Christmas Eve

Seeing both Nettus and I were short of family members for the great Swedish family gathering event, we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve with our Jamaican/American neighbor Jmackie.

Since we were going Swedish this particular night, I had made a Jansson's Frestelse (amongst other things) which turned out so well that I forced Nettus to take a picture of it!

With Nettus being my greatest food critique, I was so happy when she turned out to love it all! Hehe, see what a little touch of cream will do to a pair of otherwise (voluntarily) starving volunteers...

Home-made chocolate ice-cream made of real chocolate and real cream - can a desert get much better (and fatter!) than that?

Then we played The Settlers, which none of us won because our neighbour had to rush off and check the latest gossip at the Goal party. Hey, if you're not updated on who's doing whom in Zinder, you're not a true expat it seems, but then again, I've never made good expat material I must confess. I think I love Niger too much for that! And running off to get drunk would have ruined our cozy Swedish familiar Christmas Eve feeling...

Then it was time to open some presents!

Nettus got this piece of African leather art (for more Nigerien leather articles, check out Livswerk in Sweden) which is one of her favourite items in Niger-

...and I got (amongst other things) this beautiful little Swedish candle heart from my parents in Sweden which now sits on our coffee table. Miss u so much, guys!!!

So- Christmas wasn't the same without family, but it was nice nevertheless!

Ishtar

Picture of my sister's dissertation

Jönköping, June 20th 2007

After the Defence, the head of her supervising committee held a speech

Having passed, my sister is awarded her very own Swedish PhD hat - which I didn't even know existed!!

There was even a dissertation cake! The things I learned about Swedish formality...

Over at the feast location, the flowers were being places on the tables

And my sister and I traded states of mind - she started to relax and me started to worry, as my part of the evening (as toastmaster) was just about to start.

The evening went great however, and the ambiance was wonderful!

So glad we could all be together!

Both my parents held speeches, which were very much appreciated!

My sister then got to open presents, which she seemed to appreciate, even though she's never really enjoyed being the center of attention.

Much unlike her younger sister, who voluntarily had put together a play where she went out of her way to play the role of a young ambitious overly optimistic research apprentice who soon found out that the road to perfection was not as easy as she had first imagined...

And last but not least, the food was great!
Hope you enjoyed, for we most certainly did!

Ishtar