Why is it that every year when I’m buying Christmas presents, and am so careful to keep the piles even, there inevitably comes a day about a week before the 25th where I get all the bags and boxes out of the closet and put them on the bed and divide them into their respective recipient piles and discover that one of the kids has a disproportionately larger pile of loot than the other, necessitating some rather panicked shopping expeditions in the worst of the holiday madness?
Thought I was done. Turns out, I’m not. Even if it’s only a couple of things, it still means a trip into town, when I was hoping to just be a slug and maybe, finally, bake some Christmas cookies.
I have tomorrow off, thank goodness, as even with my idea of “taking it easy”, my throat still sounds like a frogwallow and I’m easily tired and lethargic. I came home today and put laundry in and then laid down on the couch, only to be awoken 2 hours later by my daughter whining that she was hungry, and Martin snidely remarking that the whole “feed & clothe” thing that parents were responsible to their children for didn’t really work if THEY WEREN’T FED. Thankfully, while I was groggily trying to sit up again, Anders went into the kitchen and whipped up a huge pot of delicious spaghetti with chicken and asparagus and freshly grated parmesan.
Tomorrow is also my friend Kathey’s birthday (Happy birthday Kathey!) and my mother-in-law’s birthday, so we’ll be having dinner at Anders’ parents house tomorrow and then again on Christmas Eve for the traditional Swedish celebration.
We always get a 2-day Christmas, which is kind of nice. On Christmas Eve we have traditional Swedish julbord with all the trimmings including herring, smoked salmon, cold cuts, ham, Jansson’s Temptation (a sort of scalloped potato dish), and rice pudding (ick). We watch Kalle Anke and open a few presents. On Christmas Day we have stockings and all the American presents and a turkey dinner. We used to tell the kids that Santa started off up north, stopped by our house on Christmas Eve on his way out, circle the globe to drop off gifts and picked up the American presents to put under our tree with the stocking stuffers on his way home.
I was asked to be on the radio tomorrow as well to talk about American Christmas traditions, but since my voice is so froggy, I had to tell the organizer that I couldn’t participate this time. Bummer! My plans to be the American HOLIDAY expert and not just the Halloween expert have been dashed. But a couple of my friends from the AWC are stepping in, so the radio show will get their full dose of American holiday expertise.
Also, turns out the big Christmas present of the year for the Ek family is going to have to be a new dryer. Sigh.
Bright Bauble Birthday Wishes to Laini!