Daily Damara Christmas in Sweden

It all started last night, before bed, when I was warned that if I found the almond in the rice porridge at breakfast the next morning I'd better just swallow it and forget it ever happened.  You see, the person who finds the nut gets to have a wish and apparently Sarianne has found it since the beginning of time and her record is not to be challenged.  Last year when she got the almond she wished that she would get married the next year and SHE TOTALLY DID.  This morning Magnus evidently thought it would be okay to take a stroll into the lion's den by finding the almond and actually admitting it.  I think he may have wished for me to get an Ikea gift card from Santa this evening because I TOTALLY DID.

After breakfast, most of us headed outside for a little walk and some sledding.  This is what you get when you tell Swedes that you want a candid shot so please act natural:

Next we drove into town to light some candles at the cemetary and do a little extremely-last-minute shopping. 

We spent the afternoon playing Wii and watching the Disney Christmas Special.  I tried to concentrate, to play it cool, but I was dying with anticipation of the julbord.  I tasted many new foods (and by 'foods' I mean varieties of fish) and also savored an American classic:  turkey.  Mama Swede made one for the first time and it was perfect.  And, because only Americans know how, I was asked to carve the bird.  And I don't want to seem like I'm bragging, because I certainly wouldn't want to jinx myself next time seeing as this was my turkey-carving premier, but I was awesome at it.  It may have been in my favor that the others didn't know what good carving looks like, but let's just not think about that, okay?  Good.

When everyone was stuffed with silt, sausages, meatballs, potatoes, eggs and so on, we headed into the living room to wait for Tomte to show up.  Okay, now I'm going to make an assumption here that if and when the kids can read this blog post in English they will have realized that Tomte (that's Santa to you and me) isn't real.  So, with that in mind, I'll let you in on a little secret:  Tomte was the neighbor.  He creeped around the house outside in the dark, then banged on the door and was allowed inside to pass out a few packages before leaving us to distribute and open the rest. 

And it was a three hour package peeling fest which left a layer of paper and ribbon up to my armpits throughout the house. You remember those foam parties from college where they filled up a small room with suds? This was a wrapping paper party. I'll be washing the bits and pieces from my hair for weeks. At any rate, it was a wonderful day and I'm so glad to have spent it with such a warm, funny and generous family!