Gratulerer Med Dagen

Gratulerer Med Dagen! aka Happy Birthday to Norway! I was super lucky to visit during Norway's 200th year National Day - a day of parades, champagne brunches, bunads, and cakes! This post is mostly a compilation of pictures from the May 17th celebrations.

We headed over to Jeanette's the previous evening to help set up for our champagne brunch - decorations, cooking, baking, and more!

Because which party is complete without jello shots...

On the morning of May 17th, we woke up super early to get ready and head to Jeanette's for the champagne brunch. Almost all the girls were wearing bunads, or traditional Norwegian costumes. They were all beautiful! Each bunad is slightly diferent in color and design, a depiction of the region your family is from. They are 100% wool, hand woven and embroidered dresses. Many of the men had bunads as well, but I couldn't get a picture amidst all the chaos. Pictures at the brunch!

Once we finished eating, we grabbed our bottles of champagne and headed to the backyard for some traditional Norwegian games (garbage sack hopping and potato spoon racing)!

 The ladies in their bunads!

 He could not wait any longer for the cake...

AAAAANDDDD our team won all the games of the afternoon!

 WE ARE THE C H A M P I O N S!

As soon as we had all had too much cake and champagne, we headed to the city center to watch the parade, wave to the King & Queen, and party the day away...

After resting a while and catching up from the morning's shenanigans, we went over to Madeleine's family's house for dinner. Her family is so sweet and her mom had set up the most beautiful backyard tables, tents, and placemats for all of us. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the dinner, but it was a really fun and tiring day overall. I've never experienced such an amazingly patriotic group of people and it definitely made my visit to Norway one-of-a-kind. 

Special thanks to Jeanette for letting me use her DSLR camera and for hosting us at the brunch!

Until next time...xoxo