My Christmas was nontraditional but really fun. On Christmas Eve I went over to my friend Johnny's house.
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| View from Johnny's apartment |
I helped cook dinner with five of my Swedish friends. Swedes celebrate on Christmas Eve and have fun traditions like watching Donald Duck, singing drinking songs and drinking schnapps. There was a lot of food; mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, salad, hard boiled eggs, skagen (which is shrimp in a sour cream and mayonnaise sauce) on toast, and smoked salmon. They also made cinnamon meatballs, which I didn't know was a thing.
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| Ginger bread house, complete with creepy person. |
On Christmas day I went surfing with my friend Malin...and by surfing I mean paddling around, then falling off my board like a moron and getting trapped in seaweed. But mostly just paddling around because it's really hard to catch a wave.
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| Me and Emmeli |
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| Did some yoga on the front deck after surfing |
In the afternoon I had some friends over to Tom and Lorraine's (the people who I au pair for). It rained almost all afternoon and evening but we still had a great time. We had lots of food and drank margaritas (among other things).
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| The food! |
We played White Elephant, the present exchange game. Everyone bought something they wanted to re-gift or a small cheap present. It was fun and everyone enjoyed opening gifts and fighting over the best presents. I like to think I won because I got spiced mulled wine.
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| The presents |
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| Wearing some of the gifts |
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| Diane, Scott and I watched Elf after |
It really didn't feel like Christmas but it was fun. I definitely missed my brother and parents but I got to open my presents with my dad over Skype and spend time with good friends. So I really can't complain.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!
