Advent

Advent is here and you can't miss it because nearly every window has either an electric "ljustake" (triangular candle holder thingy) or advent star in it these days. In fact, there are candles and lights EVERYWHERE, including, I might add, in the daycare centers and preschools. Young children and candles don't mix in MY mind, but there are so many darned candles in Sweden I guess you have to start them out young.

The statue in the picture above is of Poseidon on Götaplatsen, just a stone's throw from our apartment. They've been showing a surreal outdoor "Christmas movie" on the facade of the art museum behind him a few times a night over the past few days. The movie involves mermaids singing merry Christmas, trams, crabs and some heavy metal band doing a Christmas tune. I'm not sure I get it, but I like it.

Adrian and I are digging Christmas in Sweden. I love the Christmas markets filled with slightly creepy stuffed gnomes, saffron-spiked lussekatter, pickled herring, sweet-roasted almonds, and glögg (spicey drink with raisins floating in it). Here's me appreciating said glögg (while chewing a pepparkaka) in Haga:
Everything is just so darned cozy right now. The lights, the candles, the shearling-lined boots ... Good thing, because otherwise the fact it's full-on dark at 4pm would be downright depressing. (As an aside, we have been eating dinner around 5:45pm because it feels so late by then. I think I finally get why Midwesterners are famous for eating early.)

Ava's school had their Christmas bazaar today (spelled bazarre, which I found bizarre) and she was not sure about her face-painting:
Otherwise, the kids had a great time (read: ate lots of cookies) and played for a long time in the "pillow room" together, which was very cute. People keep commenting that Julian has really grown. It's true of course (I mean, kids do that), but I think it's more that he's turned the corner from baby to little boy recently, which the picture below captures pretty well. I walked passed him the other day at school and didn't recognize him because he looked too old to be mine!