Yearly Archive: 2005

31
Dec
2005

SAYONARA 2005!

Another batch of Rice Krispie Holly Bars and Moose Poop (Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies) are packed and ready to go. A bag holds Trivial Pursuit, Balderdash and 2 decks of cards for playing Colorado Crazy Eights, otherwise known as the “the funnest game on the planet,” and a tall package of rockets and various firecrackers is propped by the door. In an hour we are heading south to spend the evening with our good friends, Angie & Kristian, and Emily & Martin. The very happiest of Happy New Year wishes to all my friends, near and far!

30
Dec
2005

BY FEBRUARY I’LL BE SICK OF THIS STUFF…

…but just now it’s marvelous, magical, wondrously winter! Martin and I went out for a walk today, the first of what I hope is a year and more of half hour walks through the changing seasons, through Flyinge in all her colors and decorations. Because of hurting my foot last February I’ve not been able to keep my promise to myself to walk every day this past year. I had to be careful of my foot still, in my big stomper winterboots on slippery streets that have been packed down instead of plowed and snow ridges and piles that shift...

29
Dec
2005

SHE READS TOO MUCH AND IT HAS TURNED HER BRAIN

Sitting in a brightly lit café, facing the window, watching the snow fall. Above it whips furiously past the coronaed streetlamps, below it floats whisper-quiet, plumping the pillows already prepared by earlier snow. The snow is bright white and it gleams in places, where the crystals catch the light and throw it back. Occasionally one of the flakes comes to rest just so; the light catches and reflects against a tiny crystal star. Often, I feel about snow the same way I feel about traveling to the Antarctic. I’m fascinated by it, and could look at it endlessly (or read...

28
Dec
2005

FIDGETS

God, I’m in a weird mood today. I’ve felt at loose ends since I got up. I couldn’t settle to anything. I started to make the bed and abandoned it halfway through, as I discovered hours later when I went in to put laundry away and found the pillows still on the bench and the comforter flung halfway up. The kids and I cleaned out a ton of their old toys, something we should have done, but never got around to, before Christmas. Now I have to decide if we’re going to give them away, or donate them, or try...

27
Dec
2005

IF YOU GET MY DRIFT

It’s the epitome of a winter wonderland here. We’ve had snow, fat and flurrious, white and wondrous, softly falling, whipping sideways, whiteout sifting, all day. Sometime around midday, I heard the thunk and swoop of the shovel; Anders was out futilely clearing the driveway as the flakes floated down around him softly and quickly re-coating everything. The kids bundled up and took off like rockets into the snow. I had been admiring the pristine…and trackless…vistas from the window and was suddenly jolted from my reverie by the knowledge that every soft white surface would shortly be a churned and stomped...

26
Dec
2005

FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN

This morning, we woke to a dusting of snow, and snow still flying sideways, although it wasn’t sticking by then. A day late, snow, you missed the white Christmas by a day! After a few hours it was pretty much gone from the streets, melting as the temperature climbed a few degrees above zero. Driving into town later, the fields so recently brown and bare, were candy-striped green and white with snow in the tractor tracks and in the furrows. A red-tailed hawk perched on a leftover pile of sugarbeets; apparently the highest spot around. Proof That I’m Not the...

25
Dec
2005

FILLED UP

We’re replete with good wishes, goodwill, good food, present satisfaction both on the giving and the receiving end. Tiny Lego pieces are strewn from one end of the playroom to the other. Martin has already finished an entire book of maze puzzles from Grandma Linda. Anders is cooking: a turkey in the oven, it’s American-style tonight! Hayley Westenra croons from the living room, earlier it was Lilla Melodifestivalen from Karin’s shiny new space-age boombox. I’ve cleaned up and taken a nap. The sun shone bright in an amazing blue winter sky all day, not a cloud in sight. To all...

24
Dec
2005

LEAN YOUR EAR THIS WAY

Nearly all the presents are wrapped in shiny red, green and white paper. There are still some stocking stuffers to do, but that won’t take long tonight. Presents are under the tree for opening today, or carefully hidden away for “American” Christmas morning tomorrow. Tins of cookies fill up one entire corner of the kitchen, and a bowl full of clementines provides a bright spot on this rainy day. Rain on Christmas! It’s a true Skåne holiday. Farmor and farfar are on their way, they’ll be arriving just in time for Kalle Anka, the traditional Swedish Disney hour…and after that...

22
Dec
2005

THERE GOES THE HEALTHY EATING PLAN

Yesterday, I made Rice Krispie Holly Bars and Buttercream Almond Sandwiches, plus prepared the dough for today’s cookies: Iced Sugar Cookies, which the kids did a bang-up job of decorating, and ms_hackman‘s every-bit-as-delicious-as-advertised Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies. I still have Fudge Puddles to make but need to go get a mini muffin pan. We also have Grandma’s Gingersnaps and Chocolate Chip Cookies, plus my Snowy Chocolate Chips in the pile…not to mention those AWC Cookie Exchange cookies that are still left in the freezer. Yesterday I called my mom who is at my sister’s for Christmas and she came on the...

21
Dec
2005

FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE

I don’t know everyone who is reading this journal. In fact, I don’t know the majority of you. I’ve met a few people “in real life” and I know that my family and some of the people I know, people I’m close to, people I’m friends with, read it…maybe not on a daily basis, but once in awhile I get a comment or an email to let me know someone stopped by. The community that this technology has opened up never ceases to amaze me. I am blessed by it every day. I wrote once, quite awhile ago, and can’t...