It's beginning to smell like Christmas

I've been away from the blog for a couple of days now.  Christmas is coming and we have been busy getting things done these couple of days.  Christmas is quite big here and widely celebrated.  This is a time for the people here to gather with their families, have meals and give gifts.  Here, Christmas is celebrated on the 24th.  Some families might have a Christmas dinner on the 23rd.  But by the 24th, all the presents would have been opened.

This year, we would be having a Christmas lunch at his mum's place together with some of his sisters and their families.  Pete's sister and brother-in-law have traveled from Norway to join us.  Another sister and her kids, who are living in a town about an hour's drive away will also be there.  It's nice to have everyone together at this time.  The place is going to be crowded but it'll be great to catch up with each other.

We have all split up the tasks for the lunch.  I will be cooking the meatballs and prins korv, a kind of mini sausages.  These are the traditionally served at the julbordet, or Christmas table.  We will also be bringing the julost, the Christmas cheese.  The one we bought is a cute little ball of Edam, festively wrapped up in red.

On top of the shopping for ingredients, we have also been shopping for gifts for the kids.  Luckily I have time off school.  We would head out in the morning so that we would get done by lunch, when the majority of the people start their shopping.  The malls and supermarkets are more crowded than usual but it's still manageable.  I've seen worse crowds back home, so it hasn't been overwhelming at all.

On one of the shopping trips, we went to Emporia, the mall I wrote about.  We went into Hemley's, a toy store for kids.  It was really fun.  They had some toys for you to try and the atmosphere in there was so joyful.  I'm sure the kids would love to spend the whole day there - I would!

Besides shopping, we have also been busy cleaning the apartment.  It's a spring cleaning of sorts.  I have been putting off cleaning the balcony but I decided that this is the perfect time to get it done - Pete's sister and brother-in-law were going to travel all the way from Norway to visit.  So the two of us have been scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming the whole apartment to get it in tip-top condition.

We don't have any Christmas decoration in the house but I wanted to make the place look cosy and Christmassy, so we made our own decorations by sticking some cloves into oranges.  Instantly the apartment smelled of Christmas.  It reminds me of glögg, the Swedish mulled wine, either with or without alcohol, that's drunk during this time.  We arranged the oranges and an assortment of nuts in their shell around some candles and viola! That is our bit of Christmas on the table.  We added some iced gingerbread cookies later on to add more Christmas flavour to it.

We also bought some hyacinth that is also found in homes at this time of year.  After wrapping all the presents, we arranged everything at a corner of the living room.  We also put out some candies or godis, as they are called here.  Again, these are part of the tradition here during Christmas.  When the candles were lit when our guests arrived, it made the apartment look cosy.

If the decorations didn't put us in a Christmassy mood,  the snow that appeared so suddenly in the afternoon instantly did. Perfect! With the glow of the candles, the scent of the oranges and cloves, great company and flowing conversation, it turned out to be a great lead-up to Christmas.

With that, the two of us would like to wish everyone who are celebrating Christmas, God Jul!  Merry Christmas!