A semi-white Christmas - Part One

Hello everyone who is reading this! First of all a very belated God Jul (Merry Christmas in Swedish) and Gott nytt år (Happy New year). I hope you are all keeping your new year's resolutions. I have to admit I have already broken one of mine. I was going to start going to the free gym at uni straight after new years. Didn't happen. But I am going to start on Monday (yeah right you say... everyone always says that). At least I am really going to try. But I dunno... poweryoga at 8.00 on Monday morning seems like a fairly hardcore way to start the week. So I guess we shall see.

So anyway. Christmas! Yes I know it has come and gone and still I (and a good proportion of Sweden) refuse to take down the Christmas decorations. Hey, at home we usually keep the Christmas tree until it is brown and dropping needles all over the floor (often this is approaching around easter). And my Christmas tree is small and fake therefore removing any space/needle shedding incentives. So what was Christmas like in Sweden. Well... first of all I am sad to say there was no snow. I know... I really thought I would be getting my first white Christmas this year. I mean I am Sweden. So where is the snow? Would you believe it still isn't here. We got a piddly bit the other day and I got all excited but now it is raining and the snow is gone and everything will turn into ice and I will fall over and hurt my bum. Gloom doom doom. But I do have to say Christmas was semi-white. At least there was some frost hanging around.

Frost on the roof at Lappis on Christmas morning.

Frost in the field outside Lappis.

A touch of frost (hehe oh that was bad).

Jesper and unfortunately had a bit of trouble with Christmas presents this year. During one of our frantic last minute shopping expeditions we found out that we were both planning to buy each other Settlers of Catan. So it was back to square one with regards to presents. We decided to have one last ditch attempt at finding something for each other the day before Christmas Eve and so split up and agreed to start on seperate sides of the city (ssssibilance). Of course we met up by accident in the middle of drottningatan (Stockholm isn't a very big city and there is one main shopping street). I tried desperately to hide my Science Fiction Bokhandeln bag while Jesper tried to pretend that he wasn't heading to the exact same shop (there really aren't any other good shops in Gamla Stan unless you want to buy dalarna horses - traditional painted Swedish horses or viking helmets). It is just a tad touristy.

Wandering around the city at Christmas time is lovely. There are fairy lights everywhere (we really don't go in for the fairy lights enough in Sydney... I mean Hyde Park is beautiful but there should be more... more!). They have shop front displays here like the ones at David Jones... you know the kitch santa scenes and kids playing with toys. But we found one that was just a tad cooler.

Kiss immortalised in gingerbread (that is until somebody gets hungry).

The Christmas markets are also wonderful (we should get some in Sydney too) with all sorts of nick nacks. Jesper and I wandered around happily a cup of warm glögg in one hand and a bag of roasted sugared almonds in the other (yummmm *drools slightly*).

The Christmas markets at Gamla Stan.

I nearly won a giant daim bar (I was going to give it to Maddy for Christmas =) but the wheel stopped one number after mine. We opted out of buying the REAL misteltoe from the REAL mistletoe stand and bought some cheaper mistletoe from a stall near the station. I am not sure what the difference between REAL misteltoe and real mistletoe is (ours was definitely real as it rotted pretty damn quick... somehow it doesn't seem so romantic kissing under the mistletoe when there is the risk of a squashy berry falling on your head).

Not REAL mistletoe... with the leaves at the bottom starting to rot.

I got very excited about decorating our room much to Jesper's horror. I think he is a bit upset about the number of lamps I am buying. The current count of lights in our 18 square metre room is six. Yes I know it seems like overkill but they all have their function. Anyway I only bought three of them so I can't be blamed. Anyway, I really wanted to buy these traditional Swedish candle lights but Jesper thinks they are hideous (and they actually really are mostly) so he drew the line there (he did let me drape the room with tinsel, Christmas trees, star lights and multitudes of silver disco ball tree decorations so I can't really complain... especially since they are still up).

Our windows with an excess of Christmas decorations... yes Jesper is programming in the background =).

Traditional Swedish Christmas lights... okay so this is the most hideous I have seen yet but I couldn't find any other big enough pictures on google. Usually they don't have the ugly stars or the woman or even the flowerpot "candle holders" but I guess in general they are quite ugly. But you know me... I like to get into the spirit of Christmas.

Our extremely small (and exceedingly tacky) Christmas tree (please ignore the dead tissue in the background).

I really love the Christmas tree btw. It is tackiness treeified (that is the tree version of personified). I saw it when I was in America. Yes folks, it is in fact a mailable Christmas tree that Jesper received in the post from me last year. When I saw it I had to send it. The branches sort of fold up and you can even record a message on it (be careful how you sound though... I shall be forever immortalised as a chipmunk claiming my love for Jesper, to be played to visitors every Christmas for the rest of my life).

So I guess that is enough for part one... stay tuned for the next installment "Duck the halls with boughs of Holly".