Nomenclature for Souvarian: Pre-Departure

I am completely prepared to embark. Now is the waiting period. Tomorrow I depart! I feel like Sam-wise in the Fellowship of the Ring when he and Frodo are leaving the Shire. Sam stops in the middle of a indistinct cornfield and says some variation of, "Frodo, one step more and this will be the farthest I've ever been away from home." Like this moment, I feel this solemness and this excitement.

Merry Christmas! It is traditional for me to host a New Years gathering. Since I'll be away in Sweden, I threw a Christmas Party featuring a semi-traditional Swedish dinner. Unlike a traditional Swedish dinner, no meat or fish was featured. The meal consisted of Ärtsoppa (split pea soup sans the traditional ham), Hasselbackspotatis (Swedish baked potatoes), and Swedish sweet potato Tarta for the main course. Desert consisted of Chokladbollar (chocolate-oatmeal no-bake cookies), Swedish anise brownies, and Swedish rice pudding. The pictures are below! My friends enjoyed the meal, or were at least polite enough to convince me they enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed the meal! The anise brownies weren't my favorite, but I devoured everything else quite happily. We all decided the sweet potato Tarta tasted like apple pie. I am still eating the leftovers. The Swedish food was surprisingly simple to fix. I took pictures of the dinner for you all to enjoy. All you Swedes will have to tell me if it looks like it's supposed to look. Most of all, you will have to tell me how to pronounce the names of the dishes.