Scandinavian Christmas!

I was a bit bad at photographing during Christmas (at least if you compare it to other days), mostly because there was so much to do and I was so excited, and if anything happened I mostly filmed it (Sanna and I filmed during the 24th, and a Christmas-vlog is coming up during next week), but I hope you'll survive!

Peter Pettigrew & Severus (my Secret
Santa squirrel-teddy-present and a
hedgehog-teddy-present from my mom)
were all dressed up for Christmas as well!
I'm so mature.

Since the 24th isn't really anything special in Scotland, and no one was really doing anything, Sanna and I decided to spend the day together and celebrate a "Scandinavian Christmas" together - after all, the 24th is the most important December-day back home! We decided that we wanted to make risengrød (an amazing kind of rice porridge, which us danes eat with cinnamon-sugar and a tiny piece of butter, if you like), and even though we didn't have the right kind of rice and wasn't sure about the milk or the pot we cooked it in, and we were scared that it was going to burn, we actually ended up making quite a good risengrød! - with the help of my mum through Skype, of course!

Our amazing risengrød/rice porridge

Before the rice porridge, we had "normal" dinner - it was so weird sitting there with your "normal" dinner consisting of spaghetti and meatballs, though, when you knew that everyone back home were having the huge Christmas-meal (flæskesteg, and, brun sovs & brunede kartofler... mmmm). But I did go on this exchange year to experience a different culture and have a different year, and it would only be weird if I didn't have a different Christmas as well, so I was kind of expecting it and preparing myself for it. Because the distance between your family and friends back in Denmark is harder during December and it's especially hard during the 24th, which is a family-day, but you just have to (and I really tried) keep reminding yourself that you're going to have SO MANY "normal" Christmas Eves in the upcoming years, so you just have to try to enjoy your one "different" Christmas. And even if it is a shitty Christmas, then you can just look forward to the next year, where you will have a wonderful Christmas again!

Luckily I didn't have a shitty Christmas; I had a wonderful Christmas! It was so lovely opening the presents from people at school and sent from Denmark, which I had been looking at and wanting to open for so long, and I was so happy with everything I got!

Look how beautifully wrapped my present to Sanna was compared to her, Chanti & Nora's present was! Heheheh.

After dinner I had a Skype-call with my family, where they opened the presents I had sent them and vice versa, which other than being a bit stressful (it was very hard to hear them and the connection was a bit bad) was super cozy!
I'm so grateful that I have Skype.

Later than evening me, my mom and my brother Andreas decided to Skype once again, since their guests and my guest had left, so it would be a bit easier to hear each other, and it was so much fun!
During the conversation I had a cute moment with my cat Bimmer as well: I'm always scared that Bimmer is going to forget me, which would be terrible, because he's like my little baby (it's not weird to say that about your cat, okay!), but during the conversation, I called Bimmer's name and he came RUNNING from the basement and was very confused when I wasn't there. It was so cute, and it gives me hope that he'll still remember me when I come back next year!

And because you don't really do anything in Denmark on the 25th, and we're used to just being up late on the 24th, I skyped with my mom and my brother 'til way too late, until I realised that I had to get up pretty early tomorrow - I still had one more Christmas to go! - so I quickly went to bed and tried to prepare myself for another amazing day the following day!

Mio (the cat) looks so amused to see me