Hulda, over there

How I met Karita:

My mom was looking in Mora tidning and it was an article about a girl who had a grandfather in Mora. She was living in Oregon, Lake Oswego, about a mile from where I live here. She goes to Mora every summer and her dad grew up there. She was elected "Lucia of Oregon" this year and that's why she was in the newspaper. My mom told me about this and thought it was amazing, and it is! So we met a Sunday when the snow had started to fall and baked gingerbread cookies and ate lussebullar :)

And yesterday I went with her for a Lucia dinner! :D And yes, that was the most Swedish experience I have had since I came here. It was fantastic, no kidding! The old man who owned the house had 30 boxes of Christmas decoration all over the house, it took him and some friends a week to put it all up! Adventsljusstakar in all windows, julbockar all over the place and Swedish flags in the Christmas tree. We ate julbord with ham, potatisgratang, knackebrod and ostkaka for dessert. Spoke Swedish, sang Lucia songs, danced around the table singing "Nu e det jul igen!", it was like jumping back to Sweden again, childhood memories and oh I can't explain this with words, it was fabulous! :D Made my day :)
Karita is 16 like me and has two brothers, same age as mine and super similar to them too. It will be so fun when John comes over and he'll be able to meet them! :)

I better do some packing for California now, but yes, Happy New Year everyone!

Hulda is happy :)