It’s the day after Christmas, at the end of 2021. It was a good Christmas in many ways…the four of us back together and everything ready in plenty of time so no one was stressed. I had most of my shopping done by the end of November, almost all of it done online, and the last of the things I ordered arrived well in advance. Karin helped Anders with ordering stuff for me, so he wasn’t stressed out either, at least not that I could tell. 🙂 We did a big grocery shop for both Christmas eve and Christmas day dinners on Tuesday and I had baked cookies all through December: reindeer poop (at Martin’s request), Grandma Pangborn’s gingersnaps, traditional sugar cookies (that Martin helped me decorate) and snickerdoodles (at Karin’s request). We still have lots of them left to eat during the mellandagarana, plus three-quarters of a pumpkin pie from yesterday.
Karin came home for Christmas too, spending the night of the 23rd and 24th here, with both dogs, Billy and Brumma. On Christmas eve, we watched Kalle Anke (of course), with saffran glögg, pepperkakor, dates, and cookies, then we each opened one present. I had to laugh because mine was a new spin duster…the one I got for Christmas last year having expired about a month ago. Then Martin and I played Seterra and GeoGuessr and worked on the incredibly hard jigsaw puzzle my friend Camilla had given me. It’s a MAP of Paris. SO hard I would have given up if we hadn’t realized there was a foldout map, approximately the same size. We got the edge done and then worked on the highways (orange) and the rivers (blue) and now we’re working on the parks (green) and railways. Then I’ll work on the tourist attractions which are written in a dark red text large enough for me to read without a magnifying glass, unlike the street names. My sister sent me two more hard 1000-piecers so I’ll probably be spending much of my week-long vacation working on puzzles!
The kids were super happy with their presents and their stocking stuffers. Karin’s highlights were airpods, a Bluetooth Marshall speaker and a gift certificate for a silversmithing course. Martin’s highlights were a plant stand and a new laptop. Anders got new rain clothes, a mini compressor and an air fryer, and I was thrilled with a new shiatsu neck massage pillow and tickets for a moose safari! We had a long Facetime call with all my family on Christmas eve, but O! I MISS EVERYONE.
Karin started coming down with a cold the evening she arrived and spent a lot of the holiday napping. She was running a fever on Christmas eve and coughing quite a lot so Christmas morning we called Anders’ sister Maria and cancelled our plans to have them over for dinner, wanting to be on the safe side. Then she and I went in the afternoon and picked up a COVID fast test, which turned out to be negative, thankfully. Today, we have no plans. I’m doing laundry, working on the puzzle and reading (Diana Gabaldon’s latest Outlander release), and might watch the new Disney movie Encanto this afternoon.
On Tuesday, the kids and I are going to walk my final 5K for the year…possibly inside at Emporia mall. It’s huge and we think it will work well, because I can’t walk 5k in the snowy/icy conditions with my snow boots on). On Wednesday we are all going to dinner at Camilla’s with Debbie’s family, and I am SO looking forward to it. On Friday (New Year’s Eve), Anders and I are going to spend the evening and usher in the new year with our friends Mats and Annelott. So a full, yet relaxed, and fun week ahead, in which I have fun things to do and will not think about work (hahaha)!
We have lots of snow on the ground from a week of snow, and ice. All the trees and bushes are covered with hoarfrost too as it is really cold and the mornings have been foggy, though yesterday was clear and sunny and absolutely beautiful. It’s currently -3C outside. Beautiful to look at but I’m happy in my cozy home to view it through the windows! It’s the first white Christmas we’ve had in forever…so long I can’t even remember the last time. A good holiday and a good end to the year, all things considered.
