The evening of December 1, it began to snow. It was quite appropriate, especially since December 2nd was the First Advent Sunday-- the official start to the Christmas season in Sweden. The intermittent cold combined with some really cold temperatures has kept us white. On the plus side, the white snow makes things seem a little lighter and brighter. Nice when the sun is setting at 3:30 in the afternoon. The negative is getting around by foot and bike is not as fun with snow on the ground, but we still manage. We put studded snow tires on both kids' bikes this year and on the worst days they walk or take the city bus. Trudging through snow to get everywhere is very different than living in the southern U.S. where they close down the world when they see a snowflake. :-)
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| Snowy view off our back balcony |
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| Our Narnia street posts in the park |
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| Olaf the Cold-hearted-- our Viking snowman. He's been standing tall for a week now. |
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| It's hard to find a sledding hill in flat Skåne but we found this gully at a park that was fun. |
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| See how low the sun is in the sky? This was taken at 1:30 in the afternoon. That's about as high as the sun gets right now. |
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| More snow+ strong winds= Some huge snow drifts in our yard |
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| And lots of shoveling to do. |
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| Can't tell the car had already been cleared off and driven just a few hours earlier. |
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| One of our Christmas stars |
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| We added a Christmas goat and a Tomte to our decorations this year. |
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| Kristianstad's Julbock (Christmas goat). Too dark at 4 pm for a good iphone picture |
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| I made my first batch of Luciakatten-- saffron seasoned rolls that are traditionally eaten for Saint Lucia's Day |
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| A popular Christmas food-- pickled herring. It comes in lots of different flavors of sauce. I've tried a few but have not been converted. |
