White Christmas

 

Christmas Eve is the main day of Christmas celebrations in Sweden - as in the day when Christmas presents are exchanged and opened. And in families with children, Jultomten (Santa Claus/Father Christmas) often comes knocking on the door in the late afternoon or early evening, to deliver them in person.  

What I had not expected this year was a White Christmas - except maybe just a very thin layer of frost on the ground. But I was in for a surprise this morning, when I got out bed and looked out of the window to find that it had snowed during the night. And it has kept on snowing a little on and off since then (writing this around 11:30 am).

I'll neither be going anywhere, nor having visitors; but as usual in later years I'm hoping to have an online video session with my brother later on in the afternoon. (I'm saying "hoping", fingers crossed, because the app we used to use has closed, so we'll be trying a different alternative this year - without having tested it beforehand...)

Tomorrow I may be catching up on blog reading and commenting while most of my international friends are in turn probably in the midst of their most intense family celebrations... Anyway, however you'll be celebrating, I wish you all a Happy Christmas!

The Sun Is Back!

When I first woke up this morning, the sun wasn't up yet, so not much use even looking out of the windows. I was also tired, so went back to bed and my audio book... And fell asleep again... Next time I got up, and looked out of the window, I could hardly believe my eyes. Instead of the usual grey that has been hovering over us all December so far, there was blue sky, fluffy white clouds, sunshine - and frost on the ground! Quite an impressive winter solstice transformation since yesterday!

 

 Best to make use of the sunshine while it lasts! I thought; so around 11:30 I set out for a walk to get the most out of the daylight. 

Although the sun is "back", it still doesn't go very high over the horizon even at noon... 

The fact that the sun was showing its face inspired me to expand my walk beyond the old cemetery. One thing I cannot order with the home deliveries from my usual supermarket is flowers. (They sell flowers in the store, but not online.) And the nearest florist's is downtown in the city centre - still too far for me to walk to (considering that if I do, I also have to walk back home). So I've had no red poinsettias or amaryllis etc at home to brighten up the gloomy first three weeks of December. 

However, today it struck me that about half way between home and the city centre, there is nowadays (since some time back in early autumn, if memory serves me right) a Lidl grocery store. So far I've only been in there once, shortly after they opened. But now I checked their ads online, and it did indeed seem like they might have some seasonal flowers. So that's where I steered my steps today. 

And I found what I sought. I bought one large and one small poinsettia, and also an amaryllis - still just a bud, but showing signs of perhaps even producing a second one later on. (They had taller ones, but those would have been difficult for me to carry home - as I was using two walking poles, I had to choose flowers that I could fit into my backpack...)

 

4th Advent Sunday / Winter Solstice

 

4th Advent Sunday today - and also the Winter Solstice. 

As I've mentioned before, the month of December so far has been unusually dark here this year - or at least so it has seemed. Yesterday I heard some additional statistics on the radio: In our capital Stockholm, it has been the darkest December since1934. So it has also very probably been the darkest month that I myself (born in 1955) have ever experienced! (Even if I don't live in Stockholm, but closer to the west coast.) 

Anyway, with the Winter Solstice behind us, even if still cloudy, we should now at least be able to look forward to a gradually increasing amount of daylight again!

I decided to celebrate the Winter Solstice with decorating my little Christmas tree...

... and by waking up the ten Santas sleeping in the tiny house on my kitchen window sill. Someone wondered on a previous post how they all fit in there, and if there was magic involved. My answer is that the magic lies in the camera perspective...

 

Kitchen Gnomes (Part 2)

 

On the small wooden corner shelf in my kitchen you'll find my wooden gnomes. (The other items are there all year round.) The shelf itself belonged to my paternal grandmother, and once upon a time used to sit in her kitchen. 

The wooden house (a model of a kind of storehouse that used to be common in the north of Sweden) comes from my mum's side of the family (my maternal grandfather was from "up north") - and so does the little carved dog. The boat-like thing next to the house is a souvenir bought on a family trip up north in my early teens - a wooden cup, a traditional Sami kind of item. The little ceramic deer and the "nutty" squirrel were presents from friends some time in the past; and the little grey gnome I think was originally part of some Christmas flower arrangement. 

The two gnomes to the left on the middle shelf I remember buying when visiting a Christmas market in a friend's church back in my upper teens. And the grey one on the same shelf was a Christmas gift from a Swedish penfriend some 20+ years ago. 

A random collection of things, but with one thing in common: 
They're all bearers of memories of family and friends.

The Kitchen Gnomes (Part 1)

 

I feel that I must have told this story before, but I can't find evidence  of it now. (It may have been many years ago.) 

I had a period in my youth when I more or less banned gnomes of all kind from the Christmas decorations in my own home. But then for quite a few years I had a friend and neighbour with whom I used to exchange the service of watering each others' plants when the other was away on holidays. Her apartment, in contrast to mine, was always full of gnomes at Christmas time. So we were both well aware of our different "taste" when it came to decorations. 

Then one year she left a little parcel for me, which turned out to contain a tealight candle holder surrounded by five little gnomes - accompanied by a message that these gnomes were "seeking asylum" with me... Ah well... Put like that, how could I refuse... 

Next time it was my turn to water her plants at Christmas time, I had happened to find (in some shop) a "toothpick" pack with tiny Santa figures on them. (Probably meant to be used to decorate food served for Christmas.) So I planted those tiny Santas here and there, in flower pots or where else I could think of, around my friend's flat...

Over a number of years afterwards, around Christmas time, those tiny Santas then kept wandering back and forth between our flats... Sometimes most of them were at my place, sometimes at hers.

Photo from 2015

When I moved to my present apartment in 2008, the majority of them happened to be hibernating in my box of Christmas decorations... And as since then, that friend and I have no longer been watering each other's plants, those ten tiny gnomes have remained staying with me. Well - in my basement storage room 11 months of the year... But invading my kitchen window sill for a few weeks every year around Christmas...

Ssshh - they're still asleep in the Santa House... 
But I might wake them up for 4th Advent Sunday!