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“In Norway, koselig—pronounced kush-lee—is more than a concept. It is part of the culture. Local bars often supply wool blankets and sheepskin or reindeer pelts that you can pull over your lap while you sip a pint or share a bottle of wine. Interior spaces are designed to radiate light, and many bathrooms have heated floors to warm slush-chilled feet. At one dinner party, I even noticed a big basket of hand-knitted Norwegian wool socks that guests could borrow to curl up on the couch, and soon got my own personal pair, which had been made by a grandmother. That only intensified the koselig factor, because you could sense the care and love that went into them. Dinner itself was koselig, largely because it was held at a friend’s home among a small group of close-knit friends who prepared their meal together, refreshed one another’s wine glasses, and brewed countless pots of thick, rich coffee. An evening such as that, I was told, is considered more koselig than simply meeting at a restaurant because of the privacy generating a kind of openness, playfulness, and honesty that would be harder to achieve in a noisy public place. Initially, I thought of koselig as a kind of coping mechanism, a way of finding comforts during the dark, cold months of winter, when much of the city burrows deep until spring. But for Norwegians, winter is not something to be endured; it is something to be enjoyed, with small pleasures taken liberally and often, as part of their way of life”