What a great time was had by all at our reunion. It was wonderful getting the chance to relax, recreate, and engage in social intercourse with our cousins and their partners at Grandma's 1876 cabin near the Snowy Range mountains of Wyoming.
And not only that! They worked their buns off providing breakfast buffets and dinners with all the fixin's.
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| Many of the meals were cooked over the old woodstove. |
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| This is the accordion brought from Sweden by our grandfather Otto |
From Sweden, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington we joined our Wyoming cousins. One day snow was brought down the mountain by Mark and Nadia and Carol used that to make homemade ice cream. Then we had rootbeer floats. Something new for our Swedish cousins to experience.
These Swedes, Ulf & Lena, celebrated their 41st anniversary with us. We were honored to share their day. One of their customs was for Ulf to pick the flower of the Mjolke plant. Lena realized that that would not be able to be done this year until she saw it growing here. Mjolke is the Fireweed plant here. An anniversary cake magically appeared to make this a special evening for our cousins.
Thanks to these Swedes we again had a Snaps evening like we enjoyed at the last reunion.
According to Swedish tradition (see below), we seem to be doing everything right. Lots of humorous sayings and songs before each sip. With the exclamation: Skål (Skoal) as we lifted the glass.
We are looking forward to our next Gunnarsson Cousin Reunion in Branson in June 2016.
With help from Wikipedia: Snaps is a small shot of a strong alcoholic beverage (aquavit) taken during the course of a meal. A ritual that is associated with drinking snaps is a tradition in Sweden, where it is very common to drink snaps at holidays such as Midsummer, Christmas and Easter AND FAMILY REUNIONS!. This ritual has been described as follows:
A group of people are clustered around a table for a meal and a clear, fiery drink. The host pours the ice-cold liquid into frosty, conical glasses with long stems. He raises his glass, at which point the diners turn to one another and make eye contact, making certain not to leave anyone out. "Skål!" calls out the host, and everyone takes a sip. Again there is eye contact, and then the glasses are set on the table, not to be lifted again until the host raises his.
Swedes have a tradition of singing songs (called snapsvisors) before drinking snaps. These snapsvisors are typically odes to the joys of drinking snaps. They may praise the flavor of snaps or express a craving for it. Snaps and snapsvisor are essential elements of celebrating special occasions, which are sometimes notoriously tipsy affairs. Dozens of songs may be sung during such a party, and every song requires a round of snaps. However, the glass need not be emptied every time (that didn't stop us).
