I come from a land of sun. Lots and lots of sun. True warm African sun. We have a long summer, and then a short winter back in South Africa. Yes winter can be cold, but not that you need to wear gloves and a scarve everyday, or indeed ever.
I have never touched snow. I have never seen snow. I have never made a snowman. I have never played in snow. Yes I've seen it on top of very high mountains in the distance, but that's not really seeing snow now is it?
So I was very excited when I moved to Sweden in May 2007 and knew I was going to have some Summer with it's long days, a proper Autumn where the leaves actually change colour and fall to the ground (See my story on Autumn) followed my my first White Christmas. In November last year a lot of people were warning me to watch out, "The Darkness is coming". I suppose they were talking about the short days, not Darth Vader's Empire. Anyway, I was not paying them much attention. I knew that I was going to have my first White Christmas.
For Christmas we booked a cottage in the middle of Western Sweden in a place called Kläppen, for a week of skiing and snowboarding. It was absolutely fantastic. For me it was a week of many firsts. My first White Christmas. The first time I see and touch snow. My first time snowboarding. My first time building a snowman. My first time out of South Africa for Christmas and New Years, and the first time I dicovered what the words "White Christmas" really means.
The day we arrived it was -16 degrees Celcius, and everything on the way was covered in frost. I mean everything. It was everywhere. I have never in my life seen so much snow. It was all over the place. But, never in my life have I seen so much white everywhere. I took a lot of photographs and when I looked at them back home I was shocked to realise that they all appear to be in Black and White. I checked again and again, and even though all of them appeared to be in black and white, they were in fact in glorious colour. Absolutely beautiful. My first White Christmas.
