Week 44: God Jul!

God Jul, Merry Christmas, Everyone!

May your Christmas Day be peaceful, in knowing that Jesus Christ the Babe of Bethlehem became your Savior; joyous, in giving gifts of love; and abundant, in sharing blessings with family and feeling gratitude for the glories of life!

Combining our tradition of making "Christmas trees" with "Lighting the World," we delivered our special Christmas treat to a few of the people who serve us to thank them.  Our best experience was with the man who runs the "tobak" shop (the candy and tobacco store where we have to pick up our postal parcels) is usually a bit grumpy, all business with us, won't speak English and just wants us to take our packages and leave so he can serve his paying customers.  Probably 3/4 of our 300 packages have come through his store.  John often tries to break the ice with him and has actually gotten a couple of smiles and chuckles, but when we walked up to the counter with our little trees (one was for his assistant), he beamed and said, "For me? and for Claudia?"  He was so happy!  We had never seen him smile like that, his eyes were even twinkling!  We left, walking on air.

That evening we decided to also take trees to our neighbors.  The next thing I knew, John was inviting the young missionaries who live in our building (the POEs and the Assistants) to go caroling with  us.  For those of you who know John, this was totally out of character.  He is the last person to suggest going caroling.  In fact, in 42 years of marriage and many opportunities to carol, I don't think he has ever done it.  (He confessed later that night the he "didn't know where that came from!")  I was stunned, but we "donned our gay apparel" and hit the road!  The Swedes don't carol, but the missionaries in the past have done it sometimes, so the neighbors are tolerant of our English/American tradition and our mediocre voices, and they actually seemed to enjoy the gesture of goodwill and receiving the "tree."

The missionaries are brightening Sweden with their love and service.  One of our sister missionaries, who is serving in Umeå, got on the bus with her violin case.  The bus driver asked her if she would play.  "Right now? On the bus?"  "Yes."  She couldn't believe it, but took out the violin and began to play Christmas songs, performing all the way to her destination.  (I wish I had been on that bus for that little concert!)

Thursday began our "Couples Retreat" that John had spent the last month planning.  Eighteen of us, including the President and his wife, went to Vaxholm for a traditional Julbord.  Vaxholm, you may remember is a fortress on an island, so we had to take a ferry out to it.  We were greeted with an evergreen arch and a small fire with a lit goat pulling a sleigh.  The rustic ambiance create a warm jul-scene that continued into the restaurant, where we were greeted by a tastefully decorated table with oversized white amaryllises, clustered pinecones and evergreen boughs.  The food was spread about in two rooms.  One table was primarily sill--pickled/marinated herring--about 20 varieties, with a pot of boiled new potatoes, cheese and breads.  The center table had cold meats (beef, turkey, ham, reindeer) thinly sliced, as well as numerous sausages on one side and cold smoked or cured fish on the other side.  (The fish is cured with sugar --looks raw but isn't and is very tasty.They must have had 8 varieties of salmon.)  A few sauces and other condiments were sprinkled along the table as well, with a few salads on the end of the table.  Another table, along the back wall was meatballs and other traditional fare. While dessert table was basically candy or "godis" features everything from candy canes to licorice (they LOVE licorice).  While another table  hosted heavenly gourmet desserts. The only bad thing about the evening was the stomachache from eating too much!

Note the flat bread (knackerbröd) on the rod above the window.

The main table...meats and fish.

Vaxholm

Entrance to the Vaxholm Kastellet restaurant.

The next day we went to the Modern Art Museum which had a free exhibit of Gingerbread creations made by architects, designers and children---quite a combination, both delightful and fascinating to view.  Here are a couple of especially interesting ones:

Self-explanatory!

After touring, shopping and enjoying the Christmas scene in Stockholm, we gathered for a tour of a Blackfriar's Monastery's hostel ruin underground in Gamla Stan.  We learned a few interesting facts:
-In the 13th century, Old Town (Gamla Stan) had two ports, one on either side of the island. One port was where goods from the mainland arrived and the other port took the goods for trade out to the Baltic Sea. Three thousand people lived there in the 1200s and by the 1500's there were 7,000 inhabitants.
-The Blackfriars were Catholic priests of the Dominican order who wore black cloaks.  They came to Gamla Stan from Sigtuna in 1336 when the king gave them the land on the island.  Their land was about 2 city blocks by 1 block (in today's standard) and had a monastery, church and hostel. However, only the hostel is available to be seen by the public.
-The Blackfriars were known as intellectuals and wealthy families desired that their children be taught by them.  They were concerned that the Catholic church was becoming too corrupt and emphasized teaching only pure doctrine.
-As the Reformation gain popularity and the King embraced Lutheranism, the Catholics had to leave. By 1547 all the Catholic priests were gone and the monastery was ransacked.

This was underground, basically a cellar of a several-story building.

Area of hostel--note the small window on the right which was used to store one's belongings.

Next was dinner at the Viking Restaurant, Aifur, named after a Viking ship.  The food is delicious, but simple and meant to reflect Viking fare, and even the cutlery reflects the Viking era.  Of course the atmosphere created by long rough hewn wood table and benches, animal skins and artifacts, runes and dim yellow lighting set us back in time.  As we entered an oliphant was blown and we were introduced to the assembled guests.  Then to add to the ambiance, two musicians performed on hurdy-gurdies and other ancient instruments.

Saturday morning we had a birthday brunch for one of the Senior sisters and then we all parted our way to prepare for Christmas.


In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Ever, so today is the big day.  After church we came home and put our little 7 lb turkey in the oven.  (I never knew turkeys could be so small!)  At 3:00 we joined the rest of Sweden by watching Swedish TV's Christmas with Donald Duck, a traditions since TV began.  Actually, it was just clips from various Disney cartoons and movies from old Mickey Mouse to Frozen--in Swedish, of course.

Afterwards we enjoyed a simple, intimate Christmas turkey dinner...in Sweden...a long way from home.