Lucia, christmas, bruises and stuff

Christmas Eve

christmas tree with swedish flag

I haven't blogged in AGES, I know. And I start every blogpost like that, so maybe we can just let it be and face the truth: I'm bad at blogging regularly. The past few months have been gray, cold, windy, unexciting mostly. Really not the most fun.

We celebrated Lucia in church. It was basically half an hour of singing, but very nice. Lucia is a celebration and quite a big thing in Sweden. They celebrate it to bring light into the dark time of the year. One girl dresses up as Lucia. She wears a crown with candles on her head. And then there are other girls singing with her. You celebrate it on the 13th of december.

baking gingerbread

But they don't celebrate Saint Nicholas as we do in Germany. I spend the time before christmas not doing much. Baking gingerbread, buying presents, watching a lot of Netflix, reading books. I actually started running. And I used to hate running. My stamina is so bad, but one day I just felt like going for a run. So I did. And then I did the day after. It was warm in the middle of december. 5-10°C. And then it got too cold. And a few days after christmas the snow came. So that was my attempt to start running. I'm not gonna sign up for a gym. Because I don't like running on a treadmill.  

during christmas time. In a cafe with Noemi

buying christmas presents with Noemi

Christmas was coming up and mormor (maternal grandma) came to visit. We had a nice christmas, went to church, watched Donald Duck (Kalle Anka) at 3pm as good Swedes do and ate swedish christmas food. It's a tradition in Sweden to watch one hour of old disney cartoons on christmas eve. Nobody really likes it but they do it anyway.

In the morning we decorated the christmas tree. We used a chain of swedish flags as well. It looks as though we were really patriotic. But we're not. I put it on the tree. And there is a video of me doing that, but I can't post it.

Christmasfood. Julmust (swedish christmas drink), Caviar, and Nürnberger Bratwurst :)

On the 26th we went to Dalarna to visit the family (paternal). We had 2 nice days together. Good food, boardgames, nice talks. 2 really cozy days.

On the 28th of december we were ice skating and I learned that I am REALLY bad at ice skating. I left the frozen football field with super cold feet, bruises everywhere (I still have them) and broken self confidence. But I still had a good time :) I would do it again.

It got super cold on the 29th. Minus 12 degrees in the morning and minus 8 during the day. I was out a lot that day.

Right now it is the 31th of december. I haven't done anything yesterday and not today either. We are having a movie night with the family, much food and at 12pm we will go outside and look at the firework.

You see, winter/christmas time has been very cozy  and not so exciting. But I liked it that way. Before christmas I was beginning to feel super depressed and homesick. And the christmas spirit couldn't catch me. The thought of spending christmas without my family was sad, but then I had a really good christmas and it was fine afterwards. But the swedish winter really got me. It was dark at 3pm everyday, it was cold, a lot of rain in the warmer days, quite windy (they had some storms in the south of Sweden). And then loneliness. I was very close to coming home for a few days. I wanted some time off. I had it all planned. But then I decided not to go, because I was feeling better after christmas.

Not everything is great all the time. But I'm doing good right now. I wish you all a fun New Years Eve and a happy new year.

Franzi