A White Christmas

So Christmas began on the 24th, at 11 in the morning. My aunt, uncle and I went to my grandma and grandpa's grave. After shoveling away the snow that covered it, we placed flowers and candles on it. On the way home we stopped at the store and got my favorite Swedish food, blodpudding. It is basically condensed pig's blood. Yes I know it sounds gross, but I grew up with it and I think it tastes amazing. I'm hoping I can smuggle some back to Edinburgh:)

At 4 we went to one of my cousin's house because Tomten (a.k.a Santa) was coming to their house to give presents to the kids. This is tradition in Sweden, a family friend will dress up as Santa and come to the door with all of the kids' presents and hand them out. I think it's a cool tradition, although my cousin's daughter figured out that Santa wasn't really Santa. 

After, everyone came back to my aunt and uncle's and the celebrations started. This began with a champagne toast. Then everyone got appetizer's, which consisted of mostly fish (gross!), and then 12 adults sat at the table and the 6 kids sat at a smaller table near it.

Now it got very loud with everyone sitting down and eating. My uncle brought out the schnapps and they all sang a few songs (none of which I knew or could even understand). There was so much going on that I hadn't even realized that people had helped themselves to the main course, so all I ate was salad and some bread, but it was ok. The kids started opening their mountain of present's before we had even finished eating.

For desert there was a very good chocolate cake and passion fruit tart! The rest of the evening we watched the kids open their presents, I opened some as well and got great gifts:)

The next day, Christmas Day, I went to visit my other aunt and her family. This was very fun, as I got to meet my new 2nd cousins, one who is a year old and the other who is only 5 days old!

Today I went to my cousin's house in the afternoon just for tea which was also very nice:)

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday afternoon my uncle came to pick me up from the Lingheims. I spent the day relaxing and saw another one of my cousins. In Sweden Christmas is celebrated on Christmas eve, the 24h, rather then on the 25th. So today we have a big dinner and open all of the presents. But last night my uncle said that it is tradition to try the food for the Christmas dinner, just to make sure it is good. So we tried the ham and some sausages, both were very good!
Today I'll be going with my aunt and uncle to my grandma and grandpa's grave, which they do every Christmas eve morning. Then my uncle's two sons and their 6 young children (3 each) are coming for Christmas dinner, along with my aunt's brother and his two daughters who are older then me. So it should be a very packed and loud dinning room. Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Teepee

Pierre Lingheim makes a gingerbread teepee every year for Christmas and I was lucky enough to watch him make it last night.

I got yelled at for taking a picture of the teepee like this because apparently it wasn't done.

Now the teepee is done! It just needed snow, tomten and a candle!

A close up of the tomten (which apparently are candy)!

I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom this morning and I looked out the window and saw the fatest bird I've ever seen! Laughing, I ran and got my camera to take a picture. As Pierre told me, the birds are not actually fat, they puff out their feathers to keep warm. 

I think he is just fat.

Skansen

Today I planned to go to Skansen, the zoo in Stockholm, with my 2nd cousins and my aunt. Little did I know that it was absolutely freezing today, it was about 5 degrees! Before I left the house I thought that since I'd be walking all around Skansen I'd get a bit warm with heavy clothing, because I always get too hot. Too bad this wasn't the case. We had to take several buses and a tram to get to Skansen.

My nieces, Karin and Stella, on the bus. 

Finally we get there and we get to go up this huge escalator. Although now when I look at it, it does not seem as big as it used to when I was little.

As soon as we got to the top we realized how cold it really was and that the whole Christmas market was closed! The only thing that was open was a small little cafe, which we decided to stop in and get something to eat.

(They are two characters)

 It turns out that Karin's feet were soaking wet and we were all so cold that we didn't want to go any further. I mean 5 degrees is a little over the top. So we decided to head out and go back to the apartment. The entire was back Stella and Karin quizzed me on Swedish numbers and animals. We even made a list of english and Swedish animals. 

After we brought the girls back to the apartment I went to my aunts for dinner, which was very good. I took the train back to Djursholm, but the first train that I took broke down! Apparently it was because of the snow! So we had to wait a bit and then take another train, but at least I got home!

Old Town

Yesterday late afternoon my cousin drove me over to a family friends house, the Lingheims. They live in my favorite part of Sweden, Djursholm. When I got there we made gingersnaps and I realized that there are a few things that I really love about Sweden. First, they always always have candles everywhere.

And every night we eat dinner by candle light, never in bright lights. Another thing I like is that they always have saunas in their houses, and even sometimes the saunas have showers in them! Plus when you get out of the shower or sauna your towel has been laying on heated racks so your towel is very warm:) Third thing that I love about Sweden, the fireplaces in the kitchen that are apart of the wall. It looks like a little square has been cut out of the wall and they stuck some wood in there.

Look at how cool that is! It's always so warm and cozy! So the Lingheims are taking care of a friends dog, that is just adorable, and it's so nice to have a dog living in the house because I do miss mine. It's nice to come home to a dog that is very happy to see you.

I don't know exactly what the dog's name is and I certainly wouldn't be able to spell it because it's in Swedish, but it sounds something like Feliece. 

Today, Amanda (the daughter who is a few years older then me) and I went to Old Town. Old Town has some great stores, and lots of souvenir stores. Most of these stores sell Dala Hests and Tomtens. Dala Hests are traditional painted horses and Tomtens are little trolls that are also found all around Swedish houses. 

