Swedish christmas

Pre-Christmas time in Sweden is almost as in Germany - almost... It's a little longer dark, the Christmas markets are less beautiful, and there is a lot of food.

My stuffed plate from the Christmas buffé - the Julbord

On the 1st of December I surprised Sophie with her very own Advent calendar. We already got one together from my mom, but this way she didn't have to share. On the 6th I surprised her with a new, German tradition - St. Nikolaus, which means her boots were filled with oranges, nuts and chocolate Santa Clauses; very nice :)
But these were only the self-chosen opportunities to eat. We had a expat and a institutional Christmas party, both with free food, of course; a  Christmas lunch from the department, with the famous Julbord.

Christmas market in Liseberg

Finally we also had Santa Lucia, a Italian tradition on the occasion of the burning of a witch Lucia, as far as I understood. This comes along with the delicious saffron buns, choir songs and a lot of candle lights.
Also I made it to the Liseberg Christmas market this year - finally. I wanted to go already, when I came for my interview, two years ago, but they closed too early. Last year I didn't find anyone to come along (surprisingly Sophie made the same experience), so we simply went together this year. It was rather disappointing: 10€ entrance fee, little, less beautiful shops, which mainly belong to the regular interior of the amusement park. But at least I saw it once.

Self made gingerbread house

And we also had a private Housewarming-Birthday-Christmas party at Michaëls. We prepared a home glued gingerbread house and served some traditional German Feuerzangenbowle. The latter is warm red wine with spices and oranges, with dripped in melted burning sugar from a cone covered in high percentage Rum. The sugar cones are impossible to get, but we made them ourselves over a couple of weeks.

Now we are already on our great Christmas-New Years adventure, but I will report back on this later.