We spent Christmas in Grisslehamn with the Larssons, Aronssons, and Erikssons. Though we missed our family and our own home and traditions, we had a wonderful time! On Christmas Eve, the kids awoke to presents under the tree from Tomten.
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| Opening presents left by Tomten on Christmas Eve morning |
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| "How do I get this thing open?" |
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| Eskil and his "little pearl" putting together a cube puzzle |
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| Anna-Greta off for a walk into town....Note her bag! |
We had a traditional breakfast including tomtegröt, which was a special treat for me. Then Margareta, Monica, Kevin, the girls, and I got out for a great walk to see another part of the island and view of the Baltic. We pulled Linnea and Annali in a "pulka" (which looks sort of like a cross between a sled and a plastic saucer - a plastic toboggan). Annali was not very happy about being out, but since she was so snuggled up inside a sheepskin with a blanket over the top, she soon fell asleep and took her nap while we were walking!
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| Sledding down the hill....or maybe just stuck and waiting for Ebba and Monica to come and pull her out! |
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| Annali's none too thrilled that Mama is making her walk a little bit! |
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| What nice horses the girls found! |
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| Annali was SOOOO tired! She fell asleep less than halfway through the walk. She slept in the pulka the rest of the walk while we pulled her along behind us. |
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| Monica, Christine, Linnea, Kevin, and Ebba |
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| Kevin, Linnea, Ebba, Maggan, and Monica. Overlooking the Baltic Sea. |
After we arrived back to the house we had sandwiches made from the Christmas ham followed by an incredibly huge fika with 9 or 10 different treats! There were lussebollar, chokladbollar, hestskör (horseshoes), pepparkakor, vaniljbollar, and many more! YUMMMMM! Before dinner, Tomten came and brought more presents for all the kids, much like Santa does at Aunt Sally's! Much to our surprise, Tomten and Santa look VERY similar.
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| Eskil and his "little pearl" |
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| Tomten comes for a visit! |
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| Linnea gives Tomten a hug |
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| Annali wouldn't go near Tomten, but she really likes the book he gave her! |
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| And Linnea loves her Dalahest from Tomten! She's named her "Hester". |
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| Annali looking through her new keepsake photo album from Ebba |
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| Both girls LOVE looking through their albums, seeing all our amazing adventures and wonderful friends! |
Dinner was another amazing experience. There were 3 types of herring, and Kevin liked them all. I tried my first (and last!) pickled herring (I haven't been missing anything all these years!). But the rest of the meal was terrific! We had gravad lax, smoked lax, ham, cheese, breads, hard bread, Jansson's frestelse (kind of like scalloped potatoes with anchovies), Svenska köttbollar (Swedish meatballs - just like Aunt Sally's!), red cabbage, boiled potatoes, and green beans. We also had Aquavit and other snapps, complete with a song at every toast! It was certainly a rousing meal!
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| The cold foods, the first course. We've got ham, gravad lax, smoked lax, 3 kinds of pickled herring, and hard-boiled eggs. Kevin was in 7th heaven! |
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| The cheeses and knäckebröd came next |
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| Janssons frestelse |
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| The hot foods were last: köttbullar, prinskorv, boiled potatoes, and beets. What a feast we had! So delicious!!! |
We concluded the evening by dancing traditional ring dances around the Christmas tree. It was so fun to put Linnea's Swedish dance practicing to good use!
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| Ebba and Annali taking a rest on Purple after all the dancing. What an exciting day! |
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