Christmas

OK so the next post in line should be about my plane trips here...but I really want to skip ahead so I can do my christmas post now! I will go back to the timeline later, hope its not too confusing :P

Christmas is quite different in Sweden to Australia. Instead of putting up decorations a month in advance, they only put out a few candles and lights, especially stars (stjärna). Then on the few days before Xmas, out come the decorations. The family goes off to chop down a real tree, instead of one of those plastic ones :P Decorations are similar, with baubles and pretty things in glass and plastic. Another thing is that the place is completely decked out in decorations...way more than my family would ever do over 5 Xmas's combined! There are a million santa (tomte) figurines, red tablecloths, christmas placemats, gnome santa (tomte-nisse) curtains and much more.

Xmas day is celebrated on the 24th, but they still call it christmas eve (Jul afton)...got me stumped. We got up in the morning and watched the Xmas movies on TV, mostly kids stuff. Maybe a few carol shows here and there. We had a small lunch of Xmas ham (ham covered in mustard and breadcrumbs and slow baked) and hard crispy bread (very similar to crispbread). Then late in the afternoon we head off to the family's place, this year the grandparents (Farmor and Farfar- fathers mother and fathers father). We brought along a potted flower, a traditional present to the host of the party. At least with Mikes family it is.
When we arrived it was time for Donald Duck! Which is really just a Disney special of lots of short cartoons and some extracts from classic movies like Lady and the Tramp,Toy Story 2, Robin Hood, Cinderella and Snow White. Some of the short cartoons are Donald Duck chasing a bird for a photo in the jungle, Mickey, Donald and Goofy driving their caravan down the mountain one morning, and Ferdinand the friendly bull who loves to smell flowers. Each year there is also one new clip, this year it was from the latest Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog. This is all finished up with Jiminy cricket (known as Benjamin syrsa) singing wish upon a star.

As soon as the Disney special is finished, its time to eat! This is done in smorgasbord (smörgåsbord- its a Swedish word!) fashion. First you go and get some cold foods, like bread, ham, pickled herring, and for this family there was also a delicious mushroom pastry pie of unknown name. After everyone has had their fill of cold foods, its on to the hot food, such as small swedish meat balls (köttbullar), mini weiner sausages that taste like frankfurters (prinskorv), and spare ribs. For the side there is Janssons Temptation (Janssons Frestelse) and baked potatos, and probably much more, but thats all we had. Half of Mike's family is vegetarian, so I was lucky enough to have Janssons temptation without the anchovies...which is basically just potato bake. Sure is delicious though!There is a great choice of drinks for the meal, including Julmust (no equivalent in english!), wine (vin), beer (öl), or soda (either Fanta or Sprite*).

This large meal prompts a mass fall down...everyone relaxes around the TV and chats, while watching some more Xmas classics, including the Swedish version of a postal Robin Hood (Karl-Bertil Jonssons julsaga). For the earlier TV show and these ones there is glögg to drink. Its a mulled wine, basically a very sweet and spicy red wine. I think it has cinnamon and nutmeg added to it. If you like you can also add nuts and raisins. After a bit of relax time, out comes all the candy and desserts. There is coconut macaroons (kokoskakor), jam drops (syltgrottor), and a type of chocolate biscuit which everyone here has forgotten the name of. There was also saffron buns (lussekatter) and whole nuts, ready to crack.

Lets not forget present time! One person, usually the youngest of the family, hands out the presents. This year I was the youngest person there, however before I left Australia I already had a Birthday/Christmas celebration, and I was the bunny handing out all the presents then...so I begged not to do it here! Mike was the next youngest...he complained that he always does it! So it went to his brother, who decided it was easier to just do it :P. All the presents are handed to everyone...but you wait until everyone has every present...and then the paper flies! So as my Mum says 'oh no, then you can't see the reactions to each present'. On the other hand Mike says 'Thank goodness, now they can't see the reactions to every present' haha!! In my family in Australia we each open one present at a time. No thats not the normal way in Oz either.

My night continued by listening to swedish for a half hour straight, not understanding a word...so I went off to another room to listen to a movie without disturbing anyone. If you like, theres always more food too!
We were at farmors place from 3pm - 11pm! What a long day! Exhausting enough to make you want to go home and sleep off all that food straight away.

Hope you enjoyed all the Swedish words!

*Sprite is not called lemonade here...just Sprite. Try asking someone for lemonade and they will stare at you blankly.