A Nordic Inspired Baby Shower

I am a very lucky person in that I have been blessed with some amazing friends. I think it is obvious to anyone that knows me (even if they don't know I have this blog) that I am very proud of my nordic heritage so it was very sweet when my friends surprised me with a Norwegian baby shower! Perfect! Secretly I had been wanting to ask if I could just throw my own party so that I could have a Norwegian one, but thought that would be rude of me. Looks like I didn't need to worry at all. My friends know my well and I love them very much!

My friend Megan hosted the event at her home which was the perfect location because she also has a lot of Norwegian heritage. Her mother actually makes a lot of different home decor items that are Scandinavian inspired so Megan's home is already suited for such an event.

The party was also hosted by my dear friend Sarah who went out of her way to grab lots of Scandinavian goodies from local shops around town. She also made the prizzels pictured here (using my recipe from this blog I must add). I was slightly on to her because she had to borrow my maker for these, but I didn't expect everything else that they did for the day!

Pepperkager (aka ginger snaps) were a huge hit too. These are really yummy with a cup of coffee.

One of my friends came over to the table to grab some snacks before gift opening and she said "I don't know what any of this food is!" It was so much fun to explain to her what everything is and how they are made. She said she had heard of lefse before, but never knew that it was made from potatoes. She seemed a little skeptical about this one, but tried it anyway. I think it may have been the adorable little Norwegian flags that won her over.

Ikea was a great spot to grab the beverages for the event and the snow was a very practical way to keep them cool. I don't think I have ever mentioned it before, but the pear and apple/cranberry sparking juice are my favorites.

This picture is a little repetitive, but it shows a few other special treats. The bananas in the background are called baby bananas because of how small they are. Tor and I nicknamed our little one Baby Banana since I am Anna Banana and used one of these when we made our public pregnancy announcement. Clearly not from Norway, but how cute of them to include them!

This is a Swedish cake. What is pretty funny about it is that I have never had it before. My family must be very strict about sticking to the true Norwegian goodies. I will admit though that this was really good!!! I had a lot of this cake and hope to feature it on this blog in an upcoming post. I just have to borrow the recipe from Megan first and test if a few times to get it right. This could be a staple at my gatherings going forward.

Lastly are these cute little cookies called Kafferep. These ones come with raspberry filling, but you can also get them with chocolate filling. I first tried these around the holidays and fell in love. Who wouldn't? They even have a little heart on them. My husband has been on a diet for awhile and really sticking to it, but these broke it for him. I brought some leftovers home after the party and he ate all of these. I didn't get a single one.

In the end it was a beautiful and perfect event. Everything I could have asked for. A big thank you goes out to my friends Sarah and Megan for hosting the shower, but a special thank you goes out to all of my friends that braved the cold to come to my shower. I can't say it enough that I really am blessed to have such amazing people in my life and to have such a big support system. It was a very difficult journey for us to get to this point in our parenthood experience and I am so thankful that we had people to lean on during the difficult times and now have people to celebrate with during the good times. I love you all.