered, reachable, position, to the ceiling.

The party was very good. We had three parties, in essence. The first started around 5 p.m. It had lots of people and bonhomie and noise and excitement. Towards the end of it, as people with smaller children were leaving, around 8:00, another family arrived. It was pretty obvious to HemKarl (HomoDomi in googleswedish) and HemKvinna (the woman of the house) that they were planning to just make an appearance (I didn't pick up on that attitude), but then they started having a good time -- so they, and collateral people who still were around, got things livened up again, and were there until about 10:00 p.m. This party was also pleasant and filled with bonhomie, but a little quieter. (HemKarl's favorite of the three.)

The third and final party came later. We had about a 20 minute break after Party #2. HemKarl finally scarfed down some food (he had been Hosting, not eating) and the HemDammen (the Texan and I) made a dent in the dishes. HemKvinna had gotten the kids upstairs but not yet to bed, when another group of 4 showed up (they had warned us they couldn't come until about 9, after an office party -- they arrived at 10:15 -- but said they'd do a drive-by to check in). They intended to leave right away, but they, HemKarl and we HemDammen pulled out the grappas and liquers and a cheese and fruitbread plate, and we all sat around the table until after midnight.

The Quarante-Quatre Liqueur was pretty well finished off, only two weeks old, and our liqueur cabinet hard hit, the akvavit cleaned out. I will have to make more 44 immediately.

I have some rather nice photos showing the decorations around the house (many of them quite witty) and the stages of preparing the glänsa, so perhaps at a later date I will post those.

Sorting the Liquor

I pulled all the liquor out of the cabinet tonight. Look at all that! This isn't even all of it, since I didn't bother to bring up the bottles stored in the basement, of things we don't drink very often (hard ciders and odd beers gifted to us). Also there were several wine bottles I left out, too (on balance, several of these are mixers, not liquor). About a dozen of these bottles have never been opened, including some fine dusty old grappa that has been in the cupboard for years.

Being who I am, and granted my training, I was obliged to sort the liquor. I made a free-form map of drinking alcohol, based on how it is made (fermented or distilled -- roughly left to right), what it is made from (fruit, grains, roots, sugars -- also roughly left to right) and how sweet it is (from not at all to heavily sweetened -- very roughly outside to inside).

I had to consult the keeper of all knowledge, Wikipedia (true facts or truthy facts -- it doesn't matter for a mental map of a liquor cabinet), and I learned a lot I hadn't known. Did you realize Whisky and Barleywine are both made from barley? Well, I hadn't known that. Nor that Creme de Menthe is ideally made with a particular kind of peppermint leaf and unrestricted "grain alcohol". So you could drink a Creme de Menthe whisky.

Others were joking about the household's problem with alcoholism, looking at this pile of proof. I know better -- in an alcoholic's house, there are very few bottles, and all of them are open. They don't last long enough to fill the cabinet.

Preparing for a Party

This coming weekend we will be hosting the 2nd Annual Hoisting of the Glänsa Party. It is a faux Scandinavian celebration of lights. Last year, trying to work around office parties and birthdays and other celebrations, we realized we were discussing the date upon which we would put up a tree and "hoist the Glänsa" -- and a party was børn.

See, the Glänsa is an Ikea light thingy. All Ikea's holiday lights are sold under the rubric of "glänsa". Our particular Glänsa, from a couple of years ago, is three large rings hung cylindrically from the ceiling, wrapped with tiny white lights and then draped with more shiny beads and silver, gold, and transparent ornaments than tasteful people put on their Christmas trees. It is glorious, it fills the front hallway with light, and is visible from the street. We force ourselves to take it down around Easter, just so we can have the pleasure of putting it up again in the gloom of December. Photos do not do it justice, but I will post one after this year's Glänsa is hoisted.

We generally follow the menu of a Julebørd, but we are not strictly Swedish in observance -- anything vaguely Scandinavian is allowed, or even not at all Scandinavian as long as there is a reason for it (for instance, grape leaf rolls have been allowed because surely the Vikings ate them while plundering the Mediterranean). So the features will be ham, Swedish meatballs, crackers, pumpernickel and cheese, lefse, lingonberry compote, boiled potatoes, chilled asparagus, grape leaf or cabbage rolls, possibly chocolate fondue (I'm sure many Scandinavians have been to Switzerland), and apple cake. We are hoping everyone will forget lutefisk. One guest is bringing Pickled Herring Ravioli in Akvavit Sauce (hmm...); another brings her Finnish mother's heritage sugar cake. To drink will be Akvavit, Moose Milk (in copious amounts -- we ran out last year), gløgg, and Swedish sodas for the kids (thank goodness for Ikea!). The Scandinavians drink wine and beer, too.The hoisting will happen on Saturday; as guests arrive, they will each put an ornament on the glänsa. We started cleaning yesterday (40 or so guests, a dozen kids under 11). Tonight we hung the paper chain, and tomorrow we will start cooking.