Facing a lonely weekend with I. away, our new temporary roomie Stina away, and the failure of my ex-boyfriend to show up from Oslo despite having booked and paid for tickets, I was rescued by my friend Karin introducing me to yet another delightful Swedish Christmas tradition. (Disturbingly, most of the traditions so far seem to involve marriage. Have I been cursed because of my failure to put flowers under my pillow and almonds in my pudding? The other morning, I. made me Risgrynsgröt, a Christmas rice porridge - she made it several weeks early though in a valiant attempt to get me out of bed before 7.30am. Traditionally, you hide an almond in the porridge and whoever eats it will be married within a year. Perhaps I should thank her for not hiding an almond in there... unless she did, and ate it. Hmm.)
Anyway, this particular tradition did not involve marriage, but happily did involve glögg. Karin, myself, and three others gathered on the steps of St Johannes Kyrka (St Joseph's Church) to see a beautiful Christmas concert, sung by an all-male choir with a female soprano. I did find it rather strange that there were flags in the church (see the photo taken surreptitiously from behind Karin's head on my mobile) and the choir did look rather military in appearance, but in a benevolent way, like the Salvation Army perhaps.
To fight the cold, Karin had thought ahead, and brought a thermos full of glögg complete with a set of little glasses. "But it's too early for glögg!" exclaimed our Greek friend, Sofia. The Swedes and the Australian (me) looked at her in mock horror. Sofia obediently made up for such a rash comment by drinking two extra glasses, trying hard not to giggle in church as the clink threatened to give us away.
Meanwhile, the temperature has dropped to 0 and we're still "holding our thumbs" for a White Christmas, although the local weatherman has literally said he wouldn't bet any money on it.
It's a little strange not having a significant other at Christmas (not that I shouldn't be used to that). I might go and count the almonds...there's still time for risgrynsgröt after all.
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