Christmas impressions 2009

We went to Oskarshamn to celebrate Christmas with Matts' family. We arrived to a snow white and cold town, but on Christmas day it started to rain and everything was just wet wet wet. But then, the temperature crept below freezing once more and we had a thin layer of snow so it was once more beautiful (and really slippery).

Here are some pictures. First, the Christmas tree and some of the gifts. In Sweden, the tradition is that the gifts are placed under the tree and opened on Christmas eve, sometime between the big Christmas dinner, Donald Duck on TV and the dessert.

Matts and his niece were so happy it finally was Christmas eve...

This is the Christmas candy that Matts and I made a few days before Christmas. Yummy! On Christmas eve, Santa came by with some additional gifts.

Matts and I took a walk in Oskarshamn and this is the town seen from one side of the harbor. Oskarshamn is situated right by the sea and from here you can take the ferry to Gotland, the biggest island in Sweden.

4th Advent fika

Soft gingerbread cake, syltbollar and lussekatter. And to that, of course Julmust, the no 1 Christmas soda in Sweden.

Before X-mas

This is how big I am today. The question is how my size will be affected by all the good Christmas foods I will eat next week... And I have to admit that I already started... Yesterday, I ate a quarter of a big chocolate box, Paradis, all by myself. It was gooood. :-)

Paradis is one of two chocolate boxes that are sold in tremendous amounts here in Sweden, especially around this time of the year. The other one is Aladdin. Paradis contains only milk chocolate while Aladdin has mostly darker pralins. The box I started on yesterday was a gift from our local grocery store but I am almost 100% sure that we will get another one as a Christmas gift next week...

Christmas time

Now it's only a few days left to Christmas. Matts is on his way home from his last workday for a couple of weeks and then we will head to the mall for dinner and gift shopping. It is hopefully not too hectic this time on a Friday, so it should be ok. Here at home it's very cozy now anyway. We have our holiday decorations up and it really makes a difference now when it is so dark outside (but we do have some snow that lightens up).

In the living room the Angel Chimes reminds me of our first December in Switzerland. At this time I didn't have a set of my own and was struck by surprise to find one at some Swiss friends place. It was so beautiful and reminded med so much of Sweden that I burst into tears! I realized that I just had to get my own set. :-) In the window in the background we have the Advent star. They come in many different sizes and models and are very common here in Sweden. The small Christmas tree isn't decorated yet - and might not be this year - but spreads a nice light in the hallway.

For the first time ever, we have a dining table big enough to use the beautifully embroidered table cloth that we got from my mother-in-law several years ago. It is of course embroidered by herself and it adds a lot to the Christmas feeling in our kitchen. Now we just have to be careful not to spill on it while eating. :-) But things like this are made to be used and not stuffed away in a box and stains are part of life...

The Advent candlestick in the window is almost a must in every Swedish home and this time of the year it is so nice to see them in the windows of every single building. We have two, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom, but some people have many more (or only one).

Compared to Switzerland, Swedes generally have more lamps in the windows. In Switzerland, the windows are dark and often covered by curtains and I missed the cheerful window lamps that make people's homes look cozy from the outside while living there. We couldn't even find the kind of lamps that we wanted to have in Switzerland when we were about to decorate our place there! Different countries and different cultures.

Tip: to see more details on the pictures, simply click on them.

I know

... that nothing much has happened on this blog lately. I have been extremely busy (to be me) and then, of course, very tired in between. :-)

My mother has been visiting. She baked lussekatter and pitepågar since I really haven't had time to make things like that lately. And lussekatter is a must for December 13, when we celebrate the Lucia day here in Sweden. Thank you so much, mum! She also cleaned some of our windows, something I just didn't seem to get down to.

Then my friend Andrea came for a short visit and we had a great day together. We went downtown, had a fika (of course) and just strolled around in Lund. Very nice!

And then I have worked, of course. I now have two part-time jobs, one that's about 10 hrs every week and one that's 15 hrs every week. Far from full time, but more than enough for me, at least right now. :-) But now I only have two more days to work before the holidays so I am happy!

A day "off"

Last Saturday it was time for another walk here in Skåne. We planned on going, but as the weekend approached we realized that what we really needed was a day at home, doing whatever we felt like. So we stayed home. Instead of walking in the nature (it was a lovely day so I am sure it had been great as well) we slept in, had a long nice breakfast, finally got down to put our pictures and stuff on the walls, took a walk downtown to check out a few things - including a nice fika at a café with very nice stuff - as well as going by the library to borrow a couple of movies. Then we just relaxed at home. Sweet.

On Sunday, 1st of Advent, I went to church to sing in the Advent choir. It was really fun to sing in a choir again - it's been more than two years since last time now. Then Matts and I took a walk through town since there are markets and stuff going on all over the place (pretty much all over Sweden) on this particular Sunday. We bought some burned almonds and had yet another fika on a very classical confectionery before heading back home again.

Now it's Wednesday and I have a day off from work. Lovely. What's not so lovely is that I have like a ton of things to do at home and if I don't start soon I'll never finish. So now it's time to start cleaning, making a menu for the week to come and go grocery shopping til I drop. :-) I really should go to the gym as well, but I am too tired and have a small cold going on, so I probably won't (even if my back says I really should). But cleaning and shopping is exercise as well, isn't it?