For as long as I can remember, every Christmas my family has made ebelskivers. This is a traditional Danish dish that is eaten as a breakfast food. The first time I made this dish was with my father this Christmas (2025) at my grandparent’s house. I can vividly recall the smell and sound of butter sizzling on the pan like a crackling fire. I remember dolloping the fresh dough into the butter coated pan and hearing the plopping sound as it made contact. At this point my father told me, “Now you need to watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn.” I didn’t heed his message and my first ebelskivers turned out burnt. I was heartbroken. It was like a sword had been stabbed through my chest and straight into the burnt ebelskivers. This result was not what I wanted, and I was disappointed in myself. My father comforted me by saying that his grandmother’s were always either burnt or raw, sometimes both!  This made me feel better and my next attempts were far better. As I bit into the fresh off the pan ebelskivers (which I prefer to doctor up with butter and plain white sugar), I could tell that this was one of the ones my father had made because it was neither raw nor burnt.  All the flavors hit me like a truck full of melted butter, the sweet crunch of the sugar was like sand in my mouth but in a pleasant way somehow. I could see the same look of joy on the faces of my family that was on mine as they experienced the same feeling. 

– AW

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more