Christmas Fair

We made it to the Swedish Christmas Fair just in time before Lucia started. I was really amazed how many people were at the fair organised by SWEA, I guess I didn´t realise how many Swedes actually live in Orange county. There were definitely a couple of hundred people there and it was pretty crowded. Nice!  Also took the opportunity to join SWEA at the fair. Never joined in Cologne because we organised a lot of events with Swedish people anyway but I think it will be a good way of networking and meeting new people here since I am not working.

The Swedish school had a small Lucia and some handmaidens and starboys, it was quite sweet. This was probably the first time in 17 (?) years I had seen Lucia.

There were a lot of stuff on sale, some Swedish crafts and arts and of course some food and glögg. We bought 1,5 l of SWEAs own homemade glögg and some Christmas decorations, e.g. this candle stick for $ 25, which I was about to order oneline for 40. That was definitely my black Friday bargain! Finally some Christmas atmosphere in the flat!

 and another tomte, I have a huge collection of "tomtar" (santas) but since this is one of my weaknesses it was really hard to resist not buying it, plus, the great collection is still being shipped. When it comes to Christmas, more is definitely better.

I am not a huge fan of sweets but since I realised there is not a great selection here, I really miss no chocolate sweets and have ordered some from sockerbit.com, in the meanwhile I will enjoy thse which I bought at the fair. The feeling you get when you chew on them and the pepper explodes in your mouth..ahh sooo nice! Unfortunately the noise drives Gavin absolutely nuts so I will have to chew on them during the day :)

It turned out to be another sunny and hot day today so after the fair I googled for Italian ice cream cafes in the area and we found one down at Fashion Island which is a cute outdoor shopping complex. 13 minutes later we were enjoying some ice cream in the sun even though it was not quite what I had expected. Anyone who has been to one of those cafes in Germany will picure a huge ice cream cup with fresh berries, cream and some topping and that is the picture I had in mind when driving there...well, we are yet to find such an ice cream cafe here.

On our way home we decided to stop off at Pier I Imports to look at a sideboard and looking turned into buying...we are all set now. No more furniture shopping needed!

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