Finally we got all the Christams presents done, wrapped up and ready!! With Christmas carols on the speakers we packed them together like the little santa helpers team we are;) It all really put me in a Christmas mood! Something about listening to the same old Christmas carols as I have done every year since I was little, the smells and all the traditions...
Grandfather decided to gather the family this year some days before Christmas, which is the first since my grandmother passed away. My grandmother had her birthday a few days before Christmas, the whole family has come together at their place every year since before I was born. When we were kids it was all about making Christmas decoration, playing dress up with my grandma's old clothes (from her hippie periode) and biggest of all; who would get the almond in the Christmas Porage this year! All very exciting:) The winner would get a big marzipan pig which lasted all Christmas, sickening, but soooo O good! I remember my childhood Christmas parties as a very special time, allmost magical. It was never Christmas before we had been there. That's pretty much how I feel about them still.. This is the first year that I really feel the Christmas spririt again since my grandma passed. I think I finally got some more distance to loosing a very special person in my life, which I allmost was convinced would live on for ever. At least till a 100! I think we all did. She allways was so full of life, strong and filled with a force that seemed stronger than death it self. Therefore loosing her was a bigger shock than it may have been otherwise. Allmost like when a young person passes away.. It wasn't expected at all. Even when they found the cancer, I was sure she would be able to fight it, and I'm sure she would've.. Only it had spread so badly through her intestants that there was never really any hope. So veird how a person can seem healthy and strong as an ox one day, the next everything is turned upside down and nothing is like it seemed to be and it will never be again. She went through surgery, 88 years old. She would have had to live with a bag on her stomack the rest of her life. Horrifying for my grandma, a very proud person. I'm not sure if it was the cancer that ate her or the thought of the bag or both, but it all got to much. She refused to eat and slowly shrunk into nothing. She fell asleep one December morning, just as silent as the powdered snow crystals falling from the sky...
But life goes on, and it has. My grandfather finally seems to be doing good, though his thoughts is never far away from his love. The fact that he had the party this year says alot.. We had a really good time, gathered on her day, which has also become our day. Celebrating all those passed Christmases, the good time and memories that we have, but also all the Christmases that will come. Don't forget what has been, but never forget what you have and what that will be.
Concerning me, I have a very special person in my life.. Celebrating the first Christmas with him brings all the magic back!!;)
My first angel in the center of the photo, a real beauty;)
Some decoration from moms dinner table for Christmas eve, the 24. of December.. Which is when we celebrate Christmas in Scandinavia. We celebrate with a really nice dinner, usually with all kinds of traditional norwegian Christmas dishes. Santa come with gifts during the evening, so we actually get to see him;) We also walk around the tree while we're singing Christmas carols.. A very Scandinavian thing to do, I think we are alone about doing that in the world? (Correct me if I'm wrong). I remember one Christmas when we had my greek boyfriend (my ex) on a visit from Greece, I think he thought it was the most hideous thing he had ever seen.. He was standing on a chair taking photos while laughing hysterically. I'm not sure if it says more about him, us or my taste in men;) ahhaha
I hope you and your sweetheart had a lovely Christmas together :)
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