This ones for you mum........


A Swedish Christmas!
So my first European Christmas, and what an event it was! These people are serious about Christmas, so serious in fact they cant wait for the actual day and actually celebrate on Christmas EVE! Every window has a star or candles and every house a traditionally adorned actual tree, no plastic David Jones jobs here. There are about one million different traditions that seem to go with every meal, minute, type of food etc.
Like everywhere big preparations start days earlier but you can see it come together on the day as everything has its Christmas feel too it!

It was all a bit crazy but a great experience, and it even snowed on Christmas Day even though it wasn't supposed to for weeks! THE MIRACLE OF CHRISTMAS I TELL YOU!


Building the gingerbread house before the day, although i never got to eat the buggar.....

oh and the food! A vital part of Swedish Christmas. About a million different bloody things all of which i could recognise about 4.


Who doesn't have Christmas bread these days?


Several flavours of pickled herring........


What do you think Grandad? Yea i reckon the potatoes look safe too....

Besides the above, we ate Swedish meatballs of course, sausage, liver, salmon, cabbage, beetroot, the HAM! and Malins traditional addition of a mango and papaya salad......

After lunch the whole of Sweden sit down to watch Donald Duck and friends. Adults, children and grandparents alike, how many actually watch i don't know as there were a few sleepy heads in the Hellman household, but its amazing that this cartoon dictates the entire day for this forward thinking nation.

Once our trip back to childhood is over everyone just seems to have there 14th coffee for the day and potter about. As if they were waiting for someone,



When all of a sudden BAM! knock knock Santa arrives! The big man himself. How he knew me and Angus would be in Sweden this year is amazing. He never ceases to amaze me. I got tights, Angus got a travel kit and Malin got nothing, she must been naugty this year.....

Then the present unwrapping and rhyming begins, quite an arduous task considering you could hardly see the tree underneath the Kilimanjaro of presents........

Awww happy families.........

The day then winds down as people eat more candy,,, play with new toys, listen to their new Westlife albums and wait for Church.
Went to midnight mass in the huge and very impressive Church. Good for the soul as well as the sightseeing.

All in all a fantastic day, big thanks have to go to the entire Hellman family for welcoming me and Angus into their family Christmas!

So that's it kids the first blog in 6 months, stay tuned to this space, I'm searching for advertising job with a tiny bit of success (i have 1 interview...), so hopefully that will come to something. Will try and keep you informed and i may even feel so compelled as to catch up on the past 6 months... oops......

Its been real, keep it that way.

Chris