Happy Birthday, Grandpa Les

When I was a child, we celebrated our extended family's Christmas on December 23 because that day was Grandpa's birthday. And because Grandpa Les was the Norwegian grandpa, the grownups ate lutefisk and lefse. (The kids, at the table in the kitchen, did not eat lutefisk. Lutefisk smells very bad. Or, at least it used to. That's not just my memory at work - other people say you can get it now in an un-smelly version. Whatever. It smelled quite bad when we were kids.) Because of Grandpa's birthday and Norwegian family, we said the table grace in Norwegian. It is the only Norwegian language I know, and I am not sure I would be understood in Norway, but one of these days I will go to Norway and find out what this table grace sounds like there.

I Jesu navn går vi til bords
å spise, drikke på ditt ord.
Deg, Gud til ære, oss til gavn,
Så får vi mat i Jesu navn.
Amen.
In Jesus' name to the table we go
To eat and drink according to His word.
To God the honor, us the gain,
So we have food in Jesus' name.
Amen.

Fire and ice. Christmas traditions. Fish and potato bread. These things are in my blood. Maybe that's why I am entranced by the sound of Trio Mediaeval. And why these women look as if they could easily have been at the Christmas Party-Grandpa's Birthday of my childhood.

"Singing doesn't get more unnervingly beautiful than the exquisite display mounted in Herbst Theatre on Thursday night by Trio Mediaeval. With its cool, unerringly precise blend of voices, the group made a local debut that has to count among the musical highlights of the year." - San Fransisco Chronicle

Unnervingly beautiful. That's about right, I'd say.