merry christmas eve: bringing sweden to the states

god jul!! hello, friends! can you believe that it is christmas eve already? how did that happen?!

things are pretty exciting in our home right now. since it’s christmas eve, it’s the big swedish celebration day for christmas, and we are planning on putting on the most swedish julafton (christmas eve) we can! what that means is that we get christmas stockings this morning, search for a donald duck cartoon on the internet to watch (a swedish christmas tv cartoon that the entire country watches at 3pm on christmas eve – don’t ask. hehe. traditions are what they are! and i love donald duck!), make meatballs, potatoes, and ribs for a big dinner this afternoon, listen to christmas music, light candles, have a mid-afternoon fika, and enjoy a slow, cozy day together.

this year, of course, we are celebrating with lina’s parents who are here – soooo cool! and my parents + brother will join us for dinner this afternoon, so they’ll get a little of the swedish christmas vibe, which means so much to me.

it’s a very rainy + dreary day here in the mountains of asheville. no snowy christmas eve, but it’s still cozy. right now it’s early morning, and i’m enjoying a few moments to myself before the festivities begin. by this evening we will make the switch over to celebrating christmas eve in the traditional american way – a trip to the church where i used to work ages ago, for their candlelight service, family movie time with popcorn, and then bed – to wait for santa to come! we are actually going to all sleep at my parents’ home, so we’ll even have a traditional christmas day morning. it’s so much fun to celebrate in two different ways – makes the holiday last even longer. hehe.

basically, it’s just all a bunch of excitement right now. (*giggles + squeals*). wishing you a beautiful christmas eve filled with lots of laughter + a few stolen moments of peace and silence. soak it all in. breathe deep the love. and enjoy the little things. i know i sure will.

light + love xoxo