Christmas in Winter Wonderland | #40 Life in Norway

Good morning from our winter wonderland here. Alva and I are just about to go for a little walk, but she thinks the wood there is very, very interesting. And the lake started to freeze yesterday. It's only a very thin layer of ice just yet, but very soon we will be able to walk over the lake again. I'm very looking forward to that time of winter because right now the snow in the forest is a little bit too deep. And then we are always kind of trapped here and we can just walk on the main road with the dogs. Right now we can already walk on the shore of the lake. It's already frozen or the ice is deep enough so that you can walk there. It's also a very beautiful way to walk. Come on, Alfie. It must smell very, very interesting there. Are you coming? There you are. It's a really uncomfortable day today. It's so incredibly cold. Not like from the temperature, but just this wind makes it very, very nasty and very freezing. Still, I'm just about to start a new building project today. Because as you might know, we have the Christmas market next week. For that, we have rented a little hut where we can stand. Of course, we need something where we can present our products. We just don't want to have it all on a big table, but present it so that you can actually also see the different pieces and so on. My idea was to build a shelf or a stair shelf in a way where you can then place all the candle glasses and porcelain cups. So that you can actually see each individual piece. I also have to build in my little office here because, of course, Alva is sleeping in the main house. She is still very, very afraid of loud noises and so on. I think it's a little bit too early to scare her that way again. Of course, in the long run, she will have to get used to building noises and stuff like that. I think it's a bit early. I will have to build up a little workshop here in my office and maybe also on the porch. I guess we will see how long I will survive in this weather. Even without participating on a market, Christmas is always quite a busy time for us as it is also the main season in our online store. We absolutely love to run our store to fill it up with new pieces every other month and send them out all over the world to you. But as we're still doing everything by ourselves, it is also a lot of work. Mostly, of course, for Joachim to create all these different art pieces and this time twice as much for the shop and for the market. I don't really know how he did it, but he painted insanely much this winter. It is his biggest passion and he is very ambitious, but I think in the end even he was quite exhausted. It's been a long evening. Yes. I think they need to dry a bit. That's quite a lot. Two days now. I even need more coffee. And it actually not only has been our first market, but also in general the first time we ever went out with our products in the real world, so to speak. And as so often when you're doing something for the first time, we had absolutely no idea how it's going to be. So we were a bit nervous, but also excited. Just being in Røros during Christmas time is quite an experience for itself and we thought that even if just for that, it would definitely have been worth it. Cars running. Røros is one of the coldest places in Norway and I don't know if you have ever experienced minus 30 degrees Celsius, but I would say that it is really something different. It is a kind of cold that is dangerous, that makes it hard to think while your whole body just goes into a survival mode and standing outside on a Christmas market the whole day is pretty much the last thing you want to do. But there we were and with a lot of cursing, some stress and desperation, we managed to build up our stand and also survive the first day. I don't know how we did it, but we did it and I guess at least we can say now that we stood a whole day on a Christmas market in minus 30 degrees Celsius and we survived it. It's too cold to even take my camera out. So today it's all about surviving. Yes. Tomorrow it's going to be a lot warmer. Yeah. But I can show you the stand one more. So here's everything. Your breath looks so crazy. Luckily the next days it got a little bit warmer and my original plan was to make a very long and detailed vlog about the whole time, but on Saturday it suddenly got so busy and there was so much going on that I kind of forgot it. Actually a lot of people from YouTube here as well. Yes. It's really nice. So for those of you who have been here, thank you. Now we are getting a little concert. But I managed to capture some impressions of the market and whole atmosphere during the days. I think there isn't a better place to be during Christmas time than Røros. The whole city is decorated. The market is full of handmade and local products. Everybody seems to be in a good mood and it just has everything you need to get into a really cozy Christmas mood. So if you're not already, here is some of the Røros Christmas spirit for you. I am very, very exhausted. I feel like I could lay in bed just the whole day and now it's almost afternoon and the only thing that I've been doing today is to walk the dogs this morning. And now I just really want to start to unpack the van and get rid of all the chaos here in the house. It's very, very dirty and messy here at the moment and I feel I cannot really relax until that is done. So one last effort and then I hope that the Christmas holidays can begin for us as well. I just want to make it a bit more cozy here again and then I can also tell you a little bit more about the Christmas market and how it all went for us and so on. Let's just start cleaning and get life back in control. So the house is a little bit more inhabitable now again and while the fire is warming everything up, I thought I could just make a little conclusion or just tell you a little bit about how the market actually went for us. Despite I'm just incredibly exhausted and tired and I think I haven't been that social the whole last year like I've been in these four days. My social batteries are definitely a little bit empty. Despite of that it has been of course very, very wonderful to be in Rojas. I mean you have seen the images, it just has been such a lovely atmosphere and I think we fell in love with Rojas one more time. It's definitely one of our favorite places and if we wouldn't want to live in nature, this is definitely the city where we would live I think. The market also has been very nice. It's quite a small market actually. So there are mostly local people who come there and sell their products and still on Saturday there came people from all over Norway for this market. Mostly we got very nice reactions. Joachim got a lot of compliments and very many people loved the products which of course has been very nice. And I also think that we also sold quite good for a market so I'm very, very pleased with that. But at the same time I'm also not quite sure if a market really is the right place for us because I just know myself when I'm on a market I really just want to stroll around a little bit, have a look at all these different things. Maybe buy something to eat or take something small with me but it's not really the place where I really have the time or where I want to look at art. It actually has been our plan to go to the market with more like smaller products that you can just take with you maybe also for a cheaper price that are maybe more simple and Joachim, like he tried but he literally cannot paint simple. He ended up putting so much details and make all these pieces so intricate again that it really didn't work. So I think that is just the way he works. He puts so much love and so much thought into every single piece and that is also why every single piece has a name and why they are of course also a bit higher priced. And the market also really has shown us one more time why we're doing that because we also really don't want to sell mass produced things or cheap things or things of no real value if you know what I mean. It almost felt a little bit like that piece wanted to belong to that person. It sounds a little bit weird now but maybe you know what I mean. It creates such a connection and it's really what we want. I just feel that we are so incredibly blessed that we have found our tribe's people so to speak and a majority of that is of course also this YouTube community here. And it also has been very very special to me to meet some of you who know the videos on the market and to see what kind of people are behind the comments and behind the views. I think the people who watch these kinds of videos are mostly people with a very good heart, people who definitely love nature and people who can appreciate the beauty of this life. So that is definitely still there and I think even though we can also imagine to be part of the market next year again just for this whole experience it has been very wonderful. So I think we will do it a little bit different though than this year and yeah take everything with us that we have learned from this experience and yeah we will see. I wish you a wonderful start into the new year and yeah hope you enjoyed this Christmassy video here from our little place in the mountains of Norway. Here he comes. Yes you have to say hello to the people as well. Just that everybody knows that you are doing well and that you are still the most privileged dog on this planet.