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Since I was a little boy, I have always celebrated christmas with my parents. Of course, there was more magic when I was a child, but now it has become a, well, tradition!
In the morning, I always woke up to Christmas music around me, that my mother put in the CD player. And that morning, I always did run very fast to my mothers room where there was a Christmas sock hidden (yes, very silly tradition). And in that sock, there was candyyyyyy. It was the only day of the year where I could eat as much chocolate as I wanted to. (well, except for my birthday). And my next post of the day, was to run over to my fathers room where all the presents were. And that pile of presents was big big big, and so I really looked forward to putting them under the tree.
But first, work! Every christmas Eve, on the day we have a mass in the church. Suddenly every Norwegian becomes religious, and pray to God. It´s very cute. And my role in the church? I have always been the mascot, playing violin and singing with my parents, and all the others in the church singing with us. Now, 15 years later, i´m still the mascot. But today my mother and father will actually stay home, and I will play in the church with my pianist friend Stefan. Actually I am very happy for my mom. And they don´t need to keep the tradition of church mass, because it has always been my thing, and I can do it alone while they can get their deserved relaxation.
Actually, nobody can relax during the day, because Christmas is all about STRESS. You know the peaceful families you see on TV, laughing and having fun? Well, that´s not us. We are fighting. All day through. Especially when I was a child. Because I always wanted that everything must be perfect, my mother wanted to save the whole Norway in one day, and my father just wanted to relax in front of the TV. So we were yelling at each other the whole day. When we were dressing for church, IN the church, when we were driving in the snow, and even when we were making the food. But we did it with love. And in the evening, we were fighting through all the presents.
In the middle of the day, I always go to all my neighbours with presents. And they know which time I´ll come so they wait for me with christmas lights. Some neigbours have too much lights…
It´s a little bit sad this year, because this time my dog Cindy will not be with me when I go with presents.
And of course, when I was small, it was all about the presents. And I must tell, since we were the only musicians in our little town, we had many friends. So the presents were MANY. I remember one year we received between 200 and 250 presents. And my father and I of course needed to make a competition of who got most of the presents. Because he has many students, he always won. But now after Eurovision it´s another story.
So every Christmas Eve, we do the same tradition. My father is shopping for all the things mother forgot, while mother and me is making the traditional Norwegian Christmas food “Ribbe”. It´s very fifficult to make it, because it is supposed to be juicy in the whole steak, but very crispy on top. So it takes 6-7 hours to prepare it. How we could find time for this, while also playing in the church, i don´t understand…
And after all the food and candy and chocolate and wine is finished, it´s time to have fun with all the presents. Sometimes, when my parents are finished for the night, I walk over to my friend Thomas, and we show each other the movies and games we got for christmas. If I don´t get any games, I will get very disappointed!
But we also never forget what Christmas is about: The birth of jesus, and the message that everybody needs to care about each other. And we really do care about each other. But we mostly fight.
Merry christmas.
I always have a lot of projects going on. And sometimes I feel that I´m not getting anywhere, on any of these projects. Because my partners don´t agree with me, or because I even can´t find the right partners, sometimes because I have problems with logistics, or simply because lack motivation and I just don´t feel like being creative.
In times like that, I just start doing things. The smallests steps. Re-writing a violin arrangement for one of my songs, practicing Mozart, or just doing my laundry. And after I´ve done that, I feel slightly better. I start getting ideas. I start flirting with an insanely cute girl. I schedule new meetings with my amazing partners. But most importantly; I have clean and fresh socks. And soon enough, life is back on track again, and I feel like I´m on the top of the world.
Merry XXX-mas, ho ho ho.
Now that we don´t have a dog in our house anymore (R.I.P. Cindy), at least my mother can get out more often without thinking of a babysitter. Yesterday I had the most entertaining dinner at my grandma´s place in Minsk. With my relatives and my mother. The conversation was mostly about how often they hear me on the radio, and that I used to be small and now I´ve grown tall. Good times.
Maybe in Belarus you can´t always count on good internet connection, but you can always count on wonderful New Years Evening, apparently. And I´m going to celebrate this New Year, with all of you close to my heart. Thank you so much for sharing your love through all this year! 🙂
Happy New Year from Alex
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