Troll Calendar - Day 19
We drew the final Christmas egg - only two NaToons and three Girly eggs are remaining.
Well... I was about to celebrate having no duplicates this year, but this one very clearly is a duplicate of the figurine from December 11th.
Here they are together, the figurine from last time still has her extra accessories... except for that belt/ribbon thing around the waist, which is now inexplicably missing. No idea where it went...
Ah well, we made it pretty far without repeats.
It has been almost one and a half years since we first set foot in Greece, and the Trolls have traveled to all four corners of the World and back on their culinary world tour.
It is time for the big finale now...
Let's put it all together, and make a burger that is inspired by regions all across the world.
We start with a slice of Emmental cheese, representing Europe...
Then a beef patty and some bacon, representing North America...
Some avocados, representing Middle and South America...
Some shrimps, representing Australia and Oceania...
That wok veggie mix from our Chinese burgers, representing East Asia, with some curry powder sprinkled over it, representing South Asia...
And finally, the Harissa-mayonnaise from our Moroccan burgers, representing Africa and the Middle East.
We are also using "pretzel buns", representing the salty oceans covering our blue gem of a planet. Our "World-inspired" burger is ready.
An odd combo, maybe, combining that many different styles... but it worked surprisingly well, as far as I am concerned. It all fit together, in the end - somehow. It was very filling, however. 
Primrose could only react with GIFs when I first showed her the pictures. 
It was the worst one in the entire series for her. Saving the best for last, I suppose, in a banhauser way. Well, I always like to explore those non-conventional options.
And with that, our Burgers Around the World tour has concluded. I had a lot of fun with it, and some of those burgers may be here to stay. Then again, I'm also kind of glad that I can now make "regular" burgers again for me. I hope you enjoyed following along - and feel free to let us know if you ever try any of those burgers yourself, or a variation inspired by one of them. 
If I were to rank this final version, it probably would have been somewhere in the lower end of the upper third - but I won't do so, because I figured that at the end of the day... we are all in this together, wherever we are in this world. Let's just wrap this up now before I get too mushy. :f_grin::f_ugly:
Final list coming up next, for convenient linking.
Final Ranking
As chosen by Harrier
1st Switzerland
2nd Cyprus
3rd Israel
4th Senegal
5th Greece
6th Japan
7th Mongolia
8th India
9th China
10th Denmark
11th Korea
12th Spain
13th Germany
14th Pakistan
15th Indonesia
16th Russia
17th Madagascar
18th Alsace
19th Italy
20th Texas
21st California
22nd Mexico
23rd Morocco
24th Brazil
25th Namibia
26th Arabia
27th Turkey
28th Australia
29th England
30th France
31st Colombia
32nd Cuba
33rd Canada
34th Hungary
35th The Netherlands
36th Thailand
37th South Africa
BONUS: The World
Troll Calendar - Day 20
More NaToons, and speaking of duplicates... here is another one. We got an elephant, like the one we drew in the first few days.
Not much to say about that one anymore... but we can put the two of them together.
There they are, doing their elephant things.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
It would be cool to see all of them so far all in one shot
There will be a photo with all of them after we're done, as usual.
Troll Calendar - Day 21
Not many eggs left, and we drew a girly egg today.
Honestly... I have not the foggiest clue what this is supposed to be.
With the help of the instructions, those weird shapes soon made sense. By inserting that white bulk into the brown shell, we can make a bird.
It looks a little grumpy, don't you think? Maybe that's its eager face. More like eagle face. It's probably not supposed to be an eagle, though. Kind of reminds me of Spearow from Pokémon.
It looks a lot more cheerful on that instructions sheet.
I can tell you it took a lot of experimenting until I figured out how to put it on that little stand. The instructions were of limited use too, because it was hard to make out which side is which. Eventually we got it.
What does the stand do? Well, you can put a sheet of paper down there, press down on it, and it makes like stamps or something. Clover-shaped ones, I think.
Troll Calendar - Day 22
Drawn by none other than the grindette herself, who was visiting today.
Looks like a ring, or some other kind of jewellery?
It is, and you have a choice between two different pictures. One of them shows Elsa from Frozen, the other side has another character from that franchise. At least I think so.
I chose Elsa because she's the only character I know. Assembling the ring was not as effortless as I expected it to be, but at least it was pretty straightforward.
Of course, it was made for much smaller hands. This was about as far as I got:
Prim managed to put it on a little further, but not by much.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Troll Trivia of the WeekFinal trivia question, at least for now.
In grade school, Harrier's strict religion class teacher asked his students about the gifts that the Magi brought when they went to see baby Jesus, according to the gospel of Matthew. No one raised their hand, much to his frustration, so young Harrier took a chance and gave it a try, despite not being certain about one of the gifts.
Unfortunately, it was wrong - but what did Harrier think the Magi brought?
1) Wine
2) Tobacco
3) Cinnamon
Solution:
2) Tobacco
Well... I knew about gold and myrrh, but I wasn't sure about frankincense. In fact, I wasn't sure at all, I only heard about those gifts somewhere, and my memory was very foggy on it, so I would have preferred not to raise my hand at all.
But as I mentioned, that teacher, who was also one of my hometown's Protestant pastors, was quite strict and quickly became frustrated whenever his students did not know the answer to one of his questions, even if it was about something he never explained before. I suppose he took it for granted that everyone's parents had taught their children about these things early on. Maybe he was justified in expecting that, maybe not. But in this particular situation, his frustration pushed me to go for the answer after all, since no one else seemed to know it either.
