I started to beg the minute I heard that the tallest Christmas tree in Europe has been switched on.




"The lights on the tallest Christmas tree in Europe are switched on in the city of Porto, Northern Portugal. The theme for this year's tree is "candles" and it will remain on display until January 7 next year."

There's a webcam which allows you to see the tree live and it can be found here. It's so beautiful.

But Lars-Göran was adamant - no Christmas tree until Christmas eve which is a zillion years away. I want my tree up now! I showed him the footage from Portugal and he just nodded and said "Very nice. And when we live in Portugal, we'll put the tree up when they do and keep with the local tradition. But right now, we live in Sweden"

I was not so easily dissuaded, so I tried another tack. We have an artificial tree, which can be put up at anytime, but traditonally (my tradition, that is) I think the weekend of the Christmas pageant in Adelaide is the right time. I showed him photos sent by friends of this year's pageant, with Santa on his sleigh riding through town on a glorious, hot summer day and Lars-Göran's only remark was that he thought it was ludicrous to wear a red velvet suit in that heat. True, but my point was that according to my tradition, Santa was sitting happily in his Magic Cave at DJ's so it MUST be Christmas. It must be time to put up the decorations at the very least (not mentioning that I'd also "accidentally" put up the tree at the same time).




And to bolster that argument, I showed him pictures also sent by my loyal friends back home, showing me that the Christmas riverbank display on the Torrens at Thebarton was up and running as well. I conveniently forgot to mention the Lobethal Christmas Lights because they don't start until December 9th and that's even later than here in Sweden. We don't want any inconvenient facts getting in the way of a good argument, do we?




But again, he stood firm. While it might be Australian tradition to put up the tree now, while we are in Sweden, we'll do it the local way. *grumble grumble* That argument is not strictly true either as the big department store in Stockholm (NK) unveiled its Christmas windows last weekend. And I saw on the webcam from Slussen that the Stockholm christmas tree near Skeppsbron is up (you can see it in the middle webcam shot here). "Ahhh..." he points out, "That's in Stockholm - what do you expect from big city mentality. It's different out here in the country. In the real Sweden."

So then why are they unveiling the Christmas windows in nearby Motala on Sunday? He maintains that Christmas decorating must wait until this magical day, which is always the first Sunday of Advent - December 2nd this year. Except in Motala, it seems. So I can go and look at the lights and decorations on Sunday, even go to their Christmas markets, but no decorations in Chez Nordström until Vadstena's skyltssöndag on December 2nd! See what I have to put up with? Though today, I see that the big hotel in town has their tree up in the entrance. No wonder I feel deprived.




Perhaps what is making me more tetchy than usual is the joys of menopause, or peri-menopause, or whatever we're calling it these days but referring to the months, nay years, that lead up to the end of our fertility. Mostly, it has been relatively kind to me, being more a collection of annoyances rather than anything else. But every once in a while it throws a whammy my way. An anxiety attack. A case of midlife acne. The whole "guess when your period is going to start or stop - yes, no, yes, maybe, no, almost, no, yes" followed by a crazed clown's evil laugh is probably the worse. But just lately I've been having a lot of nightly hot flushes again after I thought they were a thing of the past. My body thermostat is pushed all the way to high and stuck there. I mean, sure, it saves on heating to be able to happily wear tank tops in Sweden in November, but my family shivers under blankets and gives me those Puss in Boots sad eyes in an effort to find a single drop of pity in me to turn up the real thermostat, the one on the wall in our flat. Hey, they'd probably be happy if I just shut the doors and windows.

Added to that is the fact that it is so dry inside that I wake up in the morning feeling like I've been put through a commercial dryer and climbed out hot, and exhausted. Lars-Göran even feels the discomfort of dry air as his sinuses really hurt and he wakes up with a very dry mouth. We've thought of using a vapouriser, but the one we bought sounds like we have a vacuum cleaner on in the room! Which was why I was stopped in my tracks yesterday when I saw this at the local electrical shop.




It's tiny, effective and above all SILENT! We bought it straight away and used it last niught and today we woke up feeling better than we have for weeks. I can't tell you how good that feels!

It looks as if winter is really setting in now. It is so dark today that we have had the lights on all day. There is a strong wind blowing and it is very cold, with snow blended rain falling in gusty showers. Still, we are in late November so it must be expected. And it won't dampen my enthusiasm for going out to the Christmas market at Motala on Sunday, or the one here in Vadstena during the week. It will just make that warming cup of glögg and bag of freshly roasted almonds all the more welcome.