Of course this one isn't painted, but it is what was in the Lingheims house. The stores are always very fun to go to. After a bit of shopping Amanda and I went to this really cool restaurant. You get to choose what type of pasta you want and then what toppings you want and then they make it right there in front of you. I got a yummy pasta carbonara:) After our very filling meal we went to a few more shops that were not in Old Town. 

Tomorrow I am going to Skansen, my favorite zoo. Amanda and her dad explained to me how I would get there, because I'll be taking the metro and the train on my own, and it's not so easy to figure out when everything is in Swedish. But they've given me a map and it looks like it will be pretty easy to figure out! 

Wish me luck!

A Swedish Christmas

Friday morning I caught a flight to Stockholm Sweden. After many bus and metro rides I made it to my cousin, Fredrik and his wife Charlotte's, flat in the center of the city. I think that I caught something on the plane because that night I got very sick and actually had to go to the doctor in the morning because I couldn't eat or drink because my throat hurt so much. The doctor gave me antibiotics, but unfortunately that day was wasted because I slept the whole day. Luckily this morning I felt much better, and I was able to eat again. This made my two nieces, Stella and Karin, very happy. So we all went skating in the park. This was really cool because it was snowing pretty hard so there was fresh snow all over the ice. I'm used to skating indoors where you can see all of the ice, but this ice was covered in snow! I thought about taking pictures, but figured that I could possibly fall and to break my camera like that would be embarrassing.
Then later Fredrik had Stella, Karin, and I stand outside of their building as he and Charlotte pushed all of the snow and ice off the window sills. We had to make sure to warn people because there was so much ice that it could actually kill someone!

Change it up.

If you know me then you know that I love to bake, especially when I'm stressed. It's always so nice to be able to do something that you have control over and is simple and the result is always great! So when exams roll around I do enjoy being able to bake constantly, my flatmates certainly love it. But if you know me really well then you know what I love to do most when I'm stressed is organize or change something. It can be as simple as rearranging my desk, or my closet, or something big like painting my room or moving around furniture. Any sort of project like this always makes me so happy. Maybe because I like mixing it up, or organizing, or being able to reap the benefits. But at 8:30 this evening, after lots of boring studying, I decided to take on a big challenge. To change around my room. It was looking far too messy and unorganized, and my desk had way too many things on it. So a little over an hour later here is what I've come up with.

Now for comparison

So, before I explain I should tell you that my wardrobe, desk and shelves are all in the same place as before. I decided that I didn't want the window blowing cold air on my feet anymore (yes I sleep with the window open even when it snows) but I wanted it on my head! Much nicer. There was a smaller desk underneath my desk which I took out and put over my nightstand. Plus I moved one of the hooks hanging my scarves next to the mirror. The only thing that bugs me about this is that cord that runs right across the room. I tried to hide it with the rug but it's not completely hidden. I'm thinking I may get a longer Ethernet cord so that I won't have this problem! Anyways, this is much nicer. Now my desk is a lot less cluttered and my room looks more organized. Let's just hope that I like it and don't decide to change it again...

EEk...A Mouse!

Glass shattering screaming came from down the hall Friday night. I ran out of my room, leaving my studying to fend for itself, to find my flatmate Katie standing outside her bedroom door almost crying. Once she calmed down a bit I found out that there was a mouse in her room. Hahahahaha, I thought something was actually wrong and as it turns out she was sitting at her desk and looked down and there was a little brown mouse looking up at her. My other flatmates and I lost it and busted out laughing while Katie continuously said "it's not funny!", well to us it was very funny. Although apparently Katie did have a traumatic experience with a dead mouse when she was younger, so we all searched her room and when we couldn't find it I made her a drink, to calm her down a bit. Then we all blocked the bottom of our doors and sat in the kitchen together (thinking that it wouldn't be in there because we would've seen it go in). After about half an hour or so Jenny, my other flatmate, says "oh! there's the mouse, he just went out the door" hahaha. Apparently he just sauntered out the door like it was no big deal, needless to say Katie needed another drink. So then we all made a mouse trap that the mouse still has not fallen for. I think he looks at it everyday and laughs. But now whenever I sit in the kitchen long enough I see him running out the door, so cute! We found out that there's apparently two (that we've seen), a big brown one and a little brown one. Jenny and I are determined to catch them so that we can keep them as pets and name the little one Leonard and the big one Chuck! We've made another trap but I really don't think they will fall for it...

Today I literally got caught in the snow. I had been told that the snow was done, which is unfortunate but I was glad because at the rate it was going I'd be stuck here for Christmas. This morning I got to the library at 7:30 (we've established that I'm a nerd and weird...I work better in the morning). So once I found all the books I needed I sat down in front of a window and started writing my essay. As soon as I started the snow came blustering down out of nowhere! Now this would be all fine and dandy if I had worn the right clothes for snow. Most of the snow is melted off the sidewalks so I wore my little felt Nike's and I just put on jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a sweater with no hood. Boy was this the wrong thing to do. I decided that it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon and the best thing to do would be to make it back soon before it really got worse. So at 9:30 I attempted to walk back, slipping and almost knocking over people around me several times and came back into my flat with sopping wet hair, drenched clothes and very cold feet! Great way to start a day of studying right?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Since Friday evening it has been snowing. Apparently Edinburgh hasn't gotten this much snow in a very long time. It looks beautiful though, even if it is a bit of a pain to walk through. Yesterday, to start off the Christmas celebration, my flatmates and I bought a four foot Christmas tree and decorations for it. Course it is a fake Christmas tree but it still looks adorable in our kitchen. We put on some Christmas music on and set up the tree together, it was very fun:)

Doesn't it look just adorable next to the window with all the snow outside?

Our ornaments that are hung with paper clips:)