Santa Claus - 6 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

When I was little we used to celebrate Christmas at my grandmother Lillys' home on the 23rd of December. A lot of relatives used to be there, my cousins and aunts and uncles. At that time I was always the youngest since my dad was the youngest of his eight siblings. My oldest cousins were about the same age as my dad.

Anyone, one year they told me to look out of the window and look for Santa. I looked and waited and suddenly I saw him coming walking toward the house. Now, my grandmother lived in an apartment and suddenly I saw Santa walking into another house.. I tried to tell people that Santa had walked into the wrong door but I didn't get any attention really. Well, it took a couple of minutes then Santa came anyhow and said he had walked into the wrong door. I was happy that he had found the right house at last.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Recipes - 5 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

One of my favorite thing to bake all December is the classic Swedish saffronbuns, "lussekatter". First of all they make the whole house smell lovely. Second they taste good as breakfast warm with a little butter on or as an afternoon snack with coffee. And on Christmas Eve at 14:00 with glögg and ginger bread cookies. Typical Swedish.

Anyhow, the thing to remember is to ask the cashier for saffron when shopping since it is so expensive they never keep it in the store. It has been that way for as long as I remember.

I always want to have those buns at Advent 1st and last week I went up at 4am to have them freshly baked for breakfast at 6 :)

Lussekatt

40 lussekatter

You need:
50 gram yeast
250 gram butter
1 gram saffron
2 dl sugar
5 dl milk
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 egg
About 16 dl flour

1 egg, raisins

Split the yeast into tiny bits

Heat the milk to 37 C degrees and pour on the yeast and stir.

Add the saffron, sugar, egg and salt and keep stirring.

Add about 13 dl flour and work the dough. The dough should be a bit sticky but
not to loose. Put some flour on top of the dough and let it rest for 30 to 40 minuters,
it should be about double the size when done.

Take up the dough on a baking table, work it a bit and then and split it into four pieces.

Take one piece and split into ten. Roll one piece to a little worm :) and then make the
classic lussekatt-shape and put it on a baking tray. When the tray is full, let the buns rest
for about 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 250 C degrees.

Put two raisins on every bun, and brush the bun with lightly whipped egg.

Put the tray in the middle of the oven and when the buns got a nice, golden color they
are done (takes about 8 - 12 minutes).


During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas lights - 4 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Christmas lights - yes. Well. candles.

About every other year I and some friends makes our own candles. It takes hours, we do it in a garage and it is usually pretty cold. But the result is good and it is nice to bring homemade candles as a gift at times.

Every Adventsunday before Christmas I light a candle in a special candleholder with four candles. This special holder I made in school when I was about 13.

Another special candleholder that always has been on my parents table during Christmas Eve and now is on my table used to be my greatgrandpartents, Nils Anton Berlin and Hanna Persson. It holds seven candles and when they all are lit it is definitely Christmas.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Music - 3 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

I have a nice playlist with A LOT of Christmas tunes that I play every Christmas. Especially when I am in the kitchen preparing pickled herring and making Christmas candy and ginger bread cookies. And very load when cleaning the house and putting up Christmas decorations. And the list is on repeat... over and over for days...

 I am listing three favorites here, and old I remember from being a child, a Swedish one and a classic one with Bruce Springsteen. Here they are:

Julbocken with Alice Babs. A song I remember my grandmother used to sing when I was really little that I had forgotten about and got a real flashback when I heard it a couple of years ago. As I have written in earlier posts, my grandmother was a big fan of Alice Babs. Little did she know that they were third cousins, something I found out when I started researching my family history.

Rolf Ren with Torsson. The little deer that dreams about working for Santa Claus but he is quit small and not so strong. But his dream do come true.

Bruce Springsteen - Santa Claus is coming to town. Being a Bruce Sprinsteen fan, of course I love this version.

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Cards - 2 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

Christmas Cards. I love them. I save them all. And I love sending them even if there have been years when I just ran out of time and didn't have the time to send any.

When I was a kid, my mother made a nice "book" to me. She pasted nice looking postcards in it and I liked to look at those cards. There are cards of cute kittens, postcards of cities and of course Christmas cards.

One of my favorite is sent from Estonia, from a friend of my grandmother. It is the bear Misha who was the mascot of the 1980 summer olympics in Moscow, in the former Soviet union. He is standing there next to a Christmas tree decorating it.

Misha decorating his Christmas tree.

Another card I have in this book is by Jenny Nyström (1846 - 1954), very famous in Sweden for her Christmas themed art.

En glad och trevlig jul - A happy and nice Christmas by Jenny Nyström

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Travel - 16 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

One thing I could never do during Christmas is probably travel to warm place like Thailand like I know a lot of Swedes do.

When I was studying at university college I always went home and stayed with my parents during Christmas. I took the train, often a one leaving in the evening and reaching home in the morning. It was always snow during winter in the town I studied but not so much snow in the south of Sweden. Often there were exams just before Christmas so I would be really tired after studying days and nights. Then it was nice coming home to my parents and their Christmas decorated house. A couple of years we have rented a cabin at a ski resort in the Swedish mountains for the Christmas and that has been really relaxing.

Since moving to the house I prefer to hang around here all Christmas not wanting to go anywhere else but enjoying any family or friend who want to come visit.

The place I like to be at the most during Christmas

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.

Christmas Trees - 1 December 2014 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

When I grew up, in my family, the Christmas tree moved in on December 23rd, always. Usually it was I and my dad who decorated the tree while mom was preparing the food for Christmas.

Then for a while I lived in an apartment with no room for a tree, and I missed having a Christmas tree a lot.

Lately, since we moved to the house, the tree moves in a couple of days before Christmas Eve which makes it feel like Christmas lasts longer. The tree never is thrown out before January 13, you know "tjugonda Knut - då ska julegranen ut".

So, the perfect tree might as well as being totally symmetric also be a tree with a lot of personality. I think most any tree looks beautiful when you got it decorated with the Christmas lights and ornaments. If the tree is not perfect, it is usually very charming in my opinion.

I try to have a different color theme every year. Red and silver ornaments mixed looks nice and traditional. Or just silver. And the dog likes the trees as well :)

Christmas tree of 2011 - and the dog

Unidentified people and unknown place. But they have a nice Christmas Tree

During December 2014 I will blog inspired by the blog prompts of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Genabloggers.com.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

I have also joined #blogg24, a blogchallenge to post a blogpost everyday started by Fredrik Pallin from December 1st until December 24.