JULTOKIG

I love Christmas. I would call myself "jultokig" in Swedish. A straight translation would be "Christmas crazy", but the Swedish word doesn't sound as "crazy" as it does in English :-

I love a holiday focusing on family and friends, on kindness, peace, and giving.

This year has been wonderful. It's not just about Christmas, it is the whole holiday season. We have been home, home together. We have enjoyed our decorated home. We have enjoyed Christmas concerts and gatherings. We have enjoyed togetherness. We have enjoyed a season without worries. We have enjoyed the holiday without Children's Hospital. And we have enjoyed a White Christmas!

Our Christmas is a mix of Swedish and American traditions. Christmas Eve is all about our Swedish traditions. We start the day with opening our stockings. We always do it over a big breakfast. We then do Christmas Dinner with our Swedish friends Stevens. This year, we were hosting Christmas Dinner at our house. I very much enjoyed preparing the different Swedish dishes, and we went all the way out! It was a full table! The kids played all night, and we adults ate and had good conversations.

On Christmas Day, we have another big breakfast and open gifts. I love to do it in the morning when you know you have all day ahead of you. Jacob decided to sleep through part of the gift opening, but perked up part way through it. Sarah is always there to help Jacob. She always takes his hand in her hand, and helps him to open every single gift. It just comes very natural to her.

After food and gifts, we just had a very lazy day. A day of exploring new toys, playing board games, watching movies, and eating leftovers. The dishes tasted even better today!

We're now having lazy days ahead of us with both kids being on Christmas break. We will sure enjoy each one of them.

Merry Christmas! God Jul!

Much love,

Maria.

P.S. Check out the new photos!