Merry Xmas, 'll y'all!

Xmas in Sweden is traditionally centered around Christmas Eve, which this year - unlike last year - was spent at my parents' place. It was really nice to meet the whole Swedish enclave of our family on my parents' side and we had a lot of fun. Dad fell off a chair trying to clean house a couple of days ago, underwent surgery and hence celebrated with one arm in a sling, which didn't stop him in the least; he was just as manic about christmas as he always it, although mom says he was a tad slower than he usually is. Unstoppable.

X and I brought Lotta with us; she charmed the socks off everybody and even managed to turn selfmade tough-guy Magnus (my sister's boyfriend) into silly putty as he started off by saying something like "Oh, it looks like a rat!" and then trying to get Lotta to hop onto his back so that he could piggy-back her across the apartment and saying he wanted one too. There you go. Next time the US invades a country, I'm going to tip the invaders about setting loose legions of Sphynx cats. That'll create world peace, I'm sure.

Santa actually came by to bring a few presents for my sister's kids, who prior to that were disbelieving the existence of Santa. Can you believe it? Lo and behold as both of their parents held them tight to witness a fat, red-and-white-dressed man with a big beard coming by to say hi and deliver gifts! Santa went off to jump-start his deer and go somewhere else while we had dinner; dad had of course prepared vegetarian food for X and myself, which is always a big deal to him, and he's so nice doing it. I think he feels it's special and has taken special care in preparing the food for us.

After dinner the girls acted Santa's little helpers (with a little help from my sister), delivered gifts to and fro, and we all smiled at watching them open their own in awe of what they'd received. Yay! Santa did good. Aftermath in the shape of coffee, ice-cream, cookies, questions on whether I'd heard anything from our relatives in Serbia, grandma telling X how I'm the spitting image of her former husband, mom telling dad to calm down, sis trying to wring her boyfriend's neck, X laughing at me for some reason or another while I was basting myself like the biggest Christmas turkey you'll ever see.

Here are some pics from the event:

The day after we went to Flen, which is where X's mom and two baby brothers live. We brought Lotta along for the ride this time too, and she didn't seem to mind in the least. We sat in the animals-allowed compartment of the train where a cat meowed incessantly throughout the entire trip! Lotta was calm, sitting in her cage all warm, a blanket over her and a pillow that was heated and put under her. She sat like a miniature Buddha and was quite calm. X's mom picked us up and after that gifts were exchanged, unwrapped and we were happy with a DVD player, new music and other stuffs. We all prepared for the evening when the family on X's side turned up with kids who loved Lotta and wanted her to sit on them constantly. Luckily for them, Lotta quickly obliged, and took turns doing that and jumping between everybody's shoulders. The night didn't turn very late, and we retired to rebound the second day, where we visited X's grandparents (Ethel and Hasse) who had put together a right ole feast for the entire family. Food, food, food. Mmm! Lovely. We even got a bit to bring home with us.

The time spent in Flen was mostly like massage for the soul; spending more than two consecutive days off together with X was really lovely, and I'm really looking forward to the New Year's holidays! The day after the feast at Ethel's place, X's mom drove us home and we celebrated the day by eating pizza, away from all foods christmasy. Here are pics from the yuletide spent in Flen: