The Norden Club of Lincoln www.nordenclub.com Our 71st Year December 2018 Next Meeting: Norwegian Smorgasbord. Hillcrest Country Club. Dec. 9, 2018 12:00 pm Menu for Norden Club Norwegian Smörgåsbord Reservation due by Sunday Noon, December 9, 2018 December 1 Reservations Required Send check to Ron Nielsen—5015 NW 7th St., 12:00 Noon - Hor d'oeuvres Lincoln, NE 68521 Herrings Cheeses Norden Club Officers & Committees Hard Breads/Crackers Grapes President Del Stites Cash Bar - Aquavit, Beers, Wine, Mixed Vice President Cyndi Mattson Drinks, Soft Drinks Secretary Sandy Hanson Treasurer Ray Friesen 1:00 - Norwegian-Style Smörgåsbord Membership Mary Brass Pork Roast and Baked Ham Courtesy Mary Brass Mashed Potatoes with Rutabaga and Gravy Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage w/Caraway Historian Phyllis Ericson Creamed Peas Name Tags Ingrid Stites Fruit Salad Newsletter Len Nelson Lefse Contact Song Leader Kendra Hartwick Coffee, Tea, Water Information Dessert - Apricot Cream Pianist Kristina Hanson President—Del Stites: and ginger snaps Librarian Phyllis Ericson 402-830-6679 or [email protected] Web Master Len Nelson Foundation President —Joan Inside this issue: Tomlinson White: 402-423-0023 or [email protected] Dec. meeting information ...... 1 Presidents Corner................... 2 Smörgåsbord invitation ......... 3 Foundation Report ................. 4 Membership Report ............... 4 Reservations for Norwegian Smörgåsbord Library Report ....................... 5 You must pre-pay by sending a check to Ron Nielsen, 5015 NW 7th St, Lincoln, Courtesy Report ..................... 5 NE 68521. Ron must receive the check by Dec. 1. Cost is $35 for members and Officers and Board ................ 5 $45 for non-members. Children 5-15 $15. Children under 5 free. Swedish Excursion ................ 6 Christmas in Norway ............. 7 The Norden Club promotes fellowship among Calendar of events 2019 ........ 8 Scandinavian-Americans and their descendants and helps preserve Smörgåsbord Flyer ................ 9 for the benefit of the United States the best in the cultural heritage Norwegians .......................... 10 of Scandinavia. Danish Co in Nebraska ........ 11 The countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden Tax Facts ............................. 12 make up Scandinavia. December 2018 THE NORDEN CLUB OF LINCOLN PAGE 2 Presidents Corner: The Christmas of the Green Meatball About twenty years ago Ingrid quivered with flashing lights and Christmas, we were getting a bit and I were invited to give some resounded with the horns of bus despondent and depressed. lectures and talks at a college and after bus carrying pilgrims to nursing school in Madurai, pay homage, worship, and So, it was, early on Christmas Tamil Nadu State, southern experience this sacred city and Eve we dutifully walked into the India. We would not be on a temple. Loudspeakers blasted hotel’s tiny and empty restaurant guided tour, but on our own for out religious ragas with high- hoping to find something we much of December and January pitched chants to the beat of could eat. Food in Tamil Nadu in a country which is often called tablas and the melody of sitars. has the reputation of being one of the hottest, coldest, All of this created hypnotic among the spiciest in India. wettest, driest, richest, poorest, avalanches of sound. The air was Earlier in the week at a supper in most spiritual, Hindu and thick with the warm smells of the one of our host’s home, an Indian Muslin, and certainly the second surrounding jungles and friend had to grab the dinner largest (over a billion folks). grasslands, the sweet pungent plate away from Ingrid when her Landing in what was then known scent of sugar cane, the odors of pale Nordic face went as Bombay we began a great but kerosene, charcoal, and dried- Cornhusker red after she’d taken awesome adventure for us. From dung cooking stoves, and the a bite. No spicy Mexican or the airplane window we could see fragrances wafting from the food Indian food we’d eaten in people living, bathing, and and chai stands along the streets. America had ever been so hot. washing clothes in the drainage The hostess was very apologetic ditches lining the airport. It was After two weeks, the lectures and explaining she had only used 3 of our first immersion into an the many schooled regional tours the 13 peppers that was called for ancient society which was were over. We were exhausted. in her recipe! Ingrid had picked up a traveler’s working its way out of a third- As we waited for service at the world past. After another flight bug and was losing weight daily. It was Christmastime and our restaurant, I asked Ingrid “So to Madras and then an overnight what are we going to order?” She bus ride, we arrived in Madurai conversation often turned to our two daughters back