God Jul!

Sorry for the slightly erratic posting... I am sure it will continue over the next little while.  It is hard to post and keep track of everything while traveling and being with family.  Also, there are lots of other things to do which are just more fun, honestly.

Wednesday was my last day of school, it was frigid (-24C) but we were in the factory next to the furnace luckily.  We had some Christmas porridge in the morning and said goodbye to everyone one last time.

 There was music.

 Christmas rice pudding/porridge stuff and sandwiches,

 I was told by the Norwegians to bury it in cinnamon and butter and it would be good.  The texture was a little odd and it mostly tasted of rice, butter and cinnamon... Not too exciting but not bad either.

 Then we sang some Danish song called Soren Banjomous that sounded a lot like "skiddle ma rinka dinka dink, siddle ma rinka duuuu" but in Danish... if you can imagine it.

Good bye my personal sun for a few weeks!

Then I got on the bus to Nybro, the train to Alvesta which was late and at first very cold.  I arrived in Alvesta about 30 minutes late, but luckily my connecting train to Norköpping was over an hour late so I didn't miss anything.  The worst part of the whole ordeal was that while waiting for my second train it was unbearably cold and the train kept getting delayed another 5 minutes almost every 5 minutes for about 30 minutes.  It was horrible because that wasn't enough time to go inside and warm up and we all just had to stand outside and freeze to death!

This was my view pretty much the entire time... not too exciting and very cold looking even!  I finally made it to my Aunt and Uncles and happily sat down in a warm, non-moving chair for a while.  Björn made a very delicious wok (stir fry) for dinner and finally bed.

Thursday (yesterday) we decorated the house some, did some last minute shopping, finished the Christmas Ham and finally all my other cousins arrived also.  The house is beautiful and all of the decorations are adorable and very classic at the same time:

 REAL apples around the candles!

 Advent candles with lingon berries around them.

 The Christmas Ball I mailed my Aunt and Uncle is hanging above the dining room table!

 The Christmas tree is decorated and has more then one present under it now I promise...  Hans said "that present is for Jesus" and then looked at my suitcase and said "you know we have a small car right?"  Uh oh!

 This is the Christmas Ham!  Eva has boiled it already,

 removes the skin and some of the fat,

 covers it in mustard sauce,

and bread crumbs and bakes it until it is brown.  We will eat it cold for Christmas.

In the evening we had a delicious salmon and potatoes dinner with a hollandaise sauce and lots of drinking.  But what else are the holidays for except spending quality time eating and drinking with your family?   Today, being Friday, and Christmas Eve (the big day here) we are going to have a smorgasborg, watch Donald Duck (Kalle Anka here) and open presents tonight.  Also, I may go to a late night church service with Bjorn, but I don't know if I can stay awake that late!  

I hope you all have a good Christmas Eve and get to spend lots of time with your family and loved one!