Anyway, talking about food, I guess I should have written about how I spent Christmas here. As I wrote earlier, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th. That morning, I cooked meatballs, mini sausages and shepherd's pie to bring to his mum's for lunch. There were going to be 16 of us there so I had quite a lot to cook. Pete was great. He helped me with the cooking and cleaning up. With his help, I got the food done quite quickly.
We also had to get the gifts ready. Luckily I already wrapped them in advance. I only needed to make the labels and to write on them. The kids basically got toys, clothes or craft material. I wanted to make truffles for the adults but that morning, I realised that the chocolate mixture wasn't right. I think the proportion of chocolate to the cream was off and it was way too hard to roll into balls. Adding more cream didn't help and in the end I decided to make the Swedish chocolate balls instead. Pete helped me as I packed and labelled them nicely in jars.
When we reached her place, we were the last to get there. Everyone was busy putting gifts under the Christmas tree or helping out with the food in the kitchen or taking care of the baby or watching TV. It was quite cramped there but it was cosy. We started with the cold foods - four different types of pickled herring or sill, lax or smoked salmon, eggs, cheese, three different types of bread and Janssons frestelse or Jansson's Temptation which is a casserole made of potatoes, onions, herring and cream.
We took our time to eat and chat. By the time we were done, the cartoons are being shown. It's tradition here in Sweden that every year on Christmas, at 3pm, Chrismas themed Disney cartoons are shown. Every year, the same classic ones are shown except the last part where they would show snippets of new Disney movies. There's the one with the chipmunks in the Christmas tree Mickey was decorating, Donald Duck trying to take pictures of birds but his shots were always ruined by an annoying bird and the classic one with Mickey, Donald and Goofy in their caravan.
I find it interesting that the same cartoons are shown every year and no one gets tired of it. Pete and his sister even remembers some of the lines in the cartoons! But I do understand the appeal. The cartoons never gets old. I have seen all of the cartoons before, when I was much younger, but I still love them and laugh at the same parts.
Oh, this year, there was some controversy over the cartoons. Disney wanted to remove some scenes which they think could be offensive to some races. One of them is of a black doll parading in front of Santa and another one is of a man doing the Cossack dance which could be perceived as offensive to Jews. It brought about lots of discussions all over the country about what's racist and what's not. We were talking about it as well and we all thought that the scenes had nothing racist about them. I think it's just some people who were trying to be overly cautious, to the point of being ridiculous.
Anyway, after the cartoons, there was a surprise for the kids - Santa showed up bearing a sack of gifts. He handed out presents to all of us and the kids took photos with him as well. Then all the other gifts were given out. The huge pile of presents under the tree was quickly gone and the kids went wild as they opened their presents. They even started playing with their toys.
The best moment was when Pete's mum opened her gift. We all chipped in to get her something that she has been wanting for the longest time - a mannequin for tailoring. She loves to sew her own clothes and with the mannequin it would make her work so much easier. She was so happy and touched by the gift that she shed some happy tears. I don't know about the others, but that made my day. She has been a wonderful mum and she more than deserved the gift.
After the opening of the gifts, we had more food. This time it's the warm foods. I had my fill of the meatballs, sausages, shepherd's pie and more bread and cheese. By this time, the dining table wasn't as full. The kids were busy playing with their toys. So, we had more room at the table.
Then the next part was fun. We played a Christmas game. We each brought simple gifts that cost no more than 50kr each. We again gathered around the table, the kids included. We took turns to roll a dice. This one had colours on it and it was decided that if we were to roll the white or black, we could take any one of the packages on the table. Once all packages have been taken, we had a timer for seven minutes. In that time, when we roll the white or black, we could take any package from any one. That was the fun bit. As usual, there would always be one package, usually the biggest, that would be highly sought after. After the timer went off, we all opened the packages. There were lots of chocolates, candy, even some cute kitchen tools and stationery.
Another tradition here is to eat rice pudding with a warm sauce. Pete's mum made some. I really love it but I couldn't eat anymore. My tummy was just bloated. I needed to walk. But Pete's sister and her family gave us a ride home. That was probably the best since the night was cold and windy. The walk home would have been near freezing temperatures.
So that was Christmas Eve. That's how Pete's family, my family now too, celebrates Christmas. It was a day for family, food and fun. The kids had lots of fun since they got most of the presents. But like I said earlier, it was great to see his mum so happy. How should we top this gift next year? Well, we have one whole year to think about it.
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