Mid-December until the first week week of January is the holiday season in Sweden. It starts around the 13th of December when we celebrate Lucia, a festive day centering around the concepts of light, buns and biscuits. More exactly, saffron buns called “lussekatt” and gingerbread cookies in all forms and shapes.
Not long after, we have the Christmas holiday, which is a three-day long period between the 24-26 December, although most people take the whole week off. And the week after that is the New Years week, followed by the last holiday for the season – 6th January (13 days after Christmas). Most people take time off all the way from the Christmas week until 6th January. But for me, time off for this particular holiday season means more than just time to spend with family – it’s time to work without getting distracted by various random seminars and meetings. Focused time to crunch down on those things I didn’t manage to do in the regular time before the holidays!
Although it’s a bit sad to think that I could get more work done when everyone is on holiday, working during holiday weeks doesn’t mean that I won’t take any time off. Since people in general are off these two weeks, the schools and kindergartens are also closed, which means I’ll be working from home with the kids running around the house. Isn’t that contradictory? On the one hand it’s difficult to get as much done as I want when I’m at work because of meetings and seminars, but on the other hand I work perfectly fine at home with kids running in and out of the room. But that’s how it is, I suppose. If nothing else, this pandemic has given me the opportunity to learn how to tune kids out and focus, while still being aware of what they are doing. What a great ability!
Now that the new year has begun, I do hope that it will bring lots of joy and happiness. I hope that we get to be healthy this year, and that the new year will bring fun and challenging projects.
Happy new year everyone!