12: December in Stockholm

Well, I've been super lazy of late when it comes to blogging. A big part of that was simply that mentally I was ready to be back home, and I was a bit exhausted from spending too much time on the computer. That said, Stockholm treated me to a very Christmas-y and beautiful December, that is worth sharing.

12/04:

Work of late has been a bit on the dull side. We've been waiting to get started on a big project for months and months, and as of the date of this writing we are still waiting to get the official go-ahead. That said, I've been spending my days doing a bit too little, which is not really an environment that I thrive in. On top of this, the weather was largely uninspiring. It was the type of weather that rules out most fun options aside from binge drinking.

So, on one otherwise uninteresting afternoon, we were blessed with an extraordinary day and beautiful sunset. Here are some photos from my office:


12/12: Sankt Lucia

December 13th is a special holiday honoring St. Lucia (for more info, take a look at my old post here. At that time I was using my UW webspace which is now gone, so all the images are unfortunately broken).

Swedes celebrate by seeing choirs sing Lucia songs (whom are dressed in bizarre outfits), and eating Lucia bullar (these tasty saffron rolls) and drinking glögg. Below you can see my awkwardly composed still life of a Lucia roll and a Christmas tree.
To honor the day, Björn and Ulrika hosted a party in which we ate traditional Swedish Christmas foods, and enjoyed copious amounts of glögg. Below you see the spread which included ham, cheese, crisp bread, dark bread, pepparkakor (cookies) and lucia rolls. It was nothing short of amazing.
It was nothing short of amazing.

Courtney's former co-worker Sara came and brought her adorable dog Tequila. The dog is adorable and was running every which way greeting and playing with the party guests. It didn't take too long for the over-stimulation to take its toll. Here's Ulrika greeting the pooped out Tequila.
Erik stopped by to join the party. He had recently moved away from Stockholm to pursue greener pastures in the UK, however he was in for the week.
Björn had somewhere inherited a Seattle Seahawks Security shirt. He figured that Erik would get more use out of it, and so he passed it on. Be careful drunk Seahawks fans! Who would mess with a guy as intimidating as Erik?
The party was loads of fun, however there was one guest who was very ready to walk out the door and go home.
The boyz on the other hand didn't get the hint until Ulrika fell asleep on the sofa.

12/15:

In the waning days of my working schedule I found myself with a severe case of home-sickness, and not enough work on my plate to distract me. The weather had been pretty blah, and I was, to put it bluntly, ready to be home. Just in time however, the snows came into Stockholm. And unlike last year, they actually stuck.

Here's the oft-repeated view from my office, this time depicting Stockholm with a snowy blanket.
Thankfully however my fine employers at Tyrens pulled out all the stops to keep us warm. The weather outside was indeed frightful, and thankfully the tv-fire was delightful.
After a short day of work, our department went out for our annual Jul Bord (literally, Christmas Table). We walked from the office through the snowy streets of Gamla Stan to our restaurant, where we were greeted with a really delicious meal of traditional Swedish Christmas food.


I didn't take any photos of the co-workers or food options, which was a mistake, but it was loads of fun. My boss printed off a bunch of songs which we sang as we enjoyed a wide variety of Swedish snaps.

12/16:

Mere days before I returned home I still hadn't finished my Christmas shopping. So I made plans to meet up with some of the crew for some shopping in the markets followed by some Indian food at our favorite spot.

While waiting for folks I used the opportunity to go and take some photos of a Christmas market in Sergels Torg:



I ended up meeting up with Pat and Pär. We did a little shopping where I bought some sausage from some Swedish wild game. From there we checked out some Christmas-time window displays, many of which were extremely bizarre:
After we were sufficiently creeped out we met up with Björn, Ulrika and Henning and then scampered off for some Indian food, which was awesome.

A few short days later I hopped on a plane bound for America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. However, that's another story entirely.

God Jul och Gott Nytt År!