Last year, we didn’t get to do our family juleborte tradition. So, this is how our small family (hubby, wife and 2 kitts) celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve when we’ve got nothing much planned. For Christmas, we have a traditional Swedish julbord (buffet). For NYE, we serve something “long” for long life (either pancit or spaghetti), which is a Filipino tradition. Also on NYE 2022, we tried to catch the fireworks display from Spiraltoppen, but got stuck in the tunnel on the way up instead. Was it a bad omen?

A traditional Swedish Christmas buffet usually consists of the following (or at least, what my husband normally prepares):

• Jansons fristelse, or Janson’s temptation. Baked potato shreds with onion, anchovy fillets, whipped cream, and bread crumbs. Other ingredients: salt, pepper and butter. It has this salty, creamy and sweet taste.
• Julskinka, or Christmas ham. Baked to perfection, juicy on the inside and paired with mustard. Usually served cold and thinly sliced on a platter.
• Boiled eggs with caviar, etc. For this year, hubby chose black caviar with shrimp and dill. So good and filling!
• Fried and hot dishes can include, aside from Jansons fristelse, mini-sausages or prinskorv, meatballs (of course), other red meat, and red or yellow cabbage.
• Cold side dishes are present, too, especially sild! I’m not a huge fan of sild, but the Swedes are. There can be different sild preparations, like the one in curry sauce, in olive oil and garlic, in mustard, in vodka and lime.. My personal favorite among the side dishes is rootbeet salad.

So, here’s our simple Swedish julbord for our intimate Christmas celebration last year:

An Aladdin chocolate box is also popular among the Swedes on Christmas. We had some for dessert, and some Christmas soda to wash all the good food up!

For gift-giving, a poem that gives a clue as to what the box contains is recommended. As you might have guessed (;-)), my husband gave me a diamond painting of Maxx. Both paintings of our cats are now displayed on the wall. I love them!

And then, we have NYE. For the past 2 years, I’ve been working on NYE – so annoying.. I also have shifts on NYE this year. Anyway, I made some pancit for dinner, which we shared before getting in the car to catch a glimpse of the fireworks display from Spiraltoppen. Filipinos believe that eating something “long” for NYE or birthdays can make you live longer. Lols. Well, pancit is delicious! For dessert, some chocolate pudding. 😛

We should have left like 5 hours before. There was major traffic, and by the time we got to the spiral tunnel, the cars stopped moving. We had celebrated New Year in the tunnel. Cars honked and we made noise anyway. The kitts seemed fine. It’s not a very loud NYE celebration in Drammen, unlike in Manila.

We did go back to Spiraltoppen after New Year, and it was covered in meters of snow! It’s unrecognizable in winter 🙂 So, just imaging watching the fireworks from up there.

I’m recovering well from the surgery 6 days ago. I have minimal pain (only took 2 capsules of Tramadol in total, and about 1 and 1/2 mats of Paracetamol), but still overly bloated! Anyway, this is the last entry from 2022. Excited to share travels and stuff from this year! ❤

#spreadloveandpositivevibes

ALL PHOTOS AND VIDEOS ON THIS BLOG ENTRY ARE MINE. 🙂 Cheers!