I’d be the first to admit, I’m that annoying person who starts Christmas way too early. As soon as Halloween is over, it’s Christmas time for me. For me, it’s such a happy time, and stretching it for a few weeks longer only makes it better.

But this year, I’m not like that. Not for a sentimental reason, but more of a practical one.

The past 2 weeks have been the busiest time of this year for me. I started a new job, which has been amazing but overwhelming at times. I have to get used to reading documents and emails in Swedish (thanks Google Translate, without you I’m dead). On my second day at work, I went for a day trip to Stockholm for a meeting with a potential client, waking up at 5 am for the first time in years. The next week after that, I attended a meeting in full Swedish, feeling like I’ve used all my Swedish quota for the day. I’m desperate to improve my Swedish faster.

Talking about Swedish, I decided at the last minute to do a national exam. I was thinking of doing it next year, but thought it was too long to wait in the end. To be honest, I didn’t feel ready. I’d only been doing the course for 3 months (most of my classmates had been in the course for more than 6 months), but again, I was desperate to improve my Swedish. So I did it, and fingers crossed I did well enough to pass the exam and go to the next level.

We’ll also move out of our current apartment on the New Year’s day, so I don’t even bother to buy any Christmas paraphernalia. The fewer things we’ll have to pack, the better.

So that’s it for this year. No Christmas tree, no fairy lights, and no decorations. The only Christmassy thing we have is this beautiful handmade calendar that H’s mom sent us a week ago. Apparently, it took her 21 years to finally complete it after the project was stalled for a long time.

Isn’t this beautiful? Look at all the details!

I have Michael Buble’s Christmas album playing in the background, alternating it with She and Him Christmas album. We don’t have any plan for Christmas this year. It will be just watching movies on Netflix, drinking, and packing (unfortunately).

I’ll do better next year.