It’s January in Sweden. All the Christmas
lights are gone, but the nights are still long and I really wish that human
hibernation was an actual thing, not just my fantasy. Maybe it is because I am
8 months pregnant and huge, the weather is cold and blustery, and the sun
passes over head about 8 hours a week. Maybe it is some kind of seasonal
depression. All I know is that I am using the excuse that cups full of vanilla
ice cream doused in melted peanut butter calm my insane pregnancy heartburn to
down at least one every night.
I always think this time in Sweden is the
worst. The cozy Christmas candles are looking pretty worn around the edges.
Daylight is starting to last a little longer, but not enough to mean you get to
wake up to sunshine. The hours between picking kids up from daycare and
darkness are too short to actually do anything outdoors for too long.
And I become a whiney annoying bore.
This is why Swedes obsess about the summer.
And have silly optimistic ideas that there is no bad weather. I get it. I do. It is just really
hard not to whine.
So instead I will be grateful: That I have planned to work most of this month
at home. That I am still able to walk my dog around the neighborhood without
being in too much pregnancy pain. That my family makes me laugh every day and
we spend most of those dark evenings having crazy dance parties around the
livingroom. That little Swede sings his way through breakfast in a way that is
cute enough to snap me out of my morning grumps.
And that in a few weeks I will be way too
busy caring for a newborn to even notice any of this.
Also, until then Little Swede still gets to sled
to school – and I am still a bit jealous of that.
Posts
I love, love, love winter, and JUST this morning I submitted my Application for Swedish Residency and have been thinking how nice it will be to be cozied up in the candlelight next winter in Sweden...but your post was a nice reality check for me that it won't always be perfect and the weather may eventually get to me ;).
ReplyDeleteHappy dancing, dear, sounds like a great antidote!
I was curious about Swedes and pets? Are they pet people? Cats vs. dogs vs. turtles, etc?
ReplyDelete@J - winter is generally cozy, but some times you do wish there could be a few days of spring in between to ease you through it!
ReplyDeleteAnon - big subject, I will have to tackle it in a longer post - but there are a lot of pets, and in general the dogs are very well taken care of, and the cats have a reputation for often being abandoned (but are also generally well taken care of). As for turtles, I don't know, my MIL had one, and people have a bad habit of abandoning them in the local canal --- will have to look into it! Rabbits are also very popular among girls under 10.