Week 40

Subject: Red Beet Salad and Meat Jello

God Jul!

It's been a fine week. Just like the US a couple of weeks ago, we had
some extreme weather swings here as well. After the snow cleared up, the temperature dropped to -25 C and then the next day was -30. (the 23rd and 24th). It was crazy! We were really excited to take pictures of that formidable -30 on the car thermometer, but not so excited to be out in it. I decided that -25 is just too cold to go out contacting. Maybe -20, but I reached my limit at -25. Plus Sis Kiser doesn't have any proper tights, so she just curls up in her jacket and disappears at that temperature. We are also really excited about the fact that it hasn't been this cold before Christmas in 150 years! Yay!

They are expecting -40 C in January, February. Yay! (I actually am excited about that). It's a balmy -7 today. With the heavy snow on Tuesday and then the Christmas weekend and everyone going out of town, we didn't have very many appointments this week. We are teaching E, this really cool Pentacostal guy from Nigeria. He is open to reading the Book of Mormon though he won't accept that it could be scripture. He did say after we read Moroni 10 that he likes it better than the Book of the Maccabees or the Apocrypha, so there's something.

Christmas Eve was the big day, so we went over to the Stegeby's for the whole afternoon. They had almost all their family over and another family from church, so the house was just packed. I must admit that most everything I've eaten in Sweden to this point has been fairly standard. If reindeer sandwiches are standard. But, the Jul Bord was definitely an experience. I love the pickled herring and the rice pudding with fruit and juice on top. And red beet salad was already a favorite. But I must say the jello-y meat stuff that I still don't know what it was is interesting. Probably won't make that part of my Christmas tradition. After dinner we watched Kalle Anka, which is little clips from Disney cartoons (it's tradition!) and then had a little Christmas program. Then jul tomten came! It was the Norwegian son-in-law. They were making jokes about him putting on a Finnish accent so that they kids wouldn't recognize him, but sure enough, one of the older boys knew immediately because of his particular way of speaking. The kid almost spoiled it for everybody. It was funny, though. He gave out gifts to the expectant kids, and I even got a present from him too! It was a fun day. Freezing cold, but fun.

Christmas was slow. We baked and got plates of goodies for our neighbors together which we gave out the next day. They were all very surprised and appreciative (I'm pretty sure Swedes don't do that). Talked to the family. That was wonderful. And then we went to dinner at a part Scottish family. We did the popper tradition thing (see Harry Potter?) and had turkey and cranberry sauce and and brussel sprouts and chutney! It was delicious!

Oh, yes, we opened presents as well. Thanks everybody for everything. I'll get thank you cards out in February probably ;)

In church yesterday we had a musical Christmas program as usual and I got to play the flute. There were some glitches, but it was still a lot of fun.

Both Sister Kiser and I have colds which makes life fun. Especially the foot of snow we found in the church parking lot when we got here today. Yay shoveling snow! We could only get halfway up the drive with what we'd done, so we hope the plow doesn't come while we are in here. If not, we have a lot of work to do before Sunday...

Well, I think that's it for this week. We are hoping everything will pick up again with the new year. It should be fantastic. Love you all!

Syster Maxwell