New Year's

 

On December 30th, my friend Morgane (from France who is living in Sunsvall) came over to my house to visit for a few days. That night I was making dinner; chicken soup made from the bone from the chicken I roasted for dinner the previous night. Morgane had never cooked before in her life so I showed her how to peel potatoes and carrots and she was very proud of her contribution. Everyone liked the soup. My Swedish family had never used bones to make soup before so it was something new for them and wonderfully familiar for me. ********* During Morgane's visit we took it easy most of the time; sleeping in, playing PS3, listening to music, playing cards and watching movies. But when it snowed a foot over night, Håkan got us all to help shovel snow. Morgane was quite taken aback because she'd never had to shovel snow before. It was a big job but we all worked together and got it done! ********** For New Year's Eve, we had a lot of people come over to our house for supper. After supper, us kids went to Jarryd's house to meet up with more people and have ping pong tournaments. For midnight, we all went back to my house to watch the fireworks that Håkan had set up in the backyard! They were really cool and very loud! Everyone shouted; Gott Nytt År! and drank non-alcoholic champagne. It was an international New Year's with me from Canada, Jarryd from Australia, Morgane from France, two guys both named Daniel who are from New Zealand and were staying at Jarryd's house for the week to go skiing, and everyone else there who are Swedish! It was snowing and we had a snowball fight(which I won, of course!) and when we were all fully soaked, we went back inside. Not long after midnight, people went home so we didn't stay up much longer. But it was still a great night! Happy New Year Everybody!!!  

Shopping in Sunsvall

On December 27th, Anna, some of her friends and I went to Sunsvall to go shopping for the day. It's the city an hour north of Hudiksvall and has the largest shopping mall nearby. I wasn't too keen on shopping the whole day so I meet my friend Rachael at the mall. She is from Australia and was living in the city. We wondered around, catching up with news and goofing off. The only thing I ended up buying was a sweater dress right before we left to have supper but it was still great fun! Rachael had to go home but I went with Anna and the others, to an American restaurant for supper. This was the first time I could get a pepperoni pizza since I got to Sweden, But half way through it, I slowed down eating long enough to realise that it wasn't quite right; the pepperoni was a bit bitter and there was hardly any cheese on it! It wasn't as good as I remembered it to be but I ate it all anyway. We took the train back home at 9pm and all in all, it was a very good day!

Christmas day

 

Christmas day in Sweden isn't anything special besides a holiday because they have all their Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve. So it was a very relaxing day to sleep in and not have anything planned until the evening when Anna and I and some friends went to a party in town. I got to wear my new earrings, necklace and perfume. It was a really big event for 18 year-olds and older so there was a lot of people there! It was fun and when I got home a 3 am, I skyped Victoria BC around their supper time and could talk to a bunch of relatives who had gathered there for Christmas. It was really cool to talk to everyone!!

Skiing

Skiing was one of the reasons why I wanted to come to Sweden in the first place and finally in the middle of December we got snow, more than enough snow to ski on. I've never seen so much snow all at once! We got over half a meter of snow in a week and a half! During the days around Christmas, I went skiing a lot. The temperature was about -10 so it was perfect. I borrowed Håkan's shoes and Marita's skis when they weren't using them. Anna and Håkan usually went with me to the nicely groomed tracks that are just north of the town. 

 

Christmas!

I stayed in Hudiksvall for the Christmas break and had a nice quiet family Christmas. The days leading up to it were full of Christmas baking, buying last minute presents and writing Christmas letters. I didn't get all my cards, letters and packages mailed away until the 23rd! We decorated the whole house with little Santa Clause and angle figures. The Christmas tree, which we decorated on the 23rd, had only little white lights, not coloured ones, there was a star on the top surrounded by Swedish flags and we used colourful steamer decorations. It's the same idea, just decorated differently than I'm used too. And the presents don't go under the tree until Christmas Eve. *********Christmas Eve is the day we celebrate Christmas, the next day is just a holiday, nothing special. That morning is spent finishing the decorations around the house, last minute present wrapping, getting really for the guests and starting all the food for the Christmas smorgasbord. At 3pm, Donald Duck and his Walt Disney friends come on TV to show clips of old movies and wish us all a Merry Christmas. It's tradition for everyone in Sweden to stop what they're doing and watch Donald Duck for an hour then the real Christmas celebrations can begin! **********Soon afterwards, Lena and Kenneth, Anna's aunt and uncle, and Ester, Anna's grandma, came over. Together, we finished the food preparations for the Christmas smorgasbord called the julbord. We ate; Christmas ham, little sausages, meatballs, pickled herring, salmon, a potato casserole dish with anchovies called jonson's temptation, eggs with caviar, headcheese, boiled potatoes, saffron cake with lingonberry sauce, meat pate, bread and cheese. We drank julmust which is like Coke-Cola and for dessert we had a rice pudding with cream and berry sauce. I tried some of everything and it was but completely different form a Christmas turkey dinner. I had gotten Christmas crackers in the mail and we opened them at the table. Everyone wore the paper crowns the shared the jokes and the others thought it was a very funny tradition! ***********After dinner, we had coffee, tea, cookies and cakes around the table. I Skyped home and shared some of my Christmas news with my family. When I tried to explain that during the dinner there are many singing toasts/cheers, the others around the table sang an example about happy little santas. At 8pm, Santa Clause came to the door and I had the hang up Skype and go meet him! Bullet, Lena and Kenneth's dog, went crazy barking at him because he didn't recognise Håkan in the costume. Santa handed out all the presents that were under the tree. When everyone had their presents, we all opened them one at a time. The rest of the evening was spent chatting, eating chocolates and drinking glögg. It was a wonderful Swedish Christmas! 

Mamma Mia Party!

On Saturday December 12th, we had a Mamma Mia party! Jarryd has been dieing to have this party and we've been trying to organise it for the last 3 months but it kept on being postponed until this weekend which was the last weekend before Stefano went back to Brazil and so it was also his goodbye party. We had a lot of fun; dressed up 70's style, watched the movie with subtitles to the songs so we could sing along and dance, then we played twister. It was at Jarryd's house so his host brother Jacob was there with his girlfriend Julia, Anna and I came and Jessica the German girl was there as well as Stefano with his host sister Johanna. It was a great time but at the end it was hard saying goodbye to Stefano who's plane left that Monday.

Lucia: December 13th

Lucia is a beautiful day of singing and lighting candles. Lucia lived in Sicily in about 500 AD and died as a martyr. The story goes, she had her eyes bashed out with rocks then was stabbed so the red sash around her waist represents the blood. How she got to Sweden, I don’t know, but now she is a symbol of bringing light in Sweden’s darkest month in the form of the candles in her crown and in the hands of her accompanying choir. Every town and city has their own Lucia chosen by nomination and vote and it is every little Swedish girl’s dream to be the Lucia, so you can imagine how honoured I felt when the school told me I would be their Lucia! ************Friday December 11th, I was at school at 7:45am getting ready for my fist of 5 ceremonies that day. I wore a long white gown with a red sash around my middle and a crown of 7 candles on my head. My choir also had white gowns but with silver tinsel around their waist and a candle in their hand. They sang many songs, I recited a poem and then led the singing procession out of the auditorium. It was all very lovely except for the hot wax that dripped on to my face and into my hair. It took all day, as each of the ceremonies took an hour, but it was well worth it because it was so exciting being in the center of a Swedish tradition and really feeling a part of it!! Really a once in a life time experience!!