holidaze

With the holidays coming up, I have so much I want to talk about, but not feeling so inspired to write. I'm definitely feeling very homesick. It started with my birthday and is moving onto Thanksgiving and then Christmas. I first realized how different Christmas would be when I heard Caitlin tell me she was going to play a "Christmas" song on her flute. I was so excited to hear, but then as she started playing I couldn't recognize the tune! Swedish Christmas songs are not the same as American Christmas songs. I've already engrossed myself in making Christmas playlists on Spotify, so that at least when I'm sitting by myself or doing the laundry I can listen and pretend I'm home. It's also a harsh reminder that nobody has put a Christmas tree up. Here at my house they aren't even going to put one up because they will be in Holland for Christmas. Driving by houses, I'm not getting sneak peaks of trees in open windows, and they definitely do not decorate their houses like we do. How will I make it through a whole Christmas season without seeing a single decorated house? This is such a sad post, but when you think about Christmas away from home, it's kind of sad.

But on the bright side, Sweden is a great place and they do have their own special traditions I'll get a little taste of. And I get to celebrate with Fredrik's family, who I really love and feel like they are my own family. Fredrik and I bought our gifts for the Christmas exchange, and I will wrap them later. We each buy 3 gifts for under 150kr, which is about...30 bucks, and we play some sort of game with them. It should be fun! Since I'm so competitive!

Thursday I will be making my "family" a small Thanksgiving feast, since I don't want to make an entire turkey that day, I'll make chicken breasts stuffed with stuffing and baked in the oven, some potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls and pumpkin pie. Then Saturday is the real deal. I'm making a 13 pound turkey, with all the fixins'. I'm really excited, but also nervous. Fredrik's family hasn't really grown accustomed to the way I eat and what I cook, but we will see what they think of all this. Wish me luck!

The Swedish word of the day is "God Jul" which is "Merry Christmas" and is pronounced "god yul".