Christmas in Pictures

 No matter where I walk, I feel like I am in the middle of a holiday card. Despite the cold and frequent darkness, when the sun is shining and hits the tops of trees and reflects on the sparkling snow, it feels almost exhilarating to be surrounded by this much beauty. 

 Preperation for Lucia (on December 13) began a month before, and provided much structure and fun to my schedule. Despite being away from home, it was exciting to experience Christmas in a different way.  The Swedes put care into Christmas preparation. Most lit Advent candles, even though many Swedes don't necessarily attend church frequently. Lucia helped prepare for Christmas as well. We sang a few Christmas songs, but most of the Lucia songs had to do with the spreading of lightness, peace, and hope  at the darkest time of the year. These traditions helped set a holiday mood. Swedes don't light up gaudy Santas or string multicolored lights on their homes. Instead they set up candelabras or hang lit up paper stars in the windows. It is simple and elegant.

 My host family's outdoor julgran. My host dad, Naomi, and I took it from our neighbors place.

My host grandpa is big on finding things in the forest including deer antlers, moss, wild berries, mushrooms, etc. He harvested a bunch of moss and brought it over to our place when my host sister was home from the USA. After my host grandma's funeral, my host grandpa came over and we made this decoration with his careful instruction because he had a vision. He was very proud that he bought all of the tomtar/santas for almost nothing at a community sale. He brought it home and stuck a Swedish flag in the middle.

While my host sister was home, we baked lussekattor with two friends, Sofia and Fanny. They are yeast rolls with saffron. They were delicious, but I do something very unorthodox: I spread honey on them. Fanny will be my host sister at about Easter. 

Here are a few holiday decorations. The curtains were made my host great-grandma, the wall hanging was made by my host grandma, and the pepparkakor-like wall hanging was made by another host great-grandma. 

On the last day before winter break, I baked some cookies, and Naomi and I then packaged them for friends at school. 

The last day of school included no classes. The choir (including me) did three Christmas performances for each of the classes, and then each of the classes had a party. We left school by noon. 

School finished early on Wed. the 22, so my mentor Sarah, and her husband and their two girls brought Naomi, our Dutch friend Maria, and me, to Liseberg, the amusement park in Göteborg. I had gone in September with other exchange students but this time there were Christmas lights on every tree. We walked around for a few hours. Unfortunately, I forgot to put on the wonderful long underwear that my Rotary club bought me, so by the end I was frozen. After, we went to a short ice skating competition, because my mentor Sarah's daughter practices ice skating twice a week in Göteborg and wanted to see her friends perform. We ended the evening at a Mongolian grill. After that, our friend slept over, before we did some Christmas shopping in Jönköping the next morning. 

After we returned from shopping, Naomi and I went with our host brother to our neighbor/cousins' house. All the adults came over to my house, and the younger cousins and second cousins met. All of the people had the last name Gotting, and this was only some of the cousins. The people were between 16 and 27. Two of the girls are my age and I know them from school. We had fika, and then sang some carols, before playing a game. It was nice of the family to let us join in on their yearly tradition of getting together the day before Christmas.

My host brother, host uncle and partner, my other host uncle (both on my host father's side), my host mom's dad, and host dad's mom came over for Christmas. It was a nice day. 

We began Christmas celebrations around noon on the 24th of December with a traditional julbord. I am standing next to the cold foods. After eating the first plate, you eat the warm course. We drank julmust, which is similar to coke, with a slightly different taste. Swedes don't drink coca-cola at Christmas, but still have managed to continue drinking the more Swedish soft drink. 

I am standing next to several kinds of herring, ham, mustard, bread, cheese, a carrot salad, pickled beets with a creamy sauce, and smoked salmon. For the warm course we had stewed ribs, two kinds of sausage, Jansson's frestelse/temptation which is thin pieces of potato in a cream sauce, similar to au gratin potatoes, but it also has anchovies. We had a bean dish that reminded me of baked beans, and we had red cabbage. It is tradition to dip a piece of bread into the leftover pan drippings from baking the ham and anything else. We enjoyed the feast before resting and having coffee and lussekattor. 

My host grandfather enjoying time with Milly, my farbrors/uncle's dog.

My uncle's partner Birgitta received some wine from my host dad. My host dad receives a lot of presents from his workers in Romania and finds creative ways to re-gift them. Unlike Swedish decorations which are quite simple and elegant, Romanian decorations are very glittery and quite colorful (I am sure there are some beautiful things as well, but some of the cheap stuff is really gaudy, which made it all the more funny). As a joke, my host dad bought a bright blue stuffed penguin that sings a rap before he left Romania last week.

We opened presents a bit early because my host aunt and uncle had something more on julafton/Christmas Eve. The picture includes my farmor (dad's mom), morfar (mom's dad), and host mom.  

Naomi gave this photo in a frame to our host family. It was taken in September during the time when it seemed to rain every day. It seems strange to think we will be moving in less than a week.

My host family watching Kalle Anka/Donald Duck. This is a yearly tradition on Dec. 24 at 3:00 pm on television. I am not entirely sure what my host uncle Claes is laughing about. 

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After Kalle Anka, we had risgrynsgröt/rice porridge. We had it with sugar, cinnamon, and some milk. Then we rested and went to bed, before waking up early to go to church on the 25th. We napped and enjoyed our Christmas chocolate. Most of the celebration was on the 24th. 

It isn't even funny how much choklad I received for Christmas. The boxes are very traditional presents and made by Marabou, which makes the best chocolate. The boxes have two tiers each. So far I haven't opened any of the big boxes and don't plan to until after all the other holiday foods are gone. Besides chocolate, I received a beautiful Swedish crystal bowl with folk dancers, some clothes, a cookbook, socks, a necklace, a gift certificate to the bathhouse on the lake in my city, from my Rotary club, and some Swedish decorations like a wooden moose. I am continually struck by how kind people have been to me.

Christmas in Sweden was filled with many family members and friends which made it special. It had an entirely different holiday feel but was equally wonderful. The Swedes certainly know how to put on a good Christmas, or rather, holiday time. The holidays didn't simply revolve around the Christian faith. The majority of Swedes are Christian, but not that many attend church regularly.  There almost seemed to be more energy devoted to the traditions leading up to Christmas like Lucia, the lighting of candles, and spending time with friends and family.