Theadamlife

Dear blog,

Here I am now, sitting in Taiwan. No Christmas feelings really, only an empty hole that is longing to be filled with family, Christmas presents Swedish food and snow. I did know this about me but I really miss my traditional Christmas at home. Today is my day at home in Sweden which means if you look in the calendar it is my name on this day, the day before Christmas. I usually get a present or a little something in advance from all the gifts lying under the Christmas tree but no, this is not an ordinary Christmas. I still cannot get into my head that it is the day that everyone is waiting for is already tomorrow! This is what we usually do at home in my family on this very evening and what we do on Christmas eve:

-tonight my family will eat the first piece of the homemade Christmas ham, all the decorations are up including Christmas tree, outdoors lights, red curtains, Christmas cards, Santa Claus and Lucia’s, presents under the tree

- tomorrow is Christmas eve, it starts with waking up around 8 o’clock, going down to eat a big breakfast with the family, my brothers and my mom and dad. On the table is of course all the Christmas traditional must-haves. After that it’s time to open the presents, everyone has bought a present to everyone and in a second the whole living room is overwhelmed with present wrappings. After this the family gets ready to leave to dads parents where that side of the family is gathered. More food and presents. Around 13:00 my family goes home to get ready to watch Donald Duck’s Christmas on TV (a Swedish TV phenomenon since the fifties I think). During this we eat chocolate and other traditional candy. In the evening we go to meet my relatives on my mom’s side where we eat more food and more candy. Late in the evening we drive home through the cold Swedish winter discussing the day and just looking forward to the next day when we will have time to use our Christmas presents. Before bed we usually eat something more, just because it’s Christmas ;)

This is after all not an ordinary Christmas for me. Maybe I should be glad to experience something totally different from what I usually do but I don’t know… Maybe I’m just too stuck in my old patterns or it’s because I’m getting homesick but I just can’t get into my head to enjoy this moment and try something new. So tomorrow the plan is to exchange some presents with my new temporary roomies and then start fixing for the evening when we will have some more friends over for a French/Taiwanese/Westernized Christmas dinner. I don’t know what to expect but one thing that I can say is that it will be interesting… I did at least force Philippe to come with me to IKEA for a Christmas lunch, meatballs here we come! IKEA is the closest to home I can get right now. It will be fun im sure but there is something I will have in mind during the whole day, something moiling in the back of my head…

that Christmas eve, in Sweden, is the day of the year when you are supposed to be with your family. And here I am on the other side of the earth, nothing Swedish, nothing family related,

yes I do feel a bit sad.