Once Upon a Christmas

By Lena Trondson • December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone! It was a very busy and eventful Christmas at our household. Brian finally had his back surgery two days before Christmas and it went really well considering the extent of the procedure. His mother and father came down the day before the surgery and stayed through Christmas Eve and we had a great holiday together. Linn loved having them here and she is just so happy to play rough with grandpa and loves the moments with grandma when they sit and play and read books. This holiday I could tell that Linn really understood more of what was going on and when she opened her Minnie Mouse gift, she couldn’t open it fast enough and yelled out “Jag alskar du” (it means I love you in Swedish) several times.

I actually managed to get the Christmas tree up, decorations and some lights around the house to make it feel like the holidays. It is usually very difficult to do since my baby girl likes to be with me every second of the day and see what I am doing. She was really helpful most of the time and the rest I did after she went to bed for the night. Brian’s mother and I decided that we were going to make it an American-Swedish Christmas, so I cooked the Swedish meals like Jansson’s Frestelse (jansson’s Temptation), kottbullar (meatballs a’la Swedish style), and rodbetssallad (beetsalad). She cooked the ham and mashed potatoes, and let’s not forget the tasty apple pie! It was a very enjoyable dinner table I have to say and reminded so much of Sweden. I also bought Glogg from a Swedish store and used my glogg set and enjoyed it with raisins and almonds. We also decided to open the presents on Christmas Eve just as the Swedish traditions. Brian’s parents left on Christmas Eve and we had a mini gift opening on Christmas Day (stocking only) and enjoyed some Christmas shows on TV and then played with Linn and her new toys most of the day since it was too cold to go outside. It was a nearly perfect Christmas Holiday besides the fact that I missed my family in Sweden but they were definitely in my thoughts during the holiday. Merry Christmas to you all!

The Nicest Present

Under the tree the gifts enthrall,
But the nicest present of them all
Is filling our thoughts with those who care,
Wanting our Christmas joy to share.
To you, whom we’re often thinking of,
We send our holiday joy and love.

by Joanna Fuchs