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!