Neither the English nor the German word for tobacco sounds anything like the word for frankincense, so I have no idea what made me think that tobacco was one of the gifts... but it's how I remembered it when I heard about it. I'm not sure if I even knew what tobacco was at that point. I surely didn't know what frankincense and myrrh were.
Gotta love the teacher's reaction. He heard me start out by saying "Gold, ...", and he was like "Yes, y... uh... wait what?". What made it even better was that this teacher was known to be a heavy smoker himself.
Well, maybe Joseph, being a hardworking carpenter, would have appreciated a gift of tobacco, if he had been familiar. But I guess frankincense is nice too - I was actually looking for some of that stuff when I first moved into my student's apartment back in the day, because it was a basement apartment located close to a river and didn't smell so nice. Eventually, though, I simply got used to it.
I hope you guys enjoyed playing along with this year's Troll Trivia, and both Primrose and I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a great start into 2024. 
We will stick around for a while until then, though.
The magi were careful to point out that "these gifts are for your birthday as well as for Christmas"
Originally posted by Harrier88
What's That?!Looks like Vorpal came early this year.
YAAAAAAAY!!! Ludwig and Morton are here!!!!!
What was that? And who was in those boxes? Well! Let´s welcome:
Ludwig von Koopa
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Morton Koopa jr.
In the small box I found Ludwig waiting for me :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love: and when I saw that big box, I thought: This must be either Roy Koopa or Morton Koopa! And indeed: The EXTREMELY CUDDLY AND SOFT Morton Koopa jr. was waiting for me!! :f_love::f_love::f_love: Man, he´s so soft and cuddly! :f_love::f_love:
So, those two guys spent their first night in their new home! While I could keep Morton right by my side, like a soft pillow, Ludwig decided to explore his new home 
Found him on the floor this morning and picked him up! Guess he was too curious of his new home and wanted to take a closer look at it instead of staying with the other Koopas!
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
The magi were careful to point out that "these gifts are for your birthday as well as for Christmas"
Reminds of that bit from South Park where the kids ask Jesus what he will be doing on Christmas. He points out that Christmas is his birthday, and they are like "Really? Your birthday is on Christmas? Man, that must suck..."
Originally posted by Primrose6789
YAAAAAAAY!!! Ludwig and Morton are here!!!!!In the small box I found Ludwig waiting for me :f_love::f_love::f_love::f_love: and when I saw that big box, I thought: This must be either Roy Koopa or Morton Koopa! And indeed: The EXTREMELY CUDDLY AND SOFT Morton Koopa jr. was waiting for me!! :f_love::f_love::f_love: Man, he´s so soft and cuddly! :f_love::f_love:
Merry Christmas, Primrose!
Prim specifically wished for Ludwig, and I wanted to include one more as a surprise. I thought Morton would be perfect, because I know how much Primrose loves to cuddle with her Bowser Jr. plushie, which is a little bigger than the other ones. I made sure to pick one in a size that would give the grindette plenty to cuddle with on a cold winter night. Let's just hope they will let her get out of bed in the morning too.
I believe Primrose would like to eventually own the other Koopaling plushies too, so I guess we can keep going for a while.
She wasn't the only one who had received a gift along these lines, however:
These Sonic and Tails plushies were Primrose's gift for me yesterday! Thank you so much!
They are nice, big, soft and cuddly too, but I intend to keep them on the couch, where they can watch me workout in the morning. I think these two speedsters are a fitting gift after this very sporty year, where among other things I spent a few weeks desperately trying to get a 100 meter dash time below 14 seconds, and eventually doing it with the help of some tailwind. They could be my new sports mascots, in the same way that the mermaid doll that Prim gave me for my birthday is now my swimming mascot. Because we still have plenty of plans for 2024, you know.
And since Primrose is collecting the plushies of the Mario characters, I guess I can collect the Sonic characters instead. That means plenty of gift ideas for the grindette in the future too. 
I remember showing you a pic of a Morton Koopa plushie and saying: "Wow, that little guy looks VERY cuddly". I was already guessing that Ludwig could be in one of those boxes but had no idea which one of the other Koopalings would come home with me. When I saw that big fat cuddly Morton, it was love at first sight. Especially by cuddling him the first time, it was VERY clear that HE and Ludwig (who is also soft and cuddly) would cuddle with me whenever I´m comfy on the couch or even sleeping. With Morton, now, it´s going to get even HARDER to get out of the bed early in the morning, when it´s still cold and dark, but I´m sure also Morton will understand that I have to get up for work and let me go. :f_ugly::f_biggrin:
Troll Calendar - Day 23
The Trolls enjoy their early Christmas gifts, but we still have two more days of the Troll Calendar, with a NaToons and a Girly egg - and today, we drew the Girly egg again.
Looks like another ring, don't you think?
It is a ring, with a different design compared to yesterday's, but once again, with a Frozen character. I think it's Elsa again? I don't know, maybe I'm just calling all blond cartoon girls Elsa at this point.
This time, it was the only design too, and it was a sticker.
I think this one may be even tighter than yesterday's ring? I could barely fit it over my fingernail.
To think that the instructions sheet show it fitting over someone's middle finger... well, I can't complain too much about being a 35-year-old man who has trouble putting on a toy that is intended for a 5-year-old girl.
One more egg tomorrow, then we are done.
Troll Calendar - Day 24
Final day! And we know it is a NaToons egg. But what's inside?
Looks like another sheep.
Is it the one we had before?
It is. Here are both of them together:
Well, we did have some repeats after all, but not too many of them, and all of them towards the end.
As usual, here is the whole lot on the roof of my balcony, wishing you guys a Merry Christmas!
