Hi Anna,

I guess its morning time in Sweden - we've been up all day while you've been snoozing!!

OH!
HI!

Well, but by now its evening again already. And FRIDAY!!! Yeey!
But Thea catched someones cold yesterday so it will be a quiet weekend.
Tomorrow we are doing... Nothing... (Or, I have a lot to do, hope she sleeps for a looong time tomorrow...)
And on Sunday we are going to listen to my moms choire (?!?!?) singing christmas carols and then we are having dinner with my grandma. A real family weekend!
And I'm going to do som yummi christmas candy to. Starting tonight after putting T to bed... And maybe wrap some gifts...

And now what... Is it mid-day "over there"?

Hi Anna,

It is morning for us now. I am so excited that you have joined our little group!!! So fun to have a new "pen pal".

I was wondering, in Hungary, where my mom is from, they celebrate Mikulas Nap....which literally translates, Santa Claus Day. It is celebrated on December 6th. Children clean and shine their shoes and place them in the window for Mikulas to see. When he goes by their house, he places candy in their shoes if they have been good, sticks if they have been a little naughty and coal with no candy if they have been bad. My mom still does this for me and now she has started it for the baby. Do you celebrate something like this in Sweden??? What unique traditions do you have??? Any special food that you have only for the holidays???

Emma....anything that you can think of that you do in England that we don't do here???

No, nothing like the tradition with the shoes, byt the other day we celebrated "Lucia". Its a tradition to keep the darkness away (it gets quite dark around here this time of the year), but I think that she from the beginning is a saint från Sicily (Italy).
Its mailny a tradition in the daycareand om big companies where they hire choire (THAT word again!) ti perform.
Girls dress up in white gowns, the "Lucia" goes first and she has a red ribbon around her waist (symbolic for blood I think, the saint from Sicily was awhitch andwastorturedand burt alive) and a crown with candelligts in her hair...
They come in the morgning and bring coffee and special bread/cakes and sing chsittmas carols.
Have you EVER herd such a strange ting??!!?
Let's se if I can find any pictures!

http://www.bdx.se/bdx/web/web.nsf
This Luciatåg also have small santas and gingerbreadmen in it...

http://www.kastanje.tomelilla.se/bildar ... iatag.html
Here is one with little older kids...

But I cant find any pictures of a really big one, it woult be fun to show you a really great one... That fills up a hole church with hundreds off candels. Thats really someting!

I'll keep locking!

Very bad cos i'm supposed to be making cookies - but just had to say Anna, that when we lived in Germany for 6 years - they did this there. And the kids also carried paper lanterns - it was sooo pretty, and I loved the carnivals there too.

In the Uk we mainly just get drunk over Christmas - not me literally of course, but the British public in general

We do have boxing day though - which is pretty cool!

Do you have realplayer?
http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?sor ... 7895=lucia

Klick the link that says "Luciamorgon".
You might not want to see all of it, but maybe some...

Wow that is cool. I have never heard of that. I will check out those websites.

Em....wow...we get drunk over Christmas as well...well, just about any holiday or weekend we (Americans) get drunk. It seems like a national past time. Not that we indulge in that but there are many that are. Too bad we don't have cool traditions here. I guess we have Thanksgiving though. Who, but Americans could put together a day to just eat and be glutonous????

Glad to hear that we're not the only drunken nation!!!

I myself enjoy a 'small tipple' at Christmas, but obviously don't overdo it - don't want to make a fool of myself in front of the kids - especially the older ones who already make fun of me

Haven't you heard of the swedish "Midsummer"? I think that is the worst holiday i Sweden when it comes to alcohol anyway...
We raise a big "cross" covered in flowers and dance around it to celebrate the rebirth oft he nature... Or something...

But I guess that at least there is an ancient tradition behind the modern parties...
But that was before... Now that we and most of our friends have got kids its much more of a friends-and-family-get together. Hardly any alcohol at all any more.

And besides of the hednic (?) Lucia and Midsommar ofcourse we celebrate christmas, almost like you do.
Her Santa comes on Christmas Eve not -day. I guess he cant make it all in one day so he has to get to you guys later...
So he cames in the evening with all the children still up. Its often a grandpa or neighbour dressing up and acting for the kids. And they put on their "elf-hats" and help him pass arount the gifts.
And we have a tree like you, but this year we vill only have one outdoors.
And... We have special christmas dishes. Ham and heering and salmon... And at lot of more, but its to complicated to explain...

Emma Boxing day is the third day after christmas, isn't it? The 26:th? What do the englishmen do then?

Ok - Boxing Day - it's on the 26th - the day after Christmas and it is just a continuation of the day. Usually for the main meal of the day - cold meats, cheese's, smoked salmon and pickles are served. Its also a great way to keep the in-laws happy if you've just spent Christmas Day with your parents - you go to them the next day! And not for long if your in-laws are anything like mine!!

It all began like this;

Boxing Day, also known as the Feast of St. Stephen (after the first Christian martyr), originated in England in the middle of the nineteenth century under Queen Victoria. It originated as a holiday for members of the merchant class to give boxes containing food and fruit, clothing, and/or money to trades people and servants. The gifts were an expression of gratitude similar to the bonuses many employers offer their employees today. These gifts, usually given in boxes, gave the holiday it's name, "Boxing Day".

So now it goes on but we don't usually give our servants anything anymore

Wow.
You sure know your saints!
"Boxingday" isa holiday for us to. I mean we don't go to work, but its nothing special its just a following of the christmas eve and day.

How did your cakes turn out?
Yesterday evening I made truffles (?).
Dark chokolate with brandy, dark chokolat with chili and white chockolat truffles with saffron.
So today I have to make little balls of it...
Me and Thea has also wraped some gifts and now she is aslep in her stroller outside.
And I'm trying to put that stuff betwen thr new tiles (mosaik?) over the sink in our new guest-wc...

Oh you're grouting - good luck with that, I'm awful at it

Your truffles sound lovely - maybe we need to start up a recipe swap. My cookies were the best because they were made from scratch, little Christmas tree and ornament shapes covered in smarties! - most people had just baked the premade ones. When I took them into the Squadron to mission control for drop off - all the pilots that were there were begging me to make some more for them to eat next week.

Anna - have you tried Pink Chat? Joe set it up for us when we want to just chat about stuff that's not really relevant to JJB. I know it may be a problem for you being on a different time zone - I guess we'd have to catch you early in the morning or last thing at night. If we are on here together, we should try it out!

Acutually,I was thinking about that. Its a manufacurers website with bags, and we are discussing bags, and everyting else... So, where do I find the Pink chat??!?!

The "grouting" went very well! I'm very pleased to have done it all my self!
But I think I have to finish the truffles tomorrow...

Geee...
I found the Pink room.
It's a chat, not a forum...
I can't possiby write that fast in english!