Almost Christmas!!

This is going to be my Christmas and Newyears segment. I'm going to tell you everything you need to know to love and get through Christmas holidays.

We start with the festivities four Sundays before Christmas.We get something called an advent gift every Sunday before Christmas.For my first gift I got a mini Christmas tree for my room and a chocolate advent calendar.We also start getting other things ready like the adventskrans, which I had the honor of making this year. Adventskrans means advent wreath in english and it has 4 candles on it, one for every Sunday, and they also have a candle that you burn every day with numbers on it marking the days until Christmas.We also get out all the decorations for the tree and put them on display as well as decorations for around the house.My favorite decoration would have to be the nisse which are like little elves.Nisse were believed to take care of a farmer's home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when everyone was asleep.Nisse could easily be offended though and if they were, they would punish you.One way to offend a nisse would be to not leave a bowl of risengrød (ricepudding) out for him on Christmas night.But now nisse or julenisse are now known as the bearer of Christmas presents.As mean as they sound I think the decoration nisse are the cutest things ever.Here it is also common to cut down your own Christmas tree which is what we did.Actually I cut it down by my self, I was very proud of myself.We have also made some of the decorations to put on the tree.We make Christmas hearts and stars made out of paper.It is so hard to get one of those stars made right the first time, especially if you make the small ones.Danes are also one of the last people left who still put candles in their Christmas tree.There are also many Christmas lunches before Christmas with family and friends.They last for hours and have many traditional foods like herring, leverpostej (liverpaste), and flæskesteg (pork with the skin still on it).The day before Christmas Eve we bring the Christmas tree inside and decorate it.On Christmas Eve day we get dressed up, make lots of food and we we had lots of guests.After we have supper we dance around the tree and sing carols and then we hand out Christmas presents to everyone. Then we have coffe or tea and stay up late talking and enjoying the hygge (no english translation, like very comfortable nice and fun).

Christmas day is more of a normal day we have a nice breakfast and then we started taking down the Christmas tree because we are going to Sweden to stay at their summer house a few days. Overall Christmas, or as they say in Denmark, Jule, was one of the best experiences I have had so far.

After Christmas, well on Christmas day, we went to the summer house in Sweden near Stockholm. It was pretty much out in the middle of no where. It was so amazing though. The cottage was so cute with all the snow and the trees. We had some problems with the car though. The road to the house wasn't plowed yet by the neighbour so the car got stuck a few times over the week. When we were at the cottage we didn't do a whole lot. The cottage was small and very cozy but didn't have an inside toilet, but it had internet! When we were there we mostly played cards watched movies, played in the snow. There was lots of snow where we were, well not lots compared to back home but lots for here. We went on a walk through the woods and we did a lot of firewood runs. I think the est part though was the outdoor shower. It was the coldest thing ever when you had to walk out there in your robe, but when you got in the shower it was heaven. And the veiw from the shower was quite pretty too. We ended up staying a day longer than we planned so we didn't get home untill the night before New Years Eve.

On New Years Eve we had a party at the neighbours with several of the neighbouring families. We had a large dinner with everyone bringing different dishes. We brought the dessert and I made pecan pie for one of the desserts. New Years is filed with lots of young people setting off fireworks all over the street so after dinner the other kids and I went out to do that. At around 10 I left to go meet up with some friends at a bar for a big new years party. On my way I was quite entertained by watching the sky being lit up all over the city, sometimes it got scarry though because when you were walking down the street people would set off fireworks right near where you were walking. At the bar there were about 40 exchange students there from all over Denmark. So I partied with my friends into the new year and then i left so i could be home by 230 and when I got back the adults were still partying at the neighbours house so I went back over. The adults were dancing and having a great time and I was able to get in a few dances with my host parents. It was a really fun night for everyone i think. I was really tired around 330 though so I ended up just going home and going to bed.

Well that covers Danish Christmas and New Years holiday. I hope this was informant and you enjoyed reading. I'll hopefully be back soon with a new blog on how being back to school is with a new class. Love Sarena