home in whispered back, “Some plain which lies near the southern tip rice, cooked vegetables, and of India. America and past Christmases in America and Sweden. We were bottled water!” She was learning Quite soon we were immersed in to be alone for the first time on quickly! Eventually the waiter the noise, poverty, dirt, apparent Christmas Eve. This year there came, gave us the friendly Hindu confusion, joyous religious and would be no tree, no sharing of greeting, and took our meager secular sights, holy places, presents, no midnight services, order. As we were left alone in extraordinary people, and events and of course none of Ingrid’s the darkened dining room, we of vibrant and wondrous India. delectable Swedish Christmas noticed that the hotel had in fact Madurai is a pilgrimage city Eve dinner: there would be no put up a tiny Yule wreath on which is the home of one of the shank of ham, dishes of herring, their door…in respect to any seven holiest Hindu temples (of Swedish meatballs, pate, korv, a would-be tourists and the few the thousands) in India…a 1000- pile of potatoes, Janssons local Christians. Our year-old temple the size of a city Frestelse, red-cabbage, cheeses, conversation then turned to what block with dozens of shrines and hard-bread, coffee, etc. nor the we were missing…family, snow, dark anterooms. We were all-important glögg! Worn out, Christmas, carols… billeted in a small hotel on a away from home, missing family Continued on Page 3 main road next to the temple. All and things familiar, and having night and all day the city no expectations for a traditional December 2018 THE NORDEN CLUB OF LINCOLN PAGE 3 Presidents Corner: The Christmas of the Green Meatball—Continued After some time, the waiter came both of our faces; we chuckled But that was then! So now, as out of the kitchen followed by the politely; and our hands spontaneous Norden Club President and on cook and kitchen staff…” Happy began to clap at the sight of this behalf of its Board and the Norden Christmas to you! Happy unusual Christmas gift. We Club members, we invite you and Christmas to you! Happy realized that the staff had made this the public to share a traditional Christmas dear friends! Happy especially for us and our Christmas Norwegian Christmas smorgasbord Christmas to you!” The waiter was Eve dinner! After all, green is the with us. Join us and form new carrying a platter piled with rice, color of Christmas and it was Christmas memories with other but there on top of the mound of Christmas! The tenor of our whole Scandinavian-Americans, your rice was a huge nearly fist-sized evening changed…pleasure, family, and friends. Please make ball, a great green ball of meat, a thankfulness, and newly-generated your reservations for this special neon green glob the chartreuse glow appreciation for those men and afternoon of Yuletide celebration. from which dominated the hill of what they had done for us. The But to be clear, we do promise that rice. How wonderful! The staff had room, our spirits, and the rest of the we will not serve you a huge green made us a festive Christmas evening were warmed by this meatball nor the infamous meatball!... not just a lamb-ball with unexpected thoughtfulness. To this Scandinavian lutefisk! mint, but one with enough green day with gentle feelings, we still food coloring to dye fifty Easter remind each other and laugh at the God Jul! eggs. The cook had stuck a small Christmas of the Green Meatball! Del Stites, President lighted candle in the top of the ball. Immediately smiles formed across The Norden Club of Lincoln Dear Norden Club Members: will have a traditional Scandinavian Norwegian Smörgåsbord. Dinner Come join other Norden dessert, and coffee will be followed Club members, families, friends, by a celebration of Christmas in and guests at our annual Christmas Norway, carols, and a visit from Smorgasbord, Sunday, December 9. Julenissan! Celebrate your Scandinavian Throughout the afternoon heritages at this Yuletide as we give there will be a silent auction of homage to Norway and Norwegian- Scandinavian items to benefit the Americans. Begin your holiday activities and scholarship program season at this festive event! of the Norden Club Foundation. For the first time the dinner and What better way to start your program will be held on a Sunday holidays than with this festive afternoon to avoid darkness and Scandinavian event! make driving easier. We will meet at Space is limited so place your noon, Sunday, December 9th at the reservation today. The event is $35 beautiful Hillcrest Country Club, for members; $45 for nonmembers. 9401 O St., Lincoln, NE. Turn south Children 5-15 years are $15 and off of O Street onto a lane beside the under 5 are free. Advance God Jul! brown house which sits on the south Reservations Only: Deadline - side of the street.