And then Christmas eve was over. It was very nice. Anders and I had a little trouble getting up in the morning, so we were in a bit of a hurry when we finally did. So we didn’t get to eat breakfast in bed like we planned, but we’ll do that today. We went to nidarosdomen and met up with Anders’ aunt, uncle and two cousins. We took a cab to get there, because we thought we were late, but we weren’t, so we got very good seats. It was very nice, lots of small children and lots of singing. The priest wasn’t very good though, the bishop is on sick leave, so the replacement seemed a bit unexperienced.

After the service, we went up to Anders’ grandparents, where we met up with Anders’ brother, and had some cookies and hot chocolate, before going to Anders mother and stepfather. We had rib for dinner, and cloudberries and whipped cream for dessert.

After that the gift frenzy started, Anders’ youngest brother is only nine, and we were a nine people, so it went on for a while. I got the desperate housewives DVD, two CD’s, and penguin mints from Anders. Other than that I/we got a drink mix set, a scarf, three books, a DVD, candy, a lot of money, and stuff for the appartment ++. The gifts from my brother and one of my grandfathers is in Røros, so I’ll get them later.

Now I think I’ll go back to bed, and try to get some more sleep, before Anders’ makes me breakfast (hih, good boyfriend). Later today we’re going to Anders’ grandparents for dinner.

Here is my list of pros and cons of Christmas:

Pros:
1. The food
2. The gift giving
3. The gift recieving
4. The parties
5. Meeting people I haven’t seen in a long time
6. Not having to feel guilty about being a lazy slob
7. Spending my first Christmas eve with Anders

Cons:
1. Family overload
2. Meeting people I haven’t seen in a long time that I don’t want to see
3. Being asked what I do now
4. Having to ask people what they do now, because I don’t remember, even though I have asked them 100 times before
5. Not seeing my boyfriend for at least 2 days (oh no!)
6. Gaining even more weight
7. The morning after the parties
8. All the pictures that peolpe take of me

Only three days until Christmas. I have been in Røros a few days, to deliver and recieve gifts from the family, and I have made Christmas cookies with Marit. We had a few disasters making them, we need a little more experience, but they turned out OK. Tina ate her Christmas gift two days ago. Anders had dinner ready when I came home, and we celebrated being engaged for a month (and a day). Tomorrow we’re going to Anders’ father and stepmother to eat “pinnekjøtt” (salted and dried rib of mutton). It has come more snow while I was away, so it seems as everything has come together for a good Christmas this year (although I’m trying not to get my hopes up). I have even bought all the gifts long before I had to.

My brother has moved in with his girlfriend. Who would have thought he’d ever become so grown up (coming from his little sister).

Oh my God! What is it with boys and drinking? Is it REALLY necessary to get so unbelievably drunk just because you can? I thought people stopped doing that when they were teenagers (I did, with a few exceptions). The reason I’m frustrated is of course a certain fiancé, who came home from a Christmas party at work. (No, Anders, I’m not mad at you.) He came home singing, then I made him have some water and go to the toilet, before he collapsed in bed. Then he lay there singing some more, and laughing hysterically for a while. Then he wanted me to cuddle him (“Kos!”), and then he thought I didn’t like him anymore, because I wouldn’t kiss him (he has got alligator breath at the moment). Then he wanted me to open the window, and started to complain about pain in his left arm. It sounded serious for a bit, so I started to worry he might have a heart attack or something, but it suddenly went away, and he wanted me to close the window again. So now he is snoring loudly, and rolling all over the bed. I guess I won’t get any sleep tonight (I probably wouldn’t anyway though, I’m all messed up).

We had the Christmas beer testing yesterday, and it was fun. Even though I was mocked for my beer drinking skills, I have never had so much beer on one night before. And, as I have experienced before, I have to conclude that I get a worse hangover from being kinda drunk for a long while, than from being very drunk for a short while. That doesn’t mean it was so bad though, I’ve just been very lazy today. It was a good day for staying in anyway, the weather is terrible. All the snow is gone now, it better come back before Christmas. The beers I liked best was Hansa and Ringnes Julebokk. Dahls and Tuborg was good too (at least if you like Tuborg). Grans, both of them, was awful.

I have terrible insomnia these days. I sleep about 3 hours every day (no, I don’t mean night). My eyes are sore and my head is spinning, but when I go to bed, I still can’t sleep. I’m going crazy. I also feel sick. The change of birth control was probably a bad idea. Men are so damned lucky.

Tonight we played poker. I came in 3rd place out of 6, Anders won. I did better then last time, when I was 7th of 8. I was much more careful this time (last time I wanted to catch a TV show), maybe too careful. I was chip leader for a long time, but I lost much after about halfway through. But I am getting better at it. For more info, go to poker.mirken.biz. (I’m Ayrabeth, if anybody was wondering.)

I was at my first spinning class yesterday. It needs some getting used to, but it was OK. I can really feel that I’m getting in better shape now. The weight isn’t going down much, probably because I eat to much unhealthy food. But I don’t worry about that, I think it’s better to exercise and eat unhealthy food, than to not exercise and eat to little (but unhealthy) food.

We bought a new bed this week, it will come some time next week. Weeeee!

It’s getting closer to the trip to Chile in January. I’m going to visit Anne and Peter Magnus, and I really look forward to it. I will be gone from January 12. to January 21. Deducting the 30-36 hours of traveling, I will only be about one week in Chile. It’s not a long time going that far, but that was the cheapest tickets I could find. I also don’t want to be gone to long, we have been traveling so much lately, and I think Anders will be too lonely without me ((-:).

I have asked Marit to be my maid of honor. It’s a long time until the wedding, but as Anders said, we should do what we can do.

Ooh, and we’re having Christmas beer testing this weekend!

It’s finally Desember 1., and it’s allowed to do Christmas stuff. I’m going to buy “julebrus” today. I will also start decorating. I don’t think we have much to decorate with though, so I’ll guess I have to buy some. I’m going to Løiten Lys. I love it there. I will also buy more Christmas gifts today. And I have to get a calendar. Ooh, and the rings are back from Germany.

Even though I’m not religious, Christmas is important to me. It is a time for showing warmth and compassion for those you love and care about, and also for other people who need it. It may be naive, but I think everybody should be allowed to have a happy Christmas. The Salvation Army in Norway, and all over the world plays an important role of helping people who need it and makes life better for many, not only at Christmas, but the whole year. The Salvation Army has always been to me the best example of Christian values, the way they help everybody, they feed every poor junkie living on the streets. This is also the Christian values I think about when it comes to Christmas. The stories in the press in the last couple of weeks, where homosexuals and girls who get pregnant out of wedlock isn’t welcome to work for the SA, and a priest in Sweden compares homosexuality to having sex with children and animals, make me sad. The one thing Christianity has going for it, in my view, is charity, compassion and forgiveness, which is often preached about. It seems to me, they talk more about it then they actually exercise it. I’m tempted to say as Nemi did a few days ago, Christian homosexuals is like blacks wanting to join Ku Klux Klan. And all the celebrities who have shows to make money for the SA, all say they don’t like their veiw on gays, and they’re tempted to not have the shows anyway, but none of them actually do anything about it. If people actually dared to stand up for what they think, maybe the SA and the Norwegian Church would have been forced to act more according to public opinion. That’s what I think.