A Merry Christmas to You all!

This story happend about fifteen years ago.

The pastor (priest) in my parish asked me if I wanted to be the Christmas gnome at her sons Christmasparty at school that year. Didn´t have to think long before I said that it would be fun. So she gave me a costume, a beard and a couple of fake glasses to wear when I went there. I couldn´t wear my own glasses because her son would recognise me att once then (that was before it was popular with round glasses that I wore at that time). The last thing she sad before I went away was: “They will probably try to find out who you are, so bevare they will try to tare of your costume and beard. They are probably high with sugar you now”



The pictures today showes how it looks in Skara. A town that is about 1000 years old. I´m only showing the better looking parts of course :-) This is the old kathedral.

I turned up a bit early and sneaked into the school. I had never been to that school before, but I just had to follow the noise the kids made to find the right room :-) I hid behind an open door and tried to see what was happening in the classroom. They had eaten cake and candy so yes they were really high on sugar by the time I came there. They were all over the room at the same time :-) wondering whos father it would be playing the Christmas gnome this year. It was fun to see them playing around and wondering what father I would be, so I stood there and laughed for my self. Suddenly I see a small boy looking behind the door where I stod. He looked at me for a short while and then shouted : There´s a Christmas gnom standing behind the door crying! It was time for me to start giving away presents.

This is as much Christmasdekorations we usually have in Sweden.

The old railway station. There goes no trains here any more, but the building still stands.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I can´t see a thing without my glasses, so I had some problems to read the namnes on the small presents. In fact I had problems seeing anything smaller than a chair. At the same time as I tried to read the namnes the questions hailed over me. Where are Your raindeers? How can you come to every family in the world at Christmas?, why aren´t you fat? (In those days I wasn´t fat :-) ) and so on and so on :-) When all presents were given came suddenly one child (my pastors child of course)very close and tried to grab hold of my beard. He faled but that was the startingsignal to all the other children :-)

Ten year old children can run very fast I can say :-) I stumbled over a chair and ran out into a corridor trying to find the way out. I had my real glasses in my car a couple of hundred meters away, but I had really need for them then. The kids were only a few meters behind me when I found the door to the stairs. There were no time to run down the stairs so I jumped several steps at the same time. Of course I twisted my ankle because I coulden´t se where I was landing. But I continued limping as fast as I coukd. Then I almost ran into a glass door, but saw it just in time because there was a notice attached to it :-) When I came out the kids were about thirty meters behind me, but I didn´t want to risk anything. so I kept on running and fell over a low fence that I didn´t see. I wasen´t a beautiful sight after that fall, but I really wanted them not to know who I was. Don´t think anyone of them belived in the gnome, but at least their imagination started to work when they started to wonder who I was. One should not know everything in life :-)

This and the next picture showes Skara library. Beautiful buildings aren´t they?

When I met my pastors son ten years later i asked him if they ever found out who the Christmas gnome was that year. I had been successful! He was very surprised when I told him that it was I that was that gnome :-) Now I will take a couple of days when I wont be writing here, but I will start at second day of Christmas again.
Have a Verry Merry Christmas!

The old watertower in Skara. Must be one of the most beautiful of them all, old as new.

The mud has frozen this night. TI would like to say that this is moose tracks, but I´m not sure. The size is right for a small moose, but the shape of it isn´t quite right. Could be that the mud weren´t frozen and sort of glid together befor it frooze? Outhervise it might be tracks from Red deer. I´ve never seen one myself but they say that we have them in